DHAHRAN: The Damiani-published coffee table book “Azzedine Alaia and Christian Dior, Two Masters of Haute Couture” gorgeously weaves together a thread of visual dialogue between these iconic 20th-century couturiers.
Through photographs capturing these sculptural garments, it is a visually elegant feast, with a few pages of words carefully curated in between.
Only available in English, the book, out this month, is an easy read with the foreword by Italian editor and gallerist Carla Sozzani, who writes: “It is not merely a dialogue between two masters of haute couture, but a return to an origin that is profoundly human and formative.
“Christian Dior and Azzedine Alaia developed a shared language founded on inner discipline and respect for form, a language that has inspired, continues to inspire and will keep inspiring generations.”
The book was released on April 21. (Published by and courtesy of Damiani Books)
Other insights are offered by the likes of Olivier Saillard, the French fashion historian and director of the Azzedine Alaia Foundation, as well as Olivier Flaviano, who has directed La Galerie Dior since its inauguration in 2022, and several others.
This includes 70 immaculately styled textile works, archived from the 1950s and preserved at the Alaia Foundation.
The story starts in Tunisia, as a young Alaia (1935-2017) first discovered the creations of Dior (1905-1957) while flipping through French fashion magazines supplied by Madame Pinault, the local midwife who had taken him under her wing.
A son of wheat farmers, Alaia was sent to be raised by his grandparents alongside his twin sister, Hafida. At 15, Alaia lied about his age to be trained as a sculptor at the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts.
He paid his tuition fees by assisting a seamstress who sold reproductions of designs by great Parisian couturiers to wealthy Tunisian customers.
Encouraged by Habiba Menchari, a figure of women’s emancipation in Tunisia, he approached Madame Zeineb Levy-Despas, a client of the House of Dior, then under the helm of Yves Saint Lauren, who arranged a four-day intensive internship for him at Maison Dior.
In June 1956, 21-year-old, Alaia arrived at the 51-year-old Christian Dior’s workshop on Rue Francois 1er, located in the heart of the Golden Triangle district, renowned as the epicenter of Parisian luxury.
While three decades separated them in years, their aesthetic and silhouettes had some similarities, accentuated by their timeless taste.
They were both private men transfixed on intricate and opulent craftsmanship and letting their wearable works of art speak for themselves. They had a taste for texture and clever construction and artful architecture that was simultaneously soft and strong.
That brief, yet seminal experience — and the decades of collecting Dior masterpieces — resulted in large part in this exhibition.
While the exhibition at the Azzedine Alaia Foundation in Paris ends on June 21, nearly 70 years since his internship, the visuals and intricate masterpieces featured within the book will last a lifetime.
