thoughts on Azzedine Alaïa
A lot of male fashion designers claim to love women. They think they do, but what they actually love doing is projecting their ideals of femininity onto women. Most male designers always seem so out of touch with what women want and need so they end up making clothes for their fantasy girl that doesn’t exist in reality. They muse over women and project all of these idealized, unrealistic, and unattainable visions and fantasies onto real women. That wasn’t Azzedine. Azzedine created things FOR women ABOUT women IN CONVERSATION with women. Azzedine Alaïa truly loved women.Azzedine was truly the last great couturier. No one was as technically accomplished as he was. He is the only designer left I know who can actually make every stitch of clothing that he designs. He would make every prototype from pattern to finished garment. He insisted on doing things most designers left to assistants himself. Azzedine was so committed to producing the most sublime perfectly constructed garments that he wouldn’t even show a collection if he felt like something was off or not prefect. His shipments were notoriously late to retailers because he refused to put out sub-par products. I’m not trying to sneak diss anyone else but he really stood out like a sore thumb among the French couturiers of his time. The style at the time was very garish even for my liking. Too much volume, too many florals, and too much gold, all of which is fun but exhausting when it’s everywhere all the time. And here’s this little Tunisian man dressing all these strong, powerful women like Grace Jones and Tina Turner – sculpting beautiful body conscious ensembles using all types of materials. Azzedine had zero contemporaries. No one could do what he could did, no one was fucking with him at the time, especially in Paris. He was always improving upon things he did before and wasn’t afraid to revisit things. I literally never know what season things are from I recently saw Naomi in a dress I thought was newer only to find out that it was older than me. You really have to be on some other shit to make anything from the ‘80s still look fresh and relevant to what’s going on today. He never changed his style or personal tastes, he just built upon his own work. I see bigger houses copy him all the time especially some of the lesser known collections. Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele who was long time collaborator of Azzedine’s and my favorite stylist said that women go to him cause they want to look sexy and divine. I’ve just been repeating that phrase to myself over and over for the past few days and I don’t know about y'all but when I get dressed I’m trying to look as SNATCHED as possible at all times I have body and I look for things that give me a nice shape. That’s what Azzedine clothes do to women, every woman who has been lucky enough to wear Alaïa describes it as being the ultimate fashion experience. Nothing fits like an Alaïa.
Everyone loved and respected him. Especially other designers. He used to make motorcycle jackets for Rei Kawakubo. He used to work for Mugler and they would vacation together. He would show up to other designers fashion shows just to show support. There was never any shade with Azzedine, it was always love and that’s something you don’t see with most ego-maniacal fashion types. I’ve heard so many stories from editors, models, stylist, and other designers about how much Azzedine supported them in their careers. He did everything on his terms. He did shows when and if he felt like. He refused to play the fashion game and everyone in fashion loved him for it or at the very least respected his principles. He just seemed like such a warm inspiring spirit and I’m just so happy for everyone who got to know him anytime I read anything about Alaïa you can feel the love people had for him and for his talents. He was the last of his kind and I’m beyond gutted that he isn’t with us anymore.
I’m really just praying for Naomi right now she went to bury him the other day in Tunisia and I know she is in the worst state after losing the man who had acted as her father for the past 30 something years. Bless him for seeing her light as well as for supporting all of the other women of color in the business and making a girl like me feel like I deserved a space in this industry. God bless Azzedine Alaïa he was my hero.
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