“There is a sensuality about fabric. All materials should be inviting when they touch the skin.”
Azzedine Alaia
Photo source: Naomi Campbell wearing Azzedine Alaia in
Vogue Russia 2010
Stylish quote
“When you're in fashion, you always have to be aware of everything.”
Azzedine Alaia
Photo source: Flaunt 2010
Azzedine Alaia: Paris
“I don’t think I am a great designer. I’m good, but great is another matter… I have a lot to learn.”
Azzedine Alaia
In 1957 Azzedine Alaia arrived to Paris.
He was introduced to Christian Dior’s clients by his friend’s mother and got invited to work at the Maison. Five days later, as the Algerian war broke out, Azzedine was asked to leave - having a foreigner wasn’t good for the reputation of the house.
The war made many things complicated. Being in France at the time was incredibly difficult – foreigners were running the risk of being arrested or stopped on the street… Renting a room or getting a job was virtually impossible.
Madame Simone Zehrfuss, a wife of an architect Bernard Zahrfuss, took young Alaia under her wing and invited him to stay in their family home. The day Azzedine found himself at Zehrfuss’s, he met Louise de Vilmoirin. The writer who later referred to Azzedine as “my artist” who made her “appear beautiful” introduced Alaia to the chic Parisian community of intellectuals that he found incredibly stimulating.
Besides offering the roof over his head, Simone also introduced the young designer to a few women who later became his clients. He didn’t speak English, so she translated for him, too.
Alaia never stopped working combining the knowledge with his imagination and unique skills as if it was a science about which he wanted to know everything.
For five years he lived at the house of the Comtesse de Blegiers where he babysat and cooked during the day and made clothes in his room at night. To protect Azzedine from any trouble the Count de de Blegiers gave him his card and introduced Alaia as his protégé.
In the late 1960s Azzedine Alaia got a job at Guy Laroche’s atelier. He spent two years there, leaning and mastering his skills, but eventually felt that he wanted more, something of his own.
***
The two bedroom apartment in Rue de Bellechasse, on the left bank, was a tiny space with sewing machine scattered around the place. It was the safe haven, a place where Azzedine could completely immerse himself into designing the clothes – and there was nothing that could make him happier.
Alaia’s life, just like those childhood photo albums he, was filled with beautiful women who adored him: Greta Garbo, Arlette, Claudette Colbert, Rene Clair, Cecile de Rothschild. They became clients, clients became friends… The world of Alaia was full of inspiration, glamour and thought provoking conversations. It was a secret club of couture, opened to the selected few.
For the first time in history women gained an access to a designer who, according to Mathilde de Rothschild, understood “the intimate emotional, intellectual and biological facts of being female”, and had an ability to make clothes that created the most beautiful curves of all. And yet he didn’t care about fame or money – all he strived for was the understanding of the connections between the body and fabric and achieving perfection in everything he made.
In 1968 he also decided to collect couture pieces. One day, while visiting the recently closed Balenciaga atelier for some unwated mannequins, Alaia noticed a woman destroying a dress from 1955 collection. It made him sick to his stomach. Needless to say, that shopping trip was no longer about soulless dummies, but precious fashion pieces he wanted to preserve forever and the beginning of one of the best couture collections in the world.
In 1979 Alaia was approached by Charles Jourdan who commissioned a capsule ready-to-wear collection. The pieces made of leather decorated with zippers and buckles were too extravagant for Jourdan to accept, but women loved them. One of the black leather dresses was photographed for the cover of French Elle and the other, worn by created hysteria on the streets of New York – after all, nobody had never seen leather leggings before.
In the summer of 1980 Alaia landed three outfits to the editor of French Elle and her colleagues to wear during to one of the fashion week shows. A few months later an article written by Bill Cunningham appeared in Women’s Wear Daily. He wrote he had just seen the future.
To be continued…
Photo source: Alaia by Francois Baudot
Azzedine Alaia: the early years
“I have eliminated only the word “old” and my age. I have kept everything else. All my memories and objects are still there.”
Azzedine Alaia
Trying to trace Azzedine Alaia’s roots is an impossible task for somebody who was born on planet Earth, the designer is as fascinating and mysterious as another galaxy.
He was born in 1940 in Tunisia, with its endless landscapes, overlooked by the gold disk of the sun melting in the hazy skies and softened by the air saturated with history and spices. Most of the childhood years were spent in his grandparents home under a watchful eye of a loving grandmother and grandfather, a police officer who worked in ID card department.
From the age of 10, whenever Azzedine didn’t have classes, he would come to the station and sit next to a woman who made the ID cards, then save the scrapped photos and organise them in his album back at home…
Cinema was another favourite. Every week the boy spent hours in Cine-Soir, a movie theatre that belonged to his grandfather’s best friend. His grandfather would leave Azzedine there in the morning, go to work and pick his grandson up at the end of the day. While the men played cards in a nearby cafe after work, the boy watched the movies over and over again, soaking up the beauty of the costumes and learning the dialogues that he would then perform in front of his friends in exchange for crayons.
His sketches were the way to release his need for beauty and dreams and his talent was beginning to show.
At the time he was helping his mother’s friend, Madame Pineau, a local midwife, to deliver babies. She was a part of their family, very close with his parents and grandfather (Alaia’s grandmother run away at the age of 70) and, by his own admission, one of the most important people in his development. It was Madame Pineau who first noticed Azzedine’s sketches and, when he was 15, enrolled him at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to study sculpture.
While completing the course, Alaia continued assisting at the clinic, but it wasn’t just the childbirth that fascinated him, but an extensive collection of Madame Pineau’s fashion magazines, catalogues and art books that was available to him. It was that very first introduction to fashion that make Azzedine realise that his true destiny was not art, but working with female body that he could sculpt using fabric rather than marble.
Either way, he needed the money to continue his studies and since his choice of school was against his father’s wish, the boy found himself in a difficult position – he wanted to learn the skills, but couldn’t ask his father for support in order to pay for the course.
One day, while walking through the neighbourhood, Alaia noticed a sign on the door of an atelier saying that the couturier was looking for somebody to finish the clothes. The teen went straight in, but instead of admitting that it was him who needed the job, he said that it was something his sister Hafida wanted to do to help her with a course in couture she studied at boarding school.
Azzedine got the job, went back home and asked the girl to show him how to sew. A few months later he met two sisters from an influential Tunisian family who liked his designs and introduced Alaia to another couture house where the teenager spent his summer holidays learning essential skills and making copies of Dior and Balmain dresses.
It was a wonderful experience but not what Alaia dreamed of. His thoughts were in Paris. He wanted to be a part of it.
In 1957 his grandfather finally gave his permission for Azzedine to travel to Paris and study couture.
The new chapter of his life was about to begin.
To be continued…
Photo source: hand moulded chain mail / Summer 1992 collection / Alaia by Francois Baudot
Azzedine Alaïa / Elle US 2000
I could write an ode to Azzedine Alaïa choosing the most poetic and beautiful words in attempt to explain the genius of this man who filled fashion with ideas, inspired some of the most influential designers, created iconic pieces and made women feel beautiful in their own skin. And yet… never self-promoted himself, used PR companies or advertising… created collections based on his own schedule regardless of the seasons… had been in fashion for around 50 years and still remains a mystery.
Alaia is an extraordinary figure, a unique being and one-of-a-kind. I first heard his name in mid 1990s when Russian Elle published an article about a fashion designer who knew the secret of crafting a dress with ability to mould around female body like no other.
Since then I’ve become fascinated with Azzedine Alaïa and his work wishing that one day I’ll get a chance to wear something made by him. The dream may never come true, but the love for Alaïa’s art and talent is a good enough reason for me to dedicate this fashion week to him.
Photo source: Elle US September 2000
Stylish quote
“Perfection is never achieved, so you need
to go on working.”
Azzedine Alaia
Photo source: Gisele Bundchen wearing Alaia in Elle US January 2003
