Azzedine Alaïa

Azzedine Alaïa does not think of himself as a fashion designer. Rather, he likes to call himself a "batisseur" - a builder, or a couturier-architect. His designs emphasize structure and purity of form. The fabrics and rigorous tailoring are painstakingly constructed to envelope the body snugly. A perfectionist who hand finishes each garment in his collections, Alaïa is notorious for showing much later than other designers. The fashion industry was forced to wait 3 1/2 months to see his spring/summer collection in 1992, but they all came anyway, filing obediently into a half-renovated dust-choked atelier on the rue des Verreries.

Today, the Tunisian-born Azzedine Alaïa commands a formidable presence on the fashion scene, but for thirty years he was virtually unknown. Alaïa studied sculpture at the Beaux-Arts in Tunis before coming to Paris in the 50s and embarking on fashion design. He lived in a tiny apartment on the Left Bank, paying rent by babysitting and designing clothes for the Comtesse de Blegiers.An apprenticeship at Christian Dior lasted a mere five days, followed by two full seasons with Guy Laroche. Soon his discreet clientele widened to include Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Cecile de Rothschild and French film star Arletty.

The signature Alaïa look began to emerge in the early 80s: rivetted leather, industrial-zipped dresses, a predominance of knit fabrics and experimental mixes of lace and leather, silk jersey and tweed. Every year, Alaïa extends his palette of fabrics. In 1994, he showed long dresses in "houpette", a stretchy new fabric that molds to the body. The following year he made clothes out of "Relax", an anti-stress fabric with carbon-dipped fibres that repel electromagnetic waves. NASA uses it for wall and floor coverings.

Like Alaïa's timing, his hemlines are impervious to the dictates of fashion. They can run from upper-thigh to ankle-length within the same collection. What is constant, however, is a tailoring and cut that follows the same principles as corset-making - the use of stays, whalebones, lace-ups and decolletage to flatter the figure and highlight the bust.

A favorite of the 80s supermodel set (you have to have a supermodel's body -- not to mention income -- to wear his clothes), lately Azzedine Alaïa doesn't seem to be as ubiquitous as he once was. Is Alaïa on a slow downward spin, or does he still have a few surprises left? Tune in to Paris' fashion week to find out.

Azzedine Alaïa

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