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In December 1982, Vogue introduced its readers to a man “hotter than hot, narrower than narrow, more body-conscious than anybody could be.” Pictured with his beloved dog Pat-a-Pouf, Azzedine Alaïa was described as “the newest name on the fashion horizon,” a sculptor of silhouette whose radical garments “reflected the complete concept of fit: a narrowing of line, rounding of the hips, broadening of the shoulders.” The French-Tunisian designer was already making waves in Paris; now he was poised to seduce America with his inimitable combination of technical mastery and sensual provocation.
Alaïa’s mythos is well-earned. Born in Tunis in 1935 (or possibly ’39—he was known to toy with the facts), he trained in fine arts, cooked lavish dinners for friends and seamstresses alike, and, famously, designed in Chinese cotton pajamas with National Geographic humming in the background. He called Naomi Campbell his daughter and dressed women from Grace Jones to Michelle Obama. His body-conscious clothing made him the so-called “King of Cling,” but his real métier was liberation, not restriction—sculpting the body not to conceal but to exalt it.
It’s little wonder, then, that handbags weren’t his first creative calling. But when he did turn his hand to accessories, the…
josh olins
After spending the day with Alaïa and Campbell on the Vogue shoot, my interview with Azzedine – the last he ever gave – continued by email. And I got the feeling from his longtime right-hand, Caroline Fabre Bazin, that this was probably the best way to communicate. Something he definitely shared with Naomi – a reluctance to be pinned down to a specific timetable. Alaïa famously showed his collections when he felt they were ready. For decades, his acolytes – clients, press, store buyers – would come to Paris specifically for him, with no guarantee that he would actually put anything on the catwalk. So there would be seasons when he would, for instance, recut old styles for Barneys, his biggest American outlet. No one complained. Likewise, about the six years between his most recent couture show, last July, and the previous one or the eight years back to the one before that.
Read more: Azzedine Alaïa In Vogue
So what was the sway he held over fashion? The elusiveness was definitely fundamental, because it gave credit to such honourable human qualities as loyalty, intelligence, appreciation, self-awareness. For the women he dressed, Alaïa wasn’t about right here, right…