the collections
You have to leave a sign in your life as you are passing through it. Azzedine Alaïa
azzedine alaïa, rue de bellechasse, 1979 ph. Sipa/Shutterstock
Azzedine Alaïa, passionate collector.
Whether as a couturier or as a passionate historian, Alaïa was surrounded by collections throughout his life.
There are those that, from one season to the next, he sculpted to sublimate women since the 1980s. Then there are all those with which he loved to surround himself since a very young age. Even as a boy in Tunis, when accompanying his father to the civil registry office where he worked, the young Azzedine collected the identity photographs discarded by the people of the town. At home, he kept them in a box, and classified the human genus by categories: blonde hair or brown, with or without moustache, long hair or short…
He would remain forever guided by this desire, this need to collect and gather objects, of art and design, then later of fashion too, pieces that would constitute an exceptional private “collection”.
I want to create a Foundation to house my collection in addition to my own archives.
The collection of Azzedine Alaïa consists of three large collections:
ALAÏA’S WORK
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.
Alaïa exhibition, Palais Galliera, Paris fashion museum ph. Pierre Antoine
THE COLLECTIONS OF THE HISTORY OF FASHION
The Foundation’s mission is to conserve, preserve, archive, enrich and display to the public the collections of garments and accessories by other designers and great masters of the history of fashion, collected by Azzedine Alaïa over the course of his life, and which now belong to the Foundation.
Schiaparelli exhibition, 2009, azzedine alaïa gallery ph. sylvie delpech
THE COLLECTIONS OF ART AND DESIGN
The Foundation’s mission is to conserve, preserve, archive, enrich, and display to the public the collection of art : paintings, sculpture, objects, photographs, books and the collection of design : furniture, lights, objects collected by Azzedine Alaïa over the course of his life and which now belong to the Foundation.
azzedine alaïa hotel © azzedine alaïa foundation