Azzedine Alaïa: a master of his trade

With a career spanning over fifty years, Tunisian-born Azzedine Alaia was a truly unique and highly skilled couturier. London's Design Museum have created an awe-inspiring exhibition about Alaïa's truly multi-faceted life and career. The exhibition was in fact co-curated with Alaïa before his death in 2017 and this intimacy has an undeniable presence.

The exhibition not only has a vast array of his work, but also includes two "Film Rooms", one of which displays footage from one of Alaïa's shows in the 90s, featuring supermodels Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington in their youth: a true revisiting of the past. The second film room includes a short documentary of Alaïa's life from the perspective of close friends and fashion industry experts, such as Suzy Menkes, reminiscing over his truly eventful life.

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Alaia’s haute couture education was truly propelled by working for Christian Dior (under Yves Saint Laurent) as well as Guy Laroche. Alaia then established his own fashion house, the focus of which was a successful fusion between modern styles and technology, and the craftsmanship of the 19th century.

His fun yet professional outlook on life truly reinvented the fashion industry

Alaia clearly lived and breathed couture as even his Ready-to-wear clothes were produced with couture techniques, stating that “I don’t see the difference between couture and ready-to-wear.” This willingness to express himself can also be demonstrated by the fact that he didn’t stick strictly to the fashion calendar and only released his collections when they were ready. This further emphasises his creativity and highlights his need for perfection in his garments.

Alaia in fact originally attended the School of Fine Art in Tunis where he was being trained as a sculptor. This ability to sculpt was transformed into an ability to flatter the female body and sculpt fabrics as one would marble or stone. He frequently would work on the bodies of the models, alluding to his ability to sculpt and produce precise yet elegant garments.

From his earliest collections Alaia was using metal on his dresses “to blur boundaries”, using zips to replace decoration and even successfully using chainmail in a more transparent manner than chiffon.

Alaia clearly lived and breathed couture

Azzedine frequently explored the use of stretch fabrics to produce volume in his dresses, earning him the name “King of Cling” in the 1980s. Incredibly, Alaia rarely used structures such as petticoats to hold up his dresses and frequently explored the texture and properties of fabrics themselves.

Alaia’s collections also drew inspiration from the Spanish isles and he frequently referred to Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán who also inspired Cristóbal Balenciaga, the famous couturier. Some of Alaia’s dresses include “flamenco-inspired ruffles”, a feature that runs throughout many of his collections.

In all of his designs, Alaia tended to lean towards the muted colours of black, camels, browns, and soft greys. He would often use black on its own or in a wonderful fusion of other colours or differing fabrics, never making black the monotonous colour it is sometimes thought to be.

Another feature of Alaia’s work that is so unforgettable is the juxtaposition between its “fragility and strength”. The inherent sensuality that is associated with his clothes is often contrasted with the ethereal qualities of the chiffon that frequently features on his garments.

The final feature of his collections that is worth highlighting is the timeless quality of the clothes. He often quoted from epic ancient cultures by rejuvenating the “ideal proportions of Greek and Roman villas for modern life.”

“I make clothes, women make fashion.” This long-lasting legacy of Alaia’s is not forgotten and his work will forever have a very relevant and important part in the fashion industry. His fun yet professional outlook on life truly reinvented the fashion industry when he burst onto the scene, producing true beauty at an irreproducible and unique standard.

thanks for reading ;)

pictures shot on my phone (Huawei P Smart)

most info about Alaïa is from the booklet given at the beginning of the exhibition