CAPSULE CREATIONS: Luke Radloff, the South African creative director of Uni Form, who was the first laureate of the Azzedine Alaïa x Orveda residency program, showed a capsule collection at La Fondation Azzedine Alaïa during Paris Fashion Week.
The partnership between the foundation and the ultra-luxury, clean skin care brand dovetailed from their common ideals and goals, including a passion for self-expression.
Radloff’s collection, displayed through March 5, paid tribute to indigenous South African craft, featuring handwoven cottons from the desert, knitted indigenous mohair and wool, forged metallic accessories and beaded details. The designer crafted organic silhouettes and natural textures.
As part of his residency, Radloff delved into parts of the foundation’s collections and studied the philosophy underlying those.
The Azzedine Alaïa x Orveda residency program offers two prizes a year to two young, underrepresented fashion designers, giving a new space to explore and share their creativity with the world. The talent selection is based on a designer’s atypical and aspirational profile.
The jury choosing Radloff included Carla Sozzani, president of the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa; Olivier Saillard, director of the foundation; Marco Pecorari, director of the Parsons School in Paris; Sara Sozzani Maino, brand ambassador of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion and Condé Nast CNC creative adviser, and Nicolas Vu, chief executive officer and cofounder of Orveda, which is owned by Coty Inc.
Toward the end of the residency, each chosen talent must create a mini-collection nodding to Alaïa and the fashion masters in the foundation’s collection. That capsule will be shown first at the foundation then presented in Orveda stores globally.
