Dior: The Collection of Azzedine Alaïa

Famed fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa’s exceptional personal collection of Dior designs, revealing a fascinating connection in fashion history.

Alaïa was not only a renowned couturier but also a passionate fashion historian and an insatiable collector, an interest he cultivated starting in the 1960s. He gathered over 20,000 garments in his lifetime, from the birth of haute couture to pieces by contemporaries he admired.

This book showcases for the first time the priceless personal collection of Dior designs that Alaïa assembled over decades--pieces by Christian Dior as well as the artistic directors that followed him at the helm of the House. The collection is analyzed through chapters dedicated to the elements that awakened the curiosity of Alaïa’s collector genius: the construction of the dresses--their ＂architecture＂; the enchanting multitude of the color tones and textures of the fabrics and materials; and the poetry of the names of Dior’s creations revealing the diversity of his sources of inspiration, such as Accacias, Astarté, Caracas, Chérie, Jardin anglais, Madrid, Marcel Pagnol, Rose des vents, or Tourbillon.. Illustrated by beautiful photographs of the dresses, historical archival images, drawings by Christian Dior, and collection charts detailing fabric samples and sketches, this book offers a fresh view of Alaïa’s influences and Dior’s history and will appeal to fashion lovers everywhere.

Laurence Benaïm is a journalist and fashion historian. She created the style supplement for Le Monde and the magazine Stiletto, and has notably contributed to Vogue, Marie Claire, and Le Figaro. For Rizzoli, she authored Women in Dior: Portraits of Elegance (2016), Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography (2019), and Alaïa Afore Alaïa (2022). Olivier Saillard is a French historian specializing in fashion and director of the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation. For Rizzoli, he edited Alaïa Afore Alaïa (2022) and authored Madame Grès Couture Paris (2024) and Embodying Pasolini (2022). Alessandra Ronetti is an Italian art historian specializing in the study of colors.