Azzedine Alaïa Has Passed Away

Today November 18, 2017 it was announced that fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa had died in Paris.

Azzedine Alaia was a Tunisian-born couturier and shoe designer, particularly successful beginning in the 1980s.  After his graduation, Alaïa began working as a dressmaker's assistant. He soon began dressing private clients, and in 1957 he moved to Paris to work in fashion design. In Paris, he started to work at Christian Dior as a tailleur, but had to leave five days later as the Algerian war broke out, soon moved to work for Guy Laroche for two seasons, then for Thierry Mugler until he opened his first atelier in his little rue de Bellechasse apartment the late 1970s.  He produced his first ready-to-wear collection in 1980 and moved to larger premises on rue du Parc-Royal in the Marais district.

Alaia Paris

In his youth he gained an early appreciation for design.  His glamorous twin sister inspired his love for couture. A French friend of his mother fed Alaïa's instinctive creativity with copies of Vogue.  He lied about his age to get himself into the local École des Beaux-Arts in Tunis, where he gained valuable insights into the human form and began studying sculpture.

During the mid-1990s, following the death of his sister, Alaïa virtually vanished from the fashion scene; however, he continued to cater for a private clientele and enjoyed commercial success with his ready-to-wear lines.
He then signed a partnership with the Prada group in 2000. Working with Prada saw him through a second impressive renaissance, and in July 2007, he successfully bought back his house and brand name from the Prada group, though his footwear and leather goods division continues to be developed and produced by the group. In 2007 the Richemont group, which owns Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, took a stake in his fashion house but he still does not show during the collections.

We would like to wish the very best to his family and friends during this difficult time.  The fashion industry will greatly miss Azzedine Alaïa.

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