October 21, 2025 |
When two of the most esteemed figures in fashion talk, we listen. Here, Carla Sozzani, 77, editor, gallerist and president of Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, talks to her long-time friend Suzy Menkes, 81, journalist and critic, about Azzedine, collecting fashion and bringing the past into the future.
Carla wears a black wool Alaïa dress, AW01. She’s photographed in front of a Julian Schnabel painting in the kitchen of Fondation Azzedine Alaia, where the late designer loved to cook and host friends.
Suzy Menkes Carla and I have both lived our fashion dreams, forever excited by the new and what would feed the future. In those early years that led up to the new millennium, when I joined the International Herald Tribune [part of The New York Times, it ceased publication in 2013], we were always exploratory. We searched for the growth of worldwide creativity. Carla was creating [and was] enticing about all that was new. I remember the arrival of [the artist] Kris Ruhs, Carla’s partner for life. And how her sister Franca was Vogue Italia’s creator for three decades.
Carla in the boardroom of the Alaïa foundation wearing a black shearling, patent leather coat, AW08
Then there was the shop, 10 Corso Como, Carla’s off-track space in Milan, which started with some intriguing art and grew into a model of imagination, as formal and famous designers jostled with the new. So what is new today for Carla Sozzani? Following the concept of her dear friend of half a century, the late, great Azzedine Alaïa, she has turned her attention to the past, collecting clothes just as Azzedine himself had. She started to find exceptional and inspiring pieces. To celebrate her life in fashion, Carla has written a book, published by Thames & Hudson, Carla Sozzani: Art, Life, Fashion. How does she feel about her work, which always seems to reach out and touch the future, even if the object comes from the past? I asked her: are you a collector or a curator?
from left: Carla in front of Azzedine’s wall of memories, featuring pictures of people he cherished. She wears a black cotton dress, Couture 09; Carla in Azzedine’s apartment, wearing a black leather coat from AW09
Carla Sozzani I was collecting through Azzedine, because before that I was just keeping my clothes. I started working and kept my Comme des Garçons, Yohji, Vivienne… But I didn’t think I had a collection. It was all through the eyes of Azzedine that I started to understand I did. He was such an amazing collector. And when he wanted to preserve all his works [in 2007], we founded an association, Azzedine, his partner Christoph [von Weyhe, an artist, who died this year] and myself, to preserve all he had of his work, but also all we had collected. Azzedine was very conscious about having a major amount of works. Yet he never talked about his collection.
SM You were very much part of Azzedine’s life – I can’t think of a time when I went round to have a meal in the kitchen and you weren’t there. But in terms of the clothes, he didn’t really talk about himself as a collector?
CS Not so much, he was very secretive about that – and jealous. When [fashion curator and historian] Olivier Saillard was planning an exhibition about [the couturier] Madame Grès, he asked Azzedine if he could give him some clothes and Azzedine said, “I have a few,” and gave him two. Now we have in the archive 750 Madame Grès [pieces]. In one way he didn’t want people to know, but he wanted to preserve.
SM Tell me about yourself. You also became more of a collector than he was at the beginning, although he concentrated on that perhaps much more than most of us realise. Yet, in general, you always look to the future.
CS I look to the future through the past also, because I think that at our stage in life, it’s very nice to think about this mission and give years of knowledge and a lot of collecting to the young generation. What I want to do now is share.
SM You do so many new things – you always surprise me. One of your newest ventures is in Milan, where you opened [Fondazione Sozzani, a cultural centre] in a whole new area. How would you describe it?
CS This is a new challenge. I love it because it’s industrial, it’s authentic and it’s lived in by many of the workers. Originally it was only factories, but at the same time it still has all the cafés. [It’s near] the polytechnic in Milano, [where people study] design and engineering, and this brings an amazing amount of young people to the centre. So it’s a mix of the older town and the largest green campus in Europe.
from left: Carla in the archive, standing in front of an 18th-century painting of a restaurant menu, wearing a dark blue knitted dress, AW08
from left: in Azzedine’s apartment wearing an embroidered coat, AW16; wearing an embroidered felt coat, AW86; a view of the stairs up to Azzedine’s apartment
SM Do you feel that you are very Italian or part of a wider world that is interested in certain things? I always feel your relationship with Azzedine, not just the personal one but with the collections of clothes, is all done through Paris.
CS We do a lot there. But we had connections everywhere, in New York, in Pitti [Imagine in Florence] and with Kerry Taylor [the British collector and auction house]. For me, it is more about the clothes that I have bought for myself which I wanted to wear. I bought clothes because I loved them, but I felt I needed to. Now we are going to do an exhibition of Azzedine and Christian Dior in November at the Foundation in Paris. Azzedine had a collection of 593 Christian Dior pieces.
Carla in the foundation’s fashion history archives wearing an embroidered coat, AW15
Carla in the foundation’s fashion history archives wearing an embroidered coat, AW15
on the mezzanine over the exhibition gallery wearing a black viscose dress with nylon see-through motif, SS15
in the photography archives wearing a black shearling, patent leather coat, AW08
SM My last question: if you think about yourself now, you have been collecting for a long time. What is the future of collecting? Do you think people are going to follow your example in 100 years?
CS I hope what I have put aside can be seen and touched and used by the young people who want to become designers. Because when you go to school, you really cannot touch the clothes. It’s a lot of academic lessons. And when you go to museums you cannot touch. So my idea is that my clothes can be, carefully of course, shared. Some designers I have already invited and some important designers have come to look at the clothes. I think it’s nice because they are sitting there and it’s good they can be seen.
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 75 – BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE, TRANSFORMATION – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
CARLA SOZZANI: MEETING OF MINDS
Photographer ALESSANDRO RAIMONDO
Talent and Fashion Editor CARLA SOZZANI
Text SUZY MENKES
Hair CICCI SVAHN at Calliste Agency
Make-up LLOYD SIMMONDS at Agency Carole
Production SONYA MAZURYK
Location FONDATION AZZEDINE ALAIA, Paris
Clothing throughout by AZZEDINE ALAIA from the personal archive of Carla Sozzani
from left: Carla in Azzedine’s design studio wearing a cotton dress, Couture 09; Carla wearing a leather coat with silver eyelets and silver leather lining, AW82
from left; white embroidered coat from Azzedine’s final collection, SS18; on the gangway leading to the archives, wearing an embroidered black sequin tunic, AW14
through the round window overlooking Azzedine’s design studio, Carla wears a cotton dress, Couture 09, with earrings by Kris Ruhs
