photography by txema yeste for virgine issue 01.
azzedine alaïa was interviewed by eric waroll for virginie magazine. you can read the full interview here. excerpts below. love him! so rare for someone in the industry to speak his mind. (well on the record anyway!)
talking about dior, what do you think of the galliano case?i don't know enough about it really, but it's sad. as i said many times, the fashion world, its system, can be disturbing. the system imposed galliano, and others, to make four collections for him, four collections for the house, four for me, and four for women. when you have one idea per year, it's already a miracle! now, it has become crafty fiddling at a breakneck pace. that's not the essence of fashion. how can you really be creative under these circumstances? for the young designers it's very hard, and for the more mature, they drink more, take more drugs...what i am saying is that the system is not right. we have to see the work from another angle. the system is too stressful: too many collections, too much pressure. as in other fields, if you want to do a good creative job, it takes time. what's the point? i'm working 24 hours a day. i have had a house in tunisia for 20 years, and i never have time to go because there are collections, fittings....
how do you feel about karl lagerfeld?i don't like his fashion, his spirit, his attitude. it's too much caricature. karl lagerfeld never touched a pair of scissors in his life. that doesn't mean that he's not great, but he's part of another system. he has capacity. one day he does photography, the next he does advertisements for coca-cola. i would rather die than see my face in a car advertisement. we don't do the same work. and i think that he is not doing a favor to young stylists who might think it works that way. they're going to fall before they retire.
you have some problems with anna wintour?i said it before. she runs the business ( vogue) very well, but no the fashion part. when is see how she is dressed, i don't believe in her tastes one second. i can say it loudly! she hasn't photographed my work in years even if a am a best seller in the u.s. and i have 140 square meters at barneys. american women love me; i don't need her support at all. anna wintour doesn't deal with pictures; she is just doing pr and business, and she scares everybody. but when she sees me, she is the scared one [laughs]. other people think like me, but don't say it because they are afraid that vogue won't photograph them. anyway, who will remember anna wintour in the history of fashion? no one. take diana vreeland, she is remembered because she was so chic. what she did with the magazine was great, with avedon and all the great photographers. vogue remains while its fashion editors come and go.