discovering the origins of the couturier’s style, from Tunis to Paris

Alaïa before Alaïa is an exhibition produced by the Foundation, which the couturier had wanted to create several years before his death in November 2017. Through archival documents, photographs and drawings – most of them presented for the first time – it dissects the years apprenticeship of the future couturier, from the 1950s to the emergence of the Alaïa phenomenon.

Under the large glass roof of the Foundation – where Azzedine Alaïa called the press and friends to his parades -, dThe dresses born from these three founding decades and more recent creations are unveiled. There, in the middle of a gallery of portraits of those who, convinced of the talent of the young couturier, accompanied him. Disturbing.

The exhibition Alaïa before Alaïa draws the portrait of a couturier as talented as he is modest on his youthful years during which women were of paramount importance. When others of his generation attended schools, workshops or studios of fashion houses, Azzedine Alaïa perfected his technique in contact with women, in turn protectors, supporters and privileged clients.

The scenography is original. At first sight when entering the gallery, we do not see any dresses yet they are present but hidden. Indeed, the exhibition takes the form of large chronological panels installed along the entire length of the gallery. With images and texts, they trace the life and encounters of the couturier.

Within these paintings are open niches on a selection of clothes. Just put your head inside them to discover them. In the middle of the gallery, a staircase leads to the suite of the exhibition on the floor where a selection of black and white photographs is held.

On the ground floor, the starting point of the exhibition is of course his native Tunisia, that of the years 1935 to 1955. Black and white images of his youth in family with his sister, his brother, his mother , his aunt, his grandfather… retrace key moments.

As you read, you discover that for three decades, Azzedine Alaïa met those who were to remain faithful to him throughout his life. There is his sister Hafida for whom he does odd jobs at school in Tunis, but also lifelong friend Latifa Ben Abdallah and Madame Pinault, the midwife who comforts him in his vocation as a sculptor and then as a fashion designer before to reach Paris in 1956. The former sculpture student at the Beaux-Arts in Tunis considered clothing in its volume: like a sculptor, he revolved around it, and most often created directly on the body of his models. “I work on a dummy, it’s as if I were handling clay. I mould, assemble it, I take it apart, I sew, I unsew”, said Azzedine Alaia.

It is rare and touching for an exhibition to detail so much the youthful years of a couturier. Those of Azzedine Alaïa are punctuated with encounters: “I dressed a woman, she recommended me to another. I dressed the women of Picasso, Miro, Calder. It was a chance“, one reads among the quotes mentioned, here.

On the advice of one of the figures of Tunisian female emancipation Habiba Menchari, he finds his daughter, Leïla, model during the day at Guy Laroche. Others like Simone Zehrfuss, wife of the great architect, and Countess Nicole de Blégiers emancipated the taste of the young Azzedine by opening him up to the arts of his time.

In 1959, he met the painter Christoph von Weyhe with whom he traveled through the capital and its museums.

It doesn’t matter if he only stayed a few days in the Dior workshops, his training, it is these women who run fashion in Paris who will introduce him to it. Greta Garbo suggests large men’s coats in which she likes to wrap herself in anonymity. Arletty has an unconditional admiration for him. Her zip-up dresses are dependent on her for a lot. The couturier will say that the dress with an asymmetrical closure that Arletty wore in the film North Hotel inspired what was to become his signature.

Her closeness to the woman of letters Louise de Vilmorin opened her up to the circles of artists and worldliness. He will also be able to count on Bettina, his lifelong friend, and Carla Sozzani (today, President of the Foundation).

At the controls piling up rue de Bellechasse, Azzedine multiplies the experiences. At the invitation of Alain Bernardin, he cuts the costumes of the Crazy Horse girls, with the great furriers, he perfected his technique of leathers and skins. A collection of strapped riveted leathers was rejected by Charles Jourdan but launched the outbreak of the Alaïa phenomenon. The creator Thierry Mugler with whom Azzedine maintains a strong friendly relationship encourages him. Prosper Assouline and Andrée Putman accompany him.

Azzedine is now Alaia but the man has not changed either in his way of life, or in his philosophy: his clothes are made to last whatever the fads and fashions.

Azzedine Alaïa, the son of farmers born in Tunisia, had worked for a neighborhood seamstress to finance his studies at the Beaux-Arts before trying his luck in Paris in the late 1950s. He rose to prominence in the 1980s by inventing the bodysuit, the tight black underpants, the zipped skirt in the back, models which contributed to define the sexy and confident feminine silhouette of the time. He then worked at his own pace, away from fashion shows and the press, thanks to a network of loyal clients.

For fifty years he was an avid collector. In 2007, he decided to protect his work and his art collection by founding the Association Azzedine Alaïa, together with his life partner the painter Christoph von Weyhe, and his friend for more than forty years, the publisher Carla Sozzani. , so that this association becomes the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation.

The latter houses all the treasures of the house and its creator and exhibits his work and works of art from his personal collection, in Paris, at 18 rue de la Verrerie, where he lived and worked, and in Sidi Bou Saïd. , the city he loved so much. These places contain regular exhibitions on the history of fashion and design.

Exhibition “Alaïa avant Alaïa” until December 31, 2022 under the direction of Olivier Saillard. Association Azzedine Alaïa. 18, rue de la Verrerie. 75004 Paris. Every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.