June 12, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (SUMMER 2008)
BORN: June 7, 1940; Jemmal, Tunisia
NATIONALITY: Tunisian
LABELS: First worked for Christian Dior, Guy Laroche and Thierry Mugler. Alaia was founded in the late 1970s.
AWARDS: Won Best Designer of the Year in 1984 in a memorable event where Grace Jones carried him in her arms on stage. Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (2008).
MISC: Studied sculpture at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Tunis, lying about his age to get in.
Like a little elf, or the faery shoemaker in a chlldren’s tale, Azzedine Alaïa is modest but serious, and he lives for his craft, which is the making of the most faltering of clothes. And that is what he does. Basta. No rushing across the Atlantic for spurious red-carpet affairs. Far too involved with his private world of beauty to waste time with that sort of thing. Unlike some of his fellow designers, he does not count his worth in the number of references he gets in the press. He is not crazed with a desire for fame, he hates parties and he is happiest at home. Thinking. Sounds unique? Yes, and he is, in these days of personalities and celeb culture.
But there is a precedent for Alaïa and it is a very flattering one. Cristobal Balenciaga would entirely “get him” and his single-minded devotion to his art. Balenciaga was a truly great designer and I am absolutely sure that, when other, more strident fashion designers have been consigned to that great cloud in the sky labelled End of Range, future fashion historians will put Alaïa up there with fashion’s very greatest.
The Alaïa woman is a goddess, an Amazon perfectly formed, with a firm, young body and sophisticated understanding of the immaculate cut of his clothes. Her age is unimportant. The woman who can wear these super-sophisticated, and even complex, clothes is a law unto herself and age can never wither her infinite charms…
WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO?
“I don’t remember as I live every day like it is the last and don’t look back past yesterday or forward past tomorrow – I live for now totally in my mind.”
HOW HAS YOUR APPROACH TO FASHION CHANGED OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS?
“It has not changed. I am still trying to do my best and have always tried to do my best, and that is to get nearer to what women want. The main thing is that my approach has always stayed the same.”
TEN IS CONSIDERED A TALISMANIC NUMBER. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?
“For me, 5 is the lucky number, so 10 must bring twice the luckiness and happiness and, if you can achieve that, you can die happy.”
WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG – SAY, 10 OR A TEENAGER – WHAT WERE YOUR AMBITIONS?
“I was dreaming of coming to Paris, learning fashion and meeting woman, in that order. I have been lucky to do that and meet great people in my life.”
OUTSIDE OF FASHION, WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY OR SAD?
“Everything makes me happy, except the loss of close friends and family and bad news about the world, such as war and disasters. Apart from that, I sing every day.”
WHAT ARE THE TRUE INSPIRATIONS FOR YOU – IN YOUR LIFE AND IN YOUR DESIGNING?
“I am not an inspired designer – it is just women and their bodies that inspire me and that even the simplest straight skirt can be the most difficult thing to make.”
IF YOU COULD SPEND 10 DAYS TOTALLY AWAY FROM FASHION AND YOUR PRESENT LIFE HOW WOULD YOU SPEND THEM?
“When I leave the house, my head is empty. I can disappear totally and suddenly, but when I am at work I am at work 100% and when I am away I am away 100%.”
IN 10 YEARS’ TIME WHAT SORT OF LIFE DO YOU EXPECT TO BE LIVING?
“The same one as I have always lived. Every morning when I open my eyes I think what new thing will I learn today or what new person will I meet? I have always lived this way. Meeting death will be the ultimate curiosity and last thing one can learn, but even on that last day, there will be something to learn and that is death!”
by Colin McDowell
Photograph by Sarah Moon
