So truly sad to hear of the passing of Azzedine Alaia.
It is one of the designers I have followed as long as I can remember and always had great admiration for.
He was born in Tunisia in 1940 and started his career path very early on (actually by lying about his age) as a sculptor, and he worked as an assistant for a dressmaker to pay his school fees.
He worked for all the big fashion houses, Christian Dior (only briefly), Guy Laroche and Thierry Mugler, til 1980 where he set up is own fashion brand.
For his own brand he dressed so many from that time, he dressed Grace Jones in the iconic bond film A View to a Kill.
He dressed Marie-Helene de Rothschild to Louise de Vilmorin, dressed and even became close friends with Greta Garbo, imagine that!
Later on, he dressed, Tina Turner, Brigitte Nielsen, Naomi Campbell, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Shakira and Michelle Obama was a regular client while she was the first lady.
In 2000 he joined the partnership with the group which owns Prada.
Personally, I also have a lot of admiration for Alaia, it’s well known that there is little money in couture and pret-a-porter, and these brands show their clothes as a marketing ploy to sell perfume and handbags, Alaia never wanted to go into all this, and for that too I have great admiration.
Image by Alaia.frImages from: Alaia.fr
