During Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, the Association Azzedine Alaïa and MA Fashion Studies students launched a summer course to reimagine the intricate practice of archiving fashion. Students had a unique opportunity to work hands-on with the Association’s collection of more than 10,000 pieces, which focuses on rare garments from Cristobal Balenciaga’s final collection before he closed his fashion house in 1968 along with a selection of Alaïa’s own iconic creations. Starting with an exploration of the principles and approaches to administering fashion archives, the class challenged students to develop new ways to document a garment’s existence, to frame fashion as a cultural phenomenon, and to honor Azzedine Alaïa’s generous mission to share his collected masterpieces with the world.

Research associate at the Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum in New York and course leader, Jessica Glasscock asked students to apply interdisciplinary methodologies in examining the recently discovered collection and to expand upon fashion curating, heritage, material culture, and the construction of beauty ideals. Students gained invaluable experience with access to the Met’s cataloguing guidelines and software as well as the theoretical research developed within Parsons’ Fashion Studies program. Through archival documentation and interviews with Alaïa’s collaborators and friends, students investigated how these garments could be preserved through textual, visual, and vocal memories.

The students’ work, unveiled in the form of videos at the Association Azzedine Alaïa’s headquarters in Paris, proposed an innovative approach to presenting archives by featuring a romantic narrative and personal connection to fashion through the eyes of an important designer and collector. In turn, the memories, notes, objects from a personal environment, and sentimental value of the garments included in the exhibition go beyond the typical archival show. While archives become increasingly more important to the industry, MA Fashion Studies students prepare for an emerging job sector that relies on a deep understanding of academic discourse, conceptual theory, and contemporary fashion practices.