Paris is about to stage a couture conversation that’s been decades in the making. This November, La Galerie Dior and the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation will open doors to a rare twin exhibition, placing the late Tunisian couturier’s fiercely guarded collection of vintage Dior under the spotlight for the very first time. For fashion obsessives, it’s a behind-the-curtain moment that feels almost mythical.
Azzedine Alaïa was famously private, not just about his life but also about his archive. Quietly, he gathered nearly 600 Dior pieces, most by Christian Dior himself, alongside designs from successors including Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, and John Galliano. These weren’t trophies but studies—clues to the architecture of couture that Alaïa dissected with the precision of a surgeon. Now, more than 100 of these garments will finally be seen at La Galerie Dior from November 20, 2025 to May 3, 2026.
The story doesn’t end there. Across Paris, the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation will stage its own exhibition from December 1, 2025 to May 3, 2026. Thirty Dior pieces from Alaïa’s collection will be shown alongside an equal number of Alaïa’s own creations. The pairing is deliberate, a visual dialogue that shows how Dior’s silhouettes—whether the disciplined structure of the Bar jacket or the dramatic sweep of evening gowns—shaped Alaïa’s lifelong pursuit of form. It’s fashion history conversing across time. Both exhibitions are curated by Olivier Saillard, director of the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation, working with Gaël Mamine.
The exhibitions extend into publishing, too. On November 19, Rizzoli will release Azzedine Alaïa’s Dior Collection, the official catalog for La Galerie Dior, complete with essays by Laurence Benaïm, Alessandra Ronetti, and Saillard. Damiani follows in December with Azzedine Alaïa and Christian Dior, Two Masters of Couture, the companion to the Foundation’s show.
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