Azzedine Alaia
(1940 - )
Azzedine Alaia was born in southern Tunisia in 1940. He was raised by his grandparents, and at age fifteen he enrolled in the l'Ecole des beaux-arts de Tunis to study sculpting.His interest in fashion design was discovered when he was a dressmaker's assistant, duplicating couture gowns by well known designers like Dior, Balmain and Cristobal Balenciaga.
In 1957 Alaia moved to Paris, where he worked for Guy Laroche, learning the essentials of dress construction. Around 1965, he established a small salon, where he built up a private clientele. In 1981 he launched his first collection; which was internationally successful. In 1982 he showed his ready-to-wear, line at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, and in 1983 he opened a boutique in Beverly Hills. In 1985, Alaia was honored with The French Ministry of Culture Designer of the Year Award.
In the early 1990s Alaia moved his Paris house to the rue de Moussy. Since 1993 he prefers to show his creations at his atelier, whenever they are ready. He is best known for his svelte clinging garments that fit like a second skin; this granted him the name of "the King of Cling" by the fashion press, in the 1980s. Alaia is famous for his expert tailoring and use of stretch fabrics as body corsets.
Alaïa's work has been shown in retrospectives at the Bordeaux Museum of Contemporary Art (1984–1985), the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands (1998), and in the exhibition Radical Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2001. In 2000, Alaia made a partnership with Prada who will handle his worldwide distribution while he will continue to handle the distribution in France from his boutique in Paris.
