Carla Sozzani – författare

This book, published to accompany the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation's current exhibition (running through June 29, 2025), explores their extraordinary friendship, creative collaborations, and lasting impact on the history of fashion. Azzedine Alaïa moved to Paris from Tunis in 1956 and quickly became the favorite couturier of the French high society like Louise de Vilmorin and many celebrities, including Greta Garbo and Claudette Colbert. In 1979, he crossed paths with Thierry Mugler, igniting a deep friendship and creative partnership that would go on to shape the fashion landscape of the 1980s. That same year, Mugler invited Alaïa to design a series of tuxedos for his autumnwinter collection, publicly acknowledging his contribution in the press kit. Mugler’s support proved crucial — he introduced Alaïa to key fashion figures and played a pivotal role in persuading him to present his first runway show in New York in 1982, even assisting with the event's organization. Together, their shared vision celebrated a powerful femininity, structured silhouettes, and Hollywood-inspired glamour, which marked a sharp contrast to the folkloric trends that had dominated the previous decade.

The visual dialogue between two maitre couturiers featuring the best creations of Azzedine Alaia and Christian Dior It was in Tunisia, when he was still a teenager, that the young Alaïa first discovered the creations of Christian Dior through fashion magazines made available to him by Madame Pinault. In 1956, on his arrival in Paris, he undertook a brief four-day internship with the great couturier, whom he had always admired. During this time, he immersed himself in the unique atmosphere of a fashion house, observed the work of the head of the atelier, and witnessed the creation of a collection... This seminal experience would be spoken of with emotion for many years to come.The book Azzedine Alaïa and Christian Dior: Two Masters of Couture offers a dialogue between Azzedine Alaïa's models and those that the couturier patiently collected from Christian Dior. It highlights concepts of style and creation that, despite being separated by several decades, respond to, unite or confront each other, bearing witness to a shared sensibility over time.

An iconic fashion photographer and pioneering cult hero of the 1990s fashion scene revisits his early black-and-white work on Pola Pan polaroid film in this exceptional fine art photography book.Borthwick is regarded as one of the most influential fashion photographers of our time, ranking among the generation who in the nineties broke through the conventions of fashion photography.Borthwick digs deep into his archive of early work shot on Pola Pan—a 35mm black-and-white instant Polaroid film. The young experimental photographer was elliptically charmed by this film, which taught him the fragility of time and unwittingly encouraged him to trust in the virtues of mistakes, shaping his gentle, romantic, and dreamy signature photographic aesthetic. The book features his documentation of the streets of Paris and New York in the 1980s and 1990s, including portraits of family and friends; early fashion work featuring iconic models such as Kate Moss, Carolyn Murphy, Kristen Owen, and Stella Tennant; collaborations with fashion designers such as Maria Cornejo, John Galliano, and his muses such as Chloe Sevigny, Kim Gordon, Jane Birkin, Marianne Faithfull, Michael Hutchinson, and Vanessa Paradis; and his iconic album covers for Sinéad O’Connor.This will be the first major book of Borthwick’s published in the last fifteen years. A groundbreaking fashion photographer, artist, and musician, this book will appeal to the legion of devoted fans of fashion, contemporary art, photography, and the alternative music scene.