A Guide to Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian’s Vintage Alaïa Collection

Certain designers and their signatures are forever cemented in the fashion history books. There’s Miuccia Prada’s quirky take on ’90s minimalist refinement. Calvin Klein’s love of denim and easy suiting. And the late Alexander McQueen love for the macabre and taboo. For Kylie Jenner and her sister Kim Kardashian, Azzedine Alaïa’s seems to be the chapter they can’t stop returning too. So much so that the sisters have amassed a museum-worthy archive of the designer’s most important work, with a particular emphasis on the late great’s fall 1991 show.

Ever the older sister, Kim seemed to start the duo’s fascination with Alaïa over a decade ago in the mid-2010s—she visited a retrospective of the designer’s work in 2014 which caused her to tweet “Every single Alaïa dress from the exhibit today, even if made decades ago is still wearable today!!!” Of course, Kim was spot on with her assessment. Alaïa’s famous bandage skirts and LBDs that debuted on models like Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer are refreshingly modern.

But his curve-hugging designs are also something that naturally fit right into Kardashian’s wardrobe. Look no further than her 2019 trip to Paris which included a leopard print look from Alaïa’s landmark fall 1991 show and a fully sheer catsuit that was modeled by Campbell in 1991. The latter look was so popular among the sisters that Kylie wore a mini-dress version while in Paris six years later. These pieces are something that the sisters would have worn, with or without that archival Alaïa tag attached to the back.

The designer’s fall 1991 collection is a particular hit among the pair. As of 2025, they own nearly half a dozen pieces from the show between them.

The backless semi-sheer gown Kylie wore to the 2025 Berlin Film Festival was dated to Alaïa’s spring 1998 collection. (She reportedly purchased the piece for a whopping $30,000).

Of course, Kim and Kylie own archival pieces from a handful of fashion’s most important and history-making designers. Their coffers are filled with John Galliano for Dior gems, Gucci by Tom Ford, the list goes on. But their particular fascination with Alaïa is no coincidence.

Both women started fashion lines which (albeit unintentionally) draw on Alaïa’s signatures. You can find echoes of his body-conscious designs in the curves of Kim’s shapewear line Skims and the jet black and dark browns seen in Kylie’s affordable fashion brand, Khy.

As the saying goes, all fashion is cyclical.