This documentary available on the site of Arte tells how this son of farmers born in Tunis has conquered the world of fashion with obstinacy, storing by his sense of perfection.
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“We are numerous to have tried to make a documentary on him and we all broke the teeth. He opposed a systematic refusal. Azzedine Alaïa had a secret side, a bit wizarding, I think he did not want Not that we come to search his business, “Lance Olivier Nicklaus. The director signs a brilliant opus devoted to the dead couturier in 2017, with the approval of the Alaïa Foundation.
The documentary returns to the sources. In Tunis, where was born that son of farmers who learn in fashion under the influence of Mrs. Pineau, the French midwife who put it in the world, fervent reader of Vogue. And in the United States, where his talent will first be recognized.
Rare archives
The film is full of rare archives, like its first parades, filmed by American journalists. Alaïa never liked the Grand-Masses: In the 1980s, he presents his collections in complete privacy, with only music the parquet that creaks to the pace of the pitch of mannequins. “Alaïa, it’s first and foremost work,” insists Olivier Nicklaus.
The camera shows it at the task, turning around the models, cutting the material to the body. Meticulous, passionate, solitary. An artist who could spend whole years on the same jacket, to do and redo, until finger perfection. This total refusal of the compromise could play tricks.
The documentary does not make the impasse on its less pushed periods, far from the media. All voiceless voice, leaving room for that of Azzedine Alaïa and silences. “I wanted it to be his story as much as possible. And then I love his voice, who seems to join the melodies of Oum Kalthoum that he listened to his workshop”, concludes Olivier Nicklaus.