Azzedine Alaia has his place guaranteed in the gallery of famous fashion people.  Alaia was born in Tunisia in the 194s, the son of peasant parents got inspired by one of his mother´s friend who stimulated the instinctive creativity of Alaia, supplying him copies of Vogue. And omitting Alaia´s age, enabling him to enter the local School of Fine Arts to study Sculpture. Although he did not excel in this discipline, he would take advantage, in the future, of the acquired knowledge.

After seeing an ad for a job at a couturier, he learned to sew with his sister and began making copies of haute couture dresses for his neighbors. Shortly thereafter, he went to Paris to work with Christian Dior, having been fired after only a few days of sewing labels. Alaia then moved to the Laroche house, where he learned his profession for two eras, while at the same time working for the Duchess of Mazan.

In 1960, the Blegiers family hired Alaia, who for the next five years worked as an employee and couturier for the countess and her friends, which gave him the opportunity to live within the high society of Paris, a clientele that followed him when he decided to start to work on his own. His first pret-a-porter collection for Charles Jourdan in the 1970s was not well embraced, but fashion editors would eventually succumb to the modern elegance of Alaia. A decade later, his style contributed to the emergence of a favorable silhouette’s aesthetic.

Alaia later achieved worldwide success, with fashion shows, prizes, work with top models and a power to enchant an audience beyond fashion calendars: Alaia presents whenever it wants, indifferent to the dates of several international fashion weeks, and the publishers never fail to attend. In 1998, he published a book of his creations´photographs, called Alaia, and in 2000 the stylist joined the Prada Group. In the same year, he was honored with an individual exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York and in 2004 opened his own hotel (5 rue de Moussy), adjoining his headquarters in Paris.

By Jamie Huckbody, edited by Terry Jones & Susie Hushton

Photo: Max Vadukul and model: Eleonora