the art and photography collection

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…