Azzedine Alaïa, the designer who (truly) loved women
Experience his journey at the Design Museum in London
Alaïa’s clients were prominent women, like Greta Garbo. Top models were his friends, first and foremost Naomi. Then there was Sofia Coppola and Michelle Obama. All who needed pampering, and who better than Azzedine for this? Having studied sculpture, he loved women’s bodies, a master in glorifying their virtues with purely sartorial artifices. He knew how to cinch, where cinching was needed. His creations in the ‘80s included those for the dancers at the Crazy Horse in Paris (along with several other colleagues, Jean Charles de Castelbajac and the indomitable Karl Lagerfeld). He learned the secrets of feminine sinuosity, which he adored. More a tailor than a designer, someone we all would have liked as a friend. He was among the first, if not the first, to use stretch fabric, his legendary stretch Lycra®. Then came the time for great innovations. His zippers, whicht drew spirals on jackets and on dresses in a sensual game, were unforgettable. His clients’ word-of- mouth, his unwary testimonials, made him known to many, decreeing his international success. Never satisfied with his work, always looking for that impossible perfection, the ideal dress, which he molded over the body, studying the movement of fabrics, not only exalting shapes, but creating a magical shell. Minute, like his beloved dog Patapouf that he would always bring along with him. He wasn’t the red carpet type. He was timid, and friends were his long time ones for whom he cooked his favorite dishes, hosting them with love. An outsider who was able to disengage from the sometimes fearful mechanisms and sirens of the fashion system. His shows did not coincide with the dates of the Paris fashion week calendar. He was a free man. A rebel. Many of us are grateful to him for making us feel beautiful in the clothes he thought out for us. Always subdued, without furor. Before his untimely passing, Azzedine was preparing an exhibition on his professional history in collaboration with the Design Museum in London, since his passion was contemporary art. Now he rests near his beloved sister Hafida, in his land, in his Tunisia, near the sea.
His retrospective will be on exhibit at the Design Museum. More than sixty creations chosen by Azzedine that will dialogue with the works of Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Konstantin Grcic, Marc Newson, Kris Ruhs, and Tatiana Trouvé.
From May 10th to October 7th, 2018.
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