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.

The Foundation's mission is to perpetuate the work and the philosophy of Azzedine Alaïa through the conservation, the preservation, the archiving, the promotion and exhibition to the public of the collections of garments, accessories, sketches, designs, drawings and other objects belonging to the foundation and that constitute the body of creative work of Azzedine Alaïa.

Azzedine Alaïa, curator at heart, carefully preserved all of his work since the beginning of his career beneath the historic vaults located underneath the buildings that stretch from the rue de la Verrerie to the rue de Moussy. It was his secret cavern where no one was permitted to enter. Covering some 800 square meters, with grand volumes, almost 4 meter high ceilings, and dozens of red brick pillars and metal beams, this space which for a time was used as a warehouse for the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, supports the entire building: exhibition halls with the large glass roof whose courtyard façade surmounted by a stone pediment is a listed historic monument, the atelier of Monsieur Alaïa and his private apartments.

This immense space at 18 rue de la Verrerie bore witness to the incessant comings and goings of the couturier who would come to deposit there, year after year, his collections. It has become the memory, the sanctuary and it will remain the guardian of a life’s work.

22,000 pieces of clothing and accessories, preserved by Azzedine Alaia over the seasons that he has sculpted to sublimate women since the 1960s.

With the support of the Richemont group, the Foundation undertakes in 2020 important renovation works to meet the standards for preventative conservation as defined by the laws dating January 4th 2002 relative to the museums of France. The space will be air-conditioned and equipped with high-performance water infiltration detection systems and fire safety systems with extinction devices.

Composed of three spaces located at different altitudes and connected by staircases in a volume of 1000m², the project articulates the creation of an archive dedicated to the personal collection of the fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa. The space is compartmentalised in order to provide the necessary conditions for the archiving of textile works. Mobile "compactus" cabinets are being implemented to house approximately 15,000 items. Within the framework of this renovation, particular attention is being paid to the scenography of this place. The ensemble enhances the existing vaulted ceiling and solid bricks which constitute a remarkable building heritage from the end of the 19th century.

The first important work of art that he purchased was a small scultpure of a Coptic head, bought from a small shop in 1963. He would later learn that this little statuette had once belonged to the Countess Greffulhe, who provided Marcel Proust with the inspiration for the character the Duchess of Guermantes. This piece of art would accompany him throughout his life, like a talisman.

Over the course of his lifetime Azzedine Alaïa also collected paintings, art objects, and the works of by artists friends such as César or Julian Schnabel.

Photography has always been very important for Azzedine Alaïa, since his youth in Tunisia. Friends with the greatest photographers of our time, for the images for his book  Azzedine Alaïa he called upon Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Ellen von Unwerth, Martine Barrat. Sharing a brotherly friendship with Gilles Bensimon and Jean-Paul Goude, he worked with and collected the work of Horst, Sarah Moon, Irving Penn…

The Foundation’s mission is to preserve, study, create a digital inventory of, and showcase the collections.It will also be responsible for the rotation and protection of the works exhibited and will ensure a detailed documentation of each of the works thanks to a digital database.

The Foundation entrusts a team of professional archivists with the preventive conservation of the collection, its maintenance, restoration and storage.

The Foundation’s role also includes the inventory and conservation of a large collection of documents, drawings, photographs and patterns of the work of Azzedine Alaïa in addition to drawings and photographs from other couture houses, 19th century fabric swatch catalogues, and magazines from 1900 to today.