Carla Sozzani on Azzedine Alaïa’s Flourishing Afterlife—And New Store—In London

Inside Alaïa's New London Store

Five months after his shockingly sudden passing, the great couturier Azzedine Alaïa’s reputation is a living legacy that continues to flourish and grow.

On May 10 in London, the Design Museum will open a major exhibition, which was cocurated by Alaïa himself, that is dedicated to contextualizing his unique and much-loved work. And before that, another of Alaïa’s final projects will be revealed at a party hosted by Naomi Campbell and thronged with many of the lifelong friends who became the designer’s extended family.

Plans for Alaïa’s first-ever London store—his only stand-alone maison outside Paris—have been under way since 2016: The designer last visited the sprawling 6,000-foot space at 139 Bond Street in October 2017. According to Carla Sozzani, a close friend and cochair of the foundation dedicated to safeguarding and promoting his legacy, Alaïa envisaged the space as a “source of light and reflection.”

“Azzedine had wanted to have a store in London for a long time,” said Sozzani via phone from Paris this week. “And a friend of mine had just bought this place, the building that for many years was the home of jeweler S J Phillips. Azzedine loved the history of the building and loved the location just opposite Sotheby’s.”

Such friend-led moments of serendipity were very much a feature of Alaïa’s profoundly social professional life. And the store, just like Alaïa’s life, is stamped with the imprint of his friends—as well as other artists, designers, and architects he admired.

An extraordinary twisting staircase, running through all three floors and allowing light to permeate up and down the space, was designed by Kris Ruhs, a friend of Alaïa’s since the ’90s. Ruhs also contributed an extraordinary cascade of lights that runs from the top floor down to the ground. This complements the boldly sculptural lighting design of Marc Newson, another longtime Alaïa collaborator and compadre.

Even the shelving and furniture were selected or commissioned by Alaïa and Sozzani to conduct light. Variously contributed by Renzo Piano, Naoto Fukasawa, Shiro Kuramata, Piero Lissoni, and Tokujin Yoshioka, these pieces not only contribute to the lambent spirit of the space—“It has so many windows!” noted Sozzani—but also allow the work of Alaïa himself to seize the eye. The selection will run from classic Alaïa couture on the top floor to accessories and ready-to-wear below, and include plenty of London-appropriate raincoats, some produced specifically for this store.

Of all the non-Alaïa pieces in the collection catalog that furnishes the shop, only two stray from the theme of transparency, light, and reflection. One is an abstractedly patterned carpet designed by the great Milanese architect Gio Ponti, and the other is a moodily atmospheric painting of Hamburg, Germany, by night. That is by Christophe von Weyhe, Alaïa’s longtime partner in both business and life.

So tonight London will be lucky enough to take its first proper look at Alaïa’s new store. Will the U.S. ever be as similarly fortunate? Said Sozzani: “Azzedine wanted New York—he loved to go there—and L.A., as his first shop on Rodeo Drive opened there in 1983.” There are no firm plans yet, however. But as Alaïa’s posthumous reputation continues to soar under the stewardship of so many dedicated torchbearers, an Alaïa maison on the U.S. side of the Atlantic would certainly make a fine and fitting further tribute to this much-loved designer, artist, and friend.