The design collection
Azzedine Alaïa also had a great love of design and always adorned his living and work spaces with decorative pieces by renowned designers : Le Corbusier, Jean Royère, Marc Newson, Shiro Kuramata, Marius Sabino, Serge Mouille, Jean Prouvé, but also artists friends such as César, Andrée Putman, Kris Ruhs, Pierre Paulin, Angelo Mangiarotti, Ettore Sottsass, Martin Szekely, les Bourellec and many others.
The first to collect Prouvé, his passion led him to purchase in the early 2000s a gas station designed by Jean Prouvé that he turned into his bedroom.
I had some furniture by Jean Prouvé in the maid's room that I lived in on rue Byron, Simone Zerhrfuss had given them to me. Her husband had worked with Prouvé, and she owned a lot of furniture by him. I had the single bed, the table, a chair, and even the bookcase « Tunisie » ! When I left the maid's room, I left them there, thinking at the time that they were just things made of wood. Much later, in the early 80's, I was strolling through the flea market, where I never usually go, and I saw a table, I think it was my old table ! And there was the bookcase too. I asked the seller about them, he was the gallery owner Philippe Jousse, who had just opened. I asked his wife for the prices, and her answer almost gave me a migraine ! I left the gallery and thought to myself “God forgive me, when I of how with my innocence and foolishness I didn't think furniture could be worth anything!”So I went back inside the gallery, and they agreed to sell them to me at a good price… Azzedine Alaïa
SHIRO KURAMATA
1934-1991
Shiro Kuramata was a Japanese designer, known for his creations combining Japanese minimalism, surrealism and post-modern Western influences. He left his mark on design in the 1970s and 80s with his experimental approach to materials such as acrylic, glass, perforated metal and industrial resins.
"The biggest problem," Kuramata explained, "is gravity. We must think about how to erase it."
Kuramata collaborated with the Memphis group, founded by Ettore Sottsass. Together, they redefined furniture by giving it a poetic and immaterial dimension.
An unconditional admirer of Kuramata’s work, Azzedine Alaïa began collecting it in the 2000s. All the pieces on display at « Alaïa/Kuramata, lightness in creation » are from the collections of the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa.
