azzedine alaïa

azzedine alaïa is a tunisian-born couturier and shoe designer, particularly successful since the 1980s. his parents were wheat farmers but his glamorous twin sister inspired his love for couture. a french friend of his mother fed alaïa's instinctive creativity with copies of vogue. he lied about his age to get himself into the local ecole des beaux-arts in tunis and began studying sculpture where he gained valuable insights into the human form.

Azzedine Alaia

after his graduation, alaïa began working as a dressmaker's assistant. he soon began dressing private clients and in 1957, he moved to paris to work in fashion design. in paris, he started to work at christian dior as a tailleur but soon moved to work for guy laroche for two seasons, then for thierry mugler until he opened his first atelier in his little rue de bellechasse apartment the late 1970s. it is in this tiny atelier that for almost 20 years he dressed privately the world's jet set, from marie-hélène de rothschild to louise de vilmorin (who would become a close friend) to greta garbo, who used to come incognito for her fittings.

Grace Jones

Naomi Campbell

his seductive, clinging clothes were a massive success and he was named by the media 'the king of cling'. in 1996, he participated at the biennale della moda in florence, where along with paintings by longtime friend julian schnabel, he exhibited an outstanding dress created for the event. schnabel-designed furniture, as well as his large scale canvases, are decorating alaia's boutique in paris. 

Michelle Obama

Lady Gaga

alaia refuses the marketing-driven logic of luxury conglomerates, continuing to focus on clothes rather than 'it-bags'. alaia is revered for his independence and passion for discreet luxury. catherine lardeur, the former editor and chief of french marie claire in the 1980s stated in an interview to crowd magazine that 

'fashion is dead. designers nowadays do not create anything, they only make clothes so people and the press would talk about them. the real money for designers lie within perfumes and handbags. it is all about image. alaia remains the king. he is smart enough to not only care about having people talk about him. he only holds fashion shows when he has something to show, on his own time frame.' 

alaïa was honored with a solo exhibition at the groninger museum in the netherlands in 1998, which debuted at the guggenheim museum in new york in 2000.

fash'on... BAM!