OUT of sight Backstage Alaïa 1984-1986

As a student at Studio Berçot, I work as a dresser, mainly at Alaïa’s studio in the Marais, and between applying make-up and tending to the clothes racks, I take photos of the girls waiting to go on the catwalk. They aren’t supermodels yet; the backstage area is closed off to the outside world, and there we are, together, in the warmth, intimacy and chaos of the backstage.

This book brings them all together to capture the essence of that time: the moment before, the camaraderie, the stunning clothes, the girls’ beauty, the cigarettes, the laughter and the freedom of an era without screens.

There is no internet in the changing rooms. The images do not circulate. They remain in white boxes, forgotten for decades, partially worn away by time. When they reappear, they no longer tell only of fashion, but of what brought it to life: the anticipation, the sisterhood, the warmth of the halogen lights, the bursts of laughter, the moment before.

This book brings together these previously unpublished archives and a text written in the style of an oral memoir – a journal filled with faces, textures, friendship and a bygone era.

A window opened from within a world that had not yet revealed itself.

These negatives, forgotten for decades and partially damaged by the passage of time, are now the traces of a closed, intimate and vanished world.