Yigal Azrouël: Lord of the Dance
Style.com | January 2014
Yigal Azrouël is often inspired— as his signature fluid draping suggests—by movement. So it’s no surprise then that the designer was choreographer Emery LeCrone’s top pick to design a set of dance costumes for the Guggenheim’s next Works & Process performance. The two-night show, which kicks off on March 23, fuses contemporary and classical dance and music.
From his midtown studio, Azrouël told Style.com that there had been one caveat: “I saw what had been done in the past with all these tutus, and I told them I wasn’t interested in making something so traditional.” True to his word, Azrouël designed a tutuless collection of luxurious, supergraphic wares inspired by New York architecture. The looks debut exclusively here. “To be honest, I was nervous since I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work,” confessed Azrouël. “I was playing with and deconstructing what I’ve done before.” Using the same white, gray, and black leather and silk embroideries seen in his Spring ’14 collection, Azrouël created dimension and structure via laser cutting and doubling.
After a series of fittings and impromptu dance performances in his studio, the designer couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. “When the dancers tried the costumes on, they told me they never wore something so comfortable and so cool,” he said. But the real question is, did Azrouël learn some new dance moves? He laughed and said, “I did pliés and relevés.”