Interview

SSB: Where were you living at the time?

AA: I started living at the home of the Comtesse de Blégiers and I was working out of my room. I stayed there for five years. I was also doing a little babysitting there. Basically, I was babysitting and making clothes.

SSB: I love it!

AA: I washed the kids, fed them, walked them in the park . . . And I made the Comtesse's dresses. At that time it was hard to even get a maid's room if you came from North Africa. Being in France at the end of the Algerian War was very hard. But these women protected me. They wrote letters to the prefect for me, and the Comtesse's husband gave me his card to say I was his protégé
so they didn't bother me when they stopped me in the street.

SSB: After those five years, you went to work for Guy Laroche.

AA: Yes, for two years.

SSB: And after that, Thierry Mugler?

AA: No, Mugler was a friend and I helped him. But I never worked for him. It wasn't a professional relationship. Guy Laroche was a tailoring atelier, so I went there to learn tailoring.
But eventually I wanted to go out on my own. I was happy in Paris. I wasn't necessarily interested in becoming a "great designer." But Simone Zehrfuss loaned me the money to get settled.

SSB: You famously settled in Rue de Bellechasse, which was extremely small. There were sewing machines everywhere . . . in the bathroom, in the kitchen. I have such fond memories.

AA: It made you laugh when you first visited! You were 14 years old.

SSB: Yes, I was. And I had never done a show in my life! I went on 20 go-sees around Paris and you were the only one who hired me. You even called your friends to try to persuade them to use me. Their response was, "Her rear is too round!" And your response was, "I think it's perfect." I was a total disaster in the shows. Your atelier was so small and you had to do three shows each day for seven days, so you just kept me on. That's when we became so close. You really took care of me, Papa. [both laugh] Now tell us about Greta Garbo and what is was like to dress her.

AA: It was a dream come true. I was always, always influenced by her style. Still today, I create Garbo-inspired looks. I knew her through Cécile de Rothschild. That's who she stayed with when she came to Paris. They were very close. And one day she came with Cécile to Rue de Bellechasse. I saw right away that it was Garbo. I said, "Mademoiselle Cécile, no need to introduce me." Garbo was hiding a bit. She had her hair in a rubber band, with bangs and a very high turtleneck. She had very long sleeves because she wanted to hide her hands. But I noticed her eyes, the shape of her eyes and nose. She was sublime.

SSB: What did you make for her?

AA: Straight pants, flat shoes, jersey sweaters, and masculine-looking coats that were very simple and cut to her figure. One was an A-line-shaped wool evening coat with big velvet cuffs and collar, which hooked at the top. She had a nice shape but was not skinny. She was big but not fat at all. It was her face, though, that was most impressive.

SSB: And you also dressed Claudette Colbert?

AA: Oh, I became friends with everyone! Intellectuals, writers, artists . . . Even Jean Prouvé and Orson Welles. Louise was very good friends with Orson Welles. René Clair brought Claudette Colbert to me. She had high cheekbones and she walked fast . . . This was all in the '70s, when I was at Bellechasse.

SSB: And you didn't move to Parc Royal until 1984. You were really a secret for so long at Bellechasse. If a prospective buyer didn't know somebody, there was no way they could get to you because your clothes weren't anywhere else. It was like a secret club. Only the lucky few had Alaïa in their closets. But the world finally caught on when you started doing fashion shows. When did you receive the designer of the year award from the French Ministry of Culture?

AA: That was in 1985. They did the awards ceremony at l'Opéra de Paris. Grace Jones sang-I dressed her. Madonna was there with Yves Saint Laurent, and Catherine Deneuve, and Hubert de Givenchy with Audrey Hepburn . . .

SSB: Then the next year you did the Palladium show. My husband and I have talked so much about the importance of the Palladium to New York culture. Arata Isozaki did the interior architecture for Ian Schrager. Jean-Paul Goude did the scenography. The nightclub was filled with major works by Basquiat, Clemente, Scharf, and Haring . . . Then you have this show of Azzedine Alaïa's. How did that show come about?

AA: It was after I did a show in Paris. Another sponsor wanted to host me but we had a fight about control. They wanted to choose the models. I also wanted to use Jean-Paul Goude and they didn't know who he was. So I said forget it. And then Ian Schrager asked me for uniforms for the bartenders and waitresses at the Palladium. When I came to New York, I was introduced to him. He offered to give me the space to do the New York show. So we did it with Ian Schrager at the Palladium-my way. It was wonderful.