Azzedine Alaïa (1935-2017) was a Tunisian-born couturier renowned for his form-fitting designs that celebrated the female form. He studied sculpture in Tunis before moving to Paris in the late 1950s, where he gained a following among the elite. Alaïa’s breakthrough came in the 1980s with his body-hugging silhouettes and innovative use of materials. Known for his meticulous craftsmanship, he often defied the traditional fashion calendar, showing collections on his own terms.
Azzedine Alaia Quotes
01. “Fashion will last forever. It will exist always. It will exist in its own way in each era. I live in the moment. It’s interesting to know the old methods. But you have to live in the present moment.”
— Azzedine Alaia
02. “When I see beautiful clothes, I want to keep them, preserve them… Clothes, like architecture and art, reflect an era.”
— Azzedine Alaia
03. “I make clothes, women make fashion.”
— Azzedine Alaia
04. “It’s important to make women feel confident, because I think they are more important than men.”
— Azzedine Alaia
05. “Perfection is never achieved, so you need to go on working.”
— Azzedine Alaia
06. “My obsession is to make women beautiful. When you create with that in mind, things can’t go out of fashion.”
— Azzedine Alaia
07. “I like black, because for me it is a very happy color.”
— Azzedine Alaia
08. “The foundation of beauty is the body.”
— Azzedine Alaia
09. “I am never sure that anything’s good enough. Something that is good today will not be good tomorrow.”
— Azzedine Alaia
10. “There is a sensuality about fabric. I think all materials should be inviting when they touch the skin. When I watch children stroking their mothers’ clothes, I feel that I have succeeded.”
— Azzedine Alaia
11. “I think women should be seductive, not triste. There’s enough sadness in life now without making women look sad, too.”
— Azzedine Alaia
12. “The present fashion system is too hard – there are too many collections. The designers have no time to think! Money is too important. Schedules are too crazy.”
— Azzedine Alaia
13. “If you’re sad about what you see in the mirror when you wake up every morning, you must change it.”
— Azzedine Alaia
14. “I have been offered the highest paid contracts in the world. I refused them all. It’s not my thing. I don’t want to cheat people. And there are certain people I am allergic to. I even intervene when I don’t like a customer; I rush in and check all the names. If I don’t like them, I don’t take them.”
— Azzedine Alaia
15. “I love films—they are like paintings.”
— Azzedine Alaia
16. “I even do my ready-to-wear samples like couture.”
— Azzedine Alaia
17. “Bill Cunningham knows fashion better than anybody.”
— Azzedine Alaia
18. “Who can really say who invents something first in fashion?”
— Azzedine Alaia
19. “I’m happier about my friends than I am about my work. I still have a long way to go with work. My friends, that’s the one thing I’m sure about.”
— Azzedine Alaia
20. “I’m always telling young designers to take the time to surround themselves with women.”
— Azzedine Alaia
21. “I’m working 24 hours a day. I have had a house in Tunisia for 20 years, and I never have time to go because there are collections, fittings.”
— Azzedine Alaia
22. “As a child, I was raised with my grandmother, alongside all my cousins, and the kitchen was always full.”
— Azzedine Alaia