Hips, shoulders, and everything in between—Alaïa continued its exploration of curvature and body sculpting for fall 2025. The collection, shown inside the brand’s Paris atelier on Tuesday, pushed the boundaries of silhouette. Of all the trends this season, perhaps the one with the most legs right now is fashion’s collective dedication to sculptural, winding shapes and unusual projections that challenge the typical look of the female form.
Round, tubular hoods framed the faces of models who wore study-of-contrast looks that cycled through sheer and demure. Think: a skintight bodysuit top paired with a pleated skirt with convex, puffy, swinging hips; or a nude bodystocking top that trapped the arms worn with low-cut tailored wool trousers. That aforementioned skirt—its divine chunky lines with a hip-line that mirrored the shape of a pool noodle—served as a new world order and reinterpretation of form. Elsewhere, stiff, geometrical bags were worn close and tight on the models’ backs, serving as an extension of the figure that looked like armor.
Alaïa creative director Pieter Muller pulled inspiration directly from the artist Mark Manders this season. The Dutch sculptor is known for his raw works, often done in bronze with an in-progress look—either wet, peeling or decaying—that’s slightly surreal and typically related to anatomy. “Manders’s work fascinates me—each of his sculptures seem marked by the passage of an imaginary time, reminiscent at once of many different cultures,” Muller wrote in the show notes. “That idea of a non-linearity—of space, and of time—was inspiring. The idea of codes of beauty outside of any era or geography, free of boundaries, is innately keyed to the philosophy of Alaïa.”
Dramatic floor-length chunky fur coats and sculptural wool jackets—including one that warped around the model’s face—were other highlights of the collection. Knitted dresses and sweaters took on new lives with massive, dimensional sleeves and ultra-round peplums. Another woven cardigan was exaggerated and made super-thick. One butter yellow cutout dress revealed the back, arm, and a huge area of the torso. The way the fabrics moved was an ASMR experience in itself.
There’s never been a better time than now to focus on clothing that shape-shifts and protects. “Body consciousness here means a consciousness of the body, inside its dress, protective, and cocooning,” Muller added in the show notes. “It is also a consciousness reflection of femininity, clothes shaped to mirror the topography of the female form through curves and padding, through layers that act like a shield.” Fashion is clearly looking to all things escapist at this moment. Rethinking a woman’s frame with a prosthetic-like approach as Muller did here certainly has the ability to transport.
