FollowBY: Gabriela Herstik
The fashion industry is touched by innovators who never felt the need to walk the beaten path. Designers who have stayed true to their art while maintaining the walk and talk of the fashion scene are far and few, but they are true diamonds in the raw. If there is any man who has truly kept his attention to the style, detail, and direction of his brand without falling to the conformity of the industry, it has been Azzedine Alaia; innovator and father of the bodycon look.
Alaia was born to wheat farmer parents in Southern Tunisia in 1940. Both Alaia and his twin sister were raised by his grandparents. Like many other fashion legends, Alaia cultivated his love for style through the glossy pages of Vogue magazine, and this love manifested itself when he enrolled in Ecole des Beaux- arts de Tunis (a prominent fine arts school) at fifteen, where he studied sculpture.
Alaia had a natural penchant for form and shape, and upon graduating he became a dressmaker’s assistant, where he helped duplicate couture gowns. It was while working there that he discovered his love for fashion design, and that is arguably where his journey truly began. Alaia moved to Paris in 1957 to continue his fashion career, where he learned how to truly construct dresses from Guy Laroche, whom he worked under for two seasons. It wasn’t until 1965, however, that he established his small salon, where he dressed his clientele.
When his fist collection was launched in 1981, it was incredibly successful. Alaia was an innovator from the very beginning; while every other designer was entranced by sharp silhouettes and bold shoulders, Alaia was focused on creating curve hugging pieces and inventing the bodycon silhouette; a look that was defined by second skin fitting pieces. In 1984 he was the recipient of the award for “Best Designer of the Year” and “Best Collection of the Year” by the French Ministry. He was coined “King of Cling” by the fashion crowd for his body clinging pieces and silhouettes.
It’s reported that a buyer for Bergdorf Goodman stopped someone in the street who was wearing an Alaia coat in order to find out where it was from, and that’s how Alaia’s work found its way into the store. In 1982, Alaia showed his Ready-to-Wear collection in Bergdorf Goodman, and the following year he opened a store in Beverly Hills. From the get-go, Alaia’s works turned heads with their body-conscious silhouettes and his innovative techniques.
Alaia used lingerie-style sewing, seaming, and stitching techniques for his pieces, and by coupling those techniques with new materials and new ways of cutting and shaping, he was able to truly find a niche for himself in a very vast market. His “old” style of tailoring and new styles of fabric construction have helped to keep his looks modern and timeless, a feat not so easily overcome by other innovators. Alaia uses malleable fabrics that ooze sex appeal, and his form hugging pieces tend to have a muted color palate to keep them sultry and sexy, but not overwhelmingly so. Even Alaia’s lace pieces had a skin tone backing, and they maintained a level of sexiness while still being appropriate.
In July of 2011, Alaia presented his first show in 7 years. He received a standing ovation. After the death of his twin sister in the 1990s, Alaia chose to refrain from the spotlight, and he instead chose to use his workspace in Marais as a boutique and showroom. He also continued going down this unbeaten path and truly doing whatever pleased him in terms of shows and schedules after she passed.
Alaia created the style that many modern women live in; he understands the sex appeal in the women under the clothes and he uses fabric to help sculpt that image. Just like how United Colors of Fashion helps to sculpt young women and men into fashion innovators, Alaia helped to pave that road for many of those same types of individuals. There is a sort of common sense in finding one’s own path because it then belongs to them – it’s not one that others have taken. Both United Colors of Fashion and Azzedine Alaia endorse that sentiment, just in different ways. Alaia is to thank for the body clinging styles we all crave. He is easily the perfect role model for the man or woman who truly wants to make an impact in fashion and who wants to do it in their own way.
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