Your favorite fashion podcast, The Run-Through with Vogue, is now twice a week! The Thursday edition of the show remains the same: Chloe and Chioma talk to designers, cover stars and taste-makers, and fill us in on what Vogue editors are currently obsessed with. The Tuesday episodes will feature Nicole Phelps, director of Vogue Runway, and the Vogue Runway team. They’ll fill us in on the latest fashion news and feature marquee interviews, like the one we have today.
On this inaugural Tuesday episode, Nicole talks to Pieter Mulier, creative director of Alaïa. Alaïa held their first fashion show in New York City since the 1980s at the Guggenheim last Friday. Why New York, now? As Mulier told Nicole, “The last show we did in January during couture, Anna [Wintour] came backstage, she looked at the collection and she said, “I think this is one that you should have shown in New York. Why don’t you come next season?” So that’s exactly what Alaïa did.
The return to New York was complicated for Mulier. He told Nicole that he canceled plans to come at least four or five times before making the flight. “I was too emotional to come back because I love the city so much. I lived here for three years, right before Covid. I think from all the cities I lived in, I was the happiest here,” Mulier said.
Mulier lived in the city when he designed at Calvin Klein alongside Raf Simons. The two worked side-by-side for 16 years, first at Simons’ eponymous brand (Mulier was an intern), then at brands like Jil Sander, Christian Dior, and Calvin. Simons went on to design at Prada, and in 2021, Mulier became creative director of Alaïa. The two men remain close, but as Mulier told Nicole, “We don’t really talk about fashion anymore. We talk about art and other stuff. If you have talked about fashion for 16 years together, afterwards, it’s time for something else.
In this conversation between Nicole and Pieter, you’ll hear how New York inspired the new Alaïa collection, how Mulier feels filling the shoes of the “King of Cling,” and how he prepared for the role of creative director by scouring the Alaïa archives and snatching up all the vintage Alaïa he could find. The two talk about Alaïa’s blockbuster accessories—including the mesh ballet flats that everyone is wearing (and knocking off) that almost didn’t make it to a second round of production after selling just 60 pairs in season one.
Mulier tells us about his summer, how he read The Secret History by Donna Tart for the 27th time. Notably, he also read not one but two books about Chanel. “For multiple reasons,” he demurred, “I’ve never read anything about her.” And how does he feel that his name is being bandied about for the big job at Chanel? “My mother told me yesterday. I didn’t even know it. My mother is on Instagram. She’s 80. Every time there’s a hashtag of my name, she goes on. It’s actually very cute. She knows better how to do it than me. She said it to me yesterday. But no. I’m very happy at Alaïa. Very happy.”