Alaïa Debuts Swimwear

It’s hard to imagine a brand more well-suited to designing swimsuits than Azzedine Alaïa.

The King of Cling, Alaïa died in 2017, having defined body-conscious style in the 1980s and ‘90s supermodel era, when he famously designed Stephanie Seymour’s wedding dress — and maid-of-honor Naomi Campbell’s, too.

Alaïa’s new creative director Pieter Mulier is bringing the house’s sexy sculpting styles and hole-punched leather corsetry to a new body-confident generation, including Zendaya, who wore his first-collection burgundy knit crop top and feathered fishtail skirt to the “Dune” premiere in September.

Now, just in time for winter getaways, Mulier has debuted his first swimwear. The collection, $590 to $850 at Net-a-porter, Neiman Marcus and Alaïa’s e-commerce, includes sculpting high-cut one-pieces and high-waisted two-pieces with hole-punched and eyelet details, as well as swimming skirts and boleros that look as good in the water as out.