When legendary couturier Azzedine Alaïa presented his first runway show in eight years last summer in Paris, only a reluctant appearance of the notoriously timid designer could quiet the raucous standing ovation at the showcase’s end. It was a tribute to the enduring relevance of the Tunisian-born talent’s work, which spans flesh-exposing zip-skirts to skin-tight croc-skin dresses and has famously robed Greta Garbo, Madonna, and Michelle Obama. This Sunday, the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands will launch a second encore, of sorts: “Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century,” an exhibition chronicling the most recent decade of the designer’s 30-year career.

Alaïa and curator Mark Wilson worked one-on-one to cull each garment on view, including laser-cut latticework dresses of suede, velvet, and silk ribbons that demonstrate Alaïa’s use of elaborate handiwork, over which he maintains complete creative control. The exhibition marks the second of the Groninger’s Alaïa retrospectives, as the museum and Wilson organized a similar show in 1998 that traced the designer’s work from 1985–1997. “I was waiting for someone else to do a showcase of his [later] work, yet no one has been smart enough to do so,” Wilson says. “Azzedine is one of the last great couturiers working today—I honestly felt I had no choice but to do a second exhibition.”

Azzedine Alaïa, Spring 2008. Photo: Copyright Azzedine Alaïa.

Alaïa’s innovative knitwear comes from the same mill he’s used since he opened his first Beverly Hills boutique in 1983, after studying sculpture at the l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Tunis and later stints at Dior, Balmain, and Balenciaga. He still achieves his signature shape-hugging silhouettes by working directly on the body, using curved seaming and raised corsetry stitching to attain a flawless form. “Azzedine has always been and will always be relevant,” Wilson says. “Today, he’s an even more accomplished sculptor than he ever was before.”

“Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century” at the Groninger Museum
Title image: An Alaïa Couture Winter 2011 coat and Winter 2010 dress. Photos: Robert Kot, copyright Azzedine Alaïa.

Azzedine Alaïa, Summer/Fall 2003. Photo: Robert Kot, copyright Azzedine Alaïa.

Azzedine Alaïa, Winter 2011. Photo: Copyright Azzedine Alaïa.