• The dress is from the Fall 1993 collection.
• It was made under the creative direction of Azzedine Alaia.
• Azzedine Alaia pieces are always a delight to find. His knits were all self developed and are among the best out there. He started his career as a dressmakers assistant  and copied couture gowns for wealthy Tunisian clients. In 1957 he moved to Paris and worked for Christian Dior for a grand total of five days. He then moved to Guy Laroche and quietly started to get private commissions on the side. By 1960 he was doing mainly private work and within a few years established a small salon on the Left Bank where he continued designing privately. He stayed at that salon until 1984.
• During this time period he also did private freelance work for other designers including Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler and even Yves Saint Laurent. It was not until 1981 that he launched his first official collection and by 1983 he had a boutique in Beverley Hills. 
• The French Ministry of Culture honoured him with the Designer of the Year award in 1985. In 1993 he decided that the established fashion show schedule was not for him and he stopped producing a new collection every season. Instead he showed when his collections were ready and continued to do so until his death in 2017. 
• This is a fantastic and well known a piece that is very desired by collectors. We have included reference photos of other pieces from the collection that have become important milestones of his earlier work.
• The dress is made out of a ribbed cable knit wool that has a small percentage of other components to help give it some stretch and support. This makes it sit beautifully over the body and hug your curves as his dresses are known for.
• The neck has a pretty ribbed finish and the shoulders are soft.
• From there the sleeves extend out over the arm and it is here that you see the first of the detailing that makes this dress such a standout.
• Starting at about the elbow the ribbing of the dress changes to a oval pattern that is open and bare in the middle of each oval so that the skin underneath is fully exposed. These gradually get larger in size as they fall to the wrist. The knit between the the oval pattern extends out to become the fringes that fall over your hands. This adds incredible movement and is just extraordinary.
• The body of the dress skims over the bust and waist and then curves back out over the hips. The skirt starts just under the top of the hips and is cut short as it flares out around you. Many of his pieces had that bit of a skater skirt feel to them and this is a fabulous example of that.
• The skirt has that same extraordinary open cut out detailing as the sleeves and even though it is not as short as some of his other pieces often were, having the cut outs expose your skin underneath makes it very sexy.
• I love that the cut outs through the skirt allow you to decide what to wear underneath and be as bare or covered as you choose to be.
• The skirt is then also finished with those same wide knit fringing so you get incredible movement around you when you move and walk.
• This is one of his best known collections and a very rare piece to find.
• The dress is unlined and closes with a hidden set back zipper. The knit does have some stretch and I have put the comfortable range when laying flat below.
• There is no size tag present. Please go by the measurements below.
• Excellent condition

Sleeves: 27" and they are 11-13" around the upper arms
Shoulders: 15"
Bust: 16-19" flat across from side seam to side seam
Waist: 13-15" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: 16-19.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Bodice: 22" from top of shoulder to the point where the cut outs begin on the skirt
Total length: 37" from top of shoulder to hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: SML-MED

Item# DD5566

Reference Photos: (1-2) Nadja Auerman in Alaia, photographed by Gilles Bensimon, for Elle France, December 1993.  /  (3) Alaia dress in The MET Collection.

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