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Azzedine Alaia
Quite strangely, Azzedine Alaia is known to not have ever thought of himself as a fashion designer. Rather, he likes to call himself a "builder", or a couturier-architect due to the fact that his designs were meant to emphasize structure and purity of form. The fabrics and rigorous Alaia tailoring are painstakingly constructed in order to envelope the body snugly. Azzedine Alaia was born in 1939 in Tunis, Tunisia, North Africa. His favourite designers are Madeleine Vionnet and Balenciaga. He is also known to design tight fitting, body defining, sensual garments made of supple leathers and knits. In 1957, Azzedine Alaia went to Paris in order to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. There he met Simone Zehrfuss and the Countess of Belgiers where he made his first attempts at design. He then worked for Christian Dior, then Guy Laroche, followed by Thierry Mugler.
Starting from 1960, Alaia began to make garments of his own which appealed to a much
younger clientele. The garments placed emphasis on the small of the back along with the bottom. He is
also known to use lots of stretch fabrics such as Lycra and is known to have revived such fabrics as
Viscose.
In 1980, Azzedine Alaia launched his own line of ready-to-wear clothes. His design for a
waxed tunic with metal eyelets got photographed for the pop group "Depeche Mode" and consequently
became quite popular. A year later, Alaia launched his first collection under the genuine Alaia
label. One of the revolutionary designs in the collection was a black leather dress with zips all over it,
which was photographed by a number of international fashion magazines. During the 80s, crowds of
journalists used to come to the fashion shows which Azzedine Alaia held in his apartment. A few years
later, Alaia boutiques began to open in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and London. He was awarded two
fashion Oscars at the Opera in Paris and Grace Jones is also known to have wore one of his Latex dresses
there. In 1992, Alaia launched a new fabric with anti-stretch properties called
"Relax".
Prada bought Alaia's label in 2000 but he says that his independence is fully respected by the parent company. Alaïa also extended his profession into fragrances and eyewear and became even more popular.
Over the years, he is known to have dressed such celebrities as Madonna, Tina Turner,
Diana Ross, Kim Basinger, Andrea Putman and Paloma Picasso as well as numerous super models, and film
stars. Stephanie Seymour wore an Alaia wedding dress which took him 1600 hours to make. Azzedine Alaia is known to cater to an extremely private clientele and is not listed
in any fashion house directory at all in Paris.
The Style of Alaia
Azzedine Alaia is known to accentuate the bust, bottom and small of the back, by making
tight, sexy dresses. He tends to use dark colours, avoids pastels and bright colours, and prefers to use
unusual techniques of garment construction rather than depending on printed materials or accessories. His
typical look tends to emphasize excellent corset seaming, no darts, a very tight fit with natural fabrics
especially wool, turbans and hoods, and open backs for deep V backs.
Find fashion by Azzedine Alaia @ the following eshop:
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