Azzedine Alaïa (French: [azedin alaja]; Arabic: عز الدين عليّة, romanized: ʿIzz ad-Dīn ʿAlayya, pronounced [ʕizz adˈdiːn ʕaˈlajja]; 26 February 1935 – 18 November 2017) was a Tunisian couturier and shoe designer, particularly successful beginning in the 1980s.

His career skyrocketed when two of the most powerful fashion editors of the time, Melka Tréanton of Dépèche Mode and Nicole Crassat of French Elle, supported him in their editorials following that collection,[14][15][16] with both fashion writers and the public particularly embracing a pair of his grommeted black leather gauntlet gloves,[17][18] gloves being a particular love of the designer.

[21] Three years later, 10,000 fans vied for 1,500 tickets to his first US showing in the city at the recently opened Palladium,[22] for whom Alaïa had provided the wait staff's uniforms.

[27][28] Alaïa's designs were known for their very tight fit,[29][30] deft tailoring,[31][32][33] curve-accenting seaming,[34] leather work,[35][36] and inventive use of knits.

[37][38] The colors he favored tended to the somber, mostly neutrals and earthtones, his masterful cut and blatant body promotion carrying the impact.

[39] In his early years on his own, he favored the broad shoulders[40][41][42][43] that were part of the revival of 1940s styles begun on an industry-wide scale in 1978 and famously exaggerated by his friends Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana.

[48] He was very influential during the 1980s,[49][50] with many designers copying his voluptuous silhouette,[51][52] particularly his brilliantly executed undulating peplums of 1985,[53][54] an almost direct lift from styles shown in 1935 by Alix, who had in turn been interpreting traditional Balinese ceremonial dress.

[59] Devotees included both fashion-inclined celebrities and fashionistas: Grace Jones (wearing several of his creations in A View to a Kill),[60] Tina Turner,[7] Raquel Welch,[7] Madonna,[61] Janet Jackson,[62] Brigitte Nielsen,[63] Naomi Campbell,[9] Stephanie Seymour, Tatiana Sorokko, Shakira, Franca Sozzani, Isabelle Aubin, Carine Roitfeld, and Carla Sozzani.

He was part of a cohort of designers who began in 1978 to revive the revealing, man-focused styles of the 1940s and 1950s,[66][67][68] after a period during the late 1960s and '70s when women's clothes had become less constricting, less focused on flirtatious coquetry, more natural, comfortable, and practical.

[69][70][71] Some saw the tight skirts, molded busts, cinched waists, and ultra-high heels of Mugler, Montana, Alaïa, and a number of others as regressive,[72][73][74][75] a mockery of women's recently won liberation from male dictates.

[85] During the mid-1990s, following the death of his sister, Alaïa virtually vanished from the fashion scene; however, he continued to cater to a private clientele and enjoyed commercial success with his ready-to-wear lines.

[2] In 1996 he participated at the Biennale della Moda in Florence, where along with paintings by longtime friend Julian Schnabel, he exhibited an outstanding dress created for the event.

Catherine Lardeur, the former editor-in-chief of French Marie Claire in the 1980s, who also helped to launch Jean-Paul Gaultier's career, stated in an interview to Crowd Magazine that "Fashion is dead.

In the United States, his clothes are available at Barneys New York alongside Lanvin, Balenciaga, and Dolce & Gabbana, and his shoes are sold at Bergdorf Goodman.

Carine Roitfeld was photographed during February 2007 Fashion Week in one of his coats, with The New York Times declaring that she was the only woman at any of the fall 2007 shows who "looked like the future."

Silverstone's character, mugged at gunpoint in the film, protests kneeling in a parking lot in a famously clingy dress by the "totally important designer" by exclaiming, "This is an Alaïa!

On 27 November 2012, she wore an Alaïa black and white pleated dress while attending a luncheon for her film Rust and Bone at Brasserie Ruhlmann in New York City.

[96] The First Lady wore a formal black knit sleeveless dress with a ruffled skirt designed by Alaïa to the NATO dinner with heads of state in Strasbourg, France, on 3 April 2009.

[103] His creations have also been worn by Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Victoria Beckham, Kim Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Solange Knowles, Behati Prinsloo and more.

[citation needed] During an interview with The Ground Social & Magazine (formerly known as Virgine), Alaïa criticised both Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld.