The Future of Fashion, Part Nine: Azzedine Alaïa

In this ongoing series, Style.com’s editor in chief, Dirk Standen, talks to a number of leading industry figures about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the fashion business.

There was an extra buzz in the front row at the Comme des Garçons show this season. A star was in our midst, and not just some movie actor or singer. Azzedine Alaïa, the great Tunisian-born, Paris-based designer, had come to support his friend, Rei Kawakubo. Fresh off the triumphant collection he showed during Couture in July, the first presentation he had opened up to the world’s cameras in eight years, Alaïa is more than great. He’s unique. He is the only major designer to produce collections on his own timetable, devoting his time to his private clients as well as to a thriving ready-to-wear business. (Richemont is an investor.) A few days after the Comme des Garçons show, I went to Alaïa’s headquarters in the Marais, a sprawling converted warehouse that houses his boutique, his cluttered studio (where the TV is usually tuned to the National Geographic Channel), and his living quarters. The thing that strikes you first is his vitality. He has the most infectious, mischievous giggle in fashion.