Alaïa Fragrances Rediscovered

Inspired by my fellow bloggers, I also undertook a fragrance collection edit earlier this year. What I still loved and should keep, what I liked but could go. In the process, I came across three Alaïa fragrances, which I remember enjoying very much when they were launched last decade. How do I feel about them now? More about that below, but first a quick look at the designer Azzedine Alaïa and his significance.

ABOUT AZZEDINE ALAÏA

Azzedine Alaïa came to prominence in the 1980s. His designs were very much in tune with the aesthetic of the decade. But he made it his own with the immaculate tailoring, clingy silhouettes and sculptural forms that he’d honed over the decades since his move from his country of birth, Tunisia, to Paris in 1956.

A self-confessed perfectionist – “Perfection is never achieved, so you need to go on working,” he said – he made a name for himself as a haute couturier at a time when the art was increasingly confined to houses with clients with deep pockets.

Alaïa did many things unconventionally during his career, from being self-taught to refusing to show collections according to fashion week dictates. So his late entry into the fragrance business in 2015, with Alaïa EDP and then Alaïa EDP Blanche in 2016 and Alaïa EDP Nude in 2017, should come as no surprise. An extrait version of Alaïa was also launched in 2015 – alas, I haven’t tried that one.

What happens when the founder of a house dies? If you’re Giorgio Armani, Thierry Mugler and Karl Lagerfeld, among others, the fragrance side of the business continues. But when Alaïa died in 2017 at the age of 82, that was the end of the fragrance foray. Until recently, Alaïa fashion was under the direction of Belgian designer Pieter Mulier. And I must admire that sense of finality for the perfumes.

Read The Guardian obituary for more on the man, who is hailed as one of the great designers of the 20^th century.

ALAÏA MOMENTS

* Upon his arrival in Paris, he was employed in the workshops of Christian Dior for all of five days. He was fired for not having the correct paperwork. When John Galliano was dismissed from Dior in 2011, Alaïa refused the top job of creative director, knowing it would trap him in an endless cycle of fashion shows.

* In a perfect pop culture moment, in the 1995 film Clueless, the character Cher Horowitz (played by Alicia Silverstone) exclaims, “You don’t understand, this is an Alaïa!”, when she’s forced to lie on the ground by a mugger.

* Alaïa was an obsessive collector of the works of other couturiers, including more than 500 pieces by Christian Dior. These archives are remarkable histories of fashion and have gone on to become exhibitions in their own right, such as the recent Azzedine Alaïa’s Dior Collection in Paris.

* When Naomi Campbell arrived in Paris at the age of 16, he gave her a home but insisted she obey his strict rules, including not going to nightclubs. In an interview with The Independent, the supermodel said: “I call him ‘Papa’ and we really do have a father-daughter relationship. When he’s pissed off with me, he picks up the phone and calls my mother.”

ALAÏA FRAGRANCES

All Alaïa fragrances were created by Marie Salamagne. And although they don’t have the hype of her other creations, including Guerlain Allegoria Mandarine Basilic EDT (2007), Maison Martin Margiela By The Fireplace EDT (2015), Atelier des Ors Lune Feline EDP (2015) and Gucci Flora Gorgeous Orchid EDP (2024), no doubt they played their part in her recently being recognised as a master perfumer by dsm-firmenich.

The bottles designed by Martin Szekely deserve a mention too. Minimalist but rich in meaning, the gold cap represents a golden spool of thread and the patterns on the bottles (also on the perfume boxes) are a nod to Tunisian geometry and the cut-outs Azzedine Alaïa became famous for.

ALAÏA EDP

Fragrance nerd fact: the debut fragrance from the Paris-based luxury fashion brand was awarded the top five stars in the most recent edition of the prestigious Perfumes: The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.

A contrast between cold and warm notes, the Tunisian-born designer wanted it to feel like a second skin. And that’s exactly what perfumer Marie Salamagne achieved with it.

The fresh and airy opening progresses to a floral heart with nuances of peony, freesia and rose, while leather and white musk define the drydown.

It’s an impeccably smooth, high-quality leather scent, with none of the aggressiveness that pervades the genre.

ALAÏA EDP BLANCHE

Vanilla has been over done for several years now, but this is how I love it: serene and soothing, even when it’s sweet and the main component of a scent. While memories of Tunisia inspired Alaïa EDP and Alaïa EDP Nude, Alaïa EDP Blanche was inspired by the designer’s visit to the Alhambra fortress and palace in Granada, Spain.

I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this unique example of medieval Islamic architecture myself. But from reading about it and marvelling over the pics online, I get a strong sense of how Marie Salamagne interpreted the welcoming coolness of the fountains and pools with notes of almond, heliotropin and vanilla absolute.

ALAÏA EDP NUDE

There’s no place for tacky in the world of Azzedine Alaïa, so “nude” here is all about the sensuality of skin, with a large dose of the synthetic Cashmeran creating a suitably warm musky ambience.  Cedarwood adds to the softness.

The skin-like mood continues with orange blossom pushed in a slightly animalic direction, with just the right amount of sweetness from tonka bean in the drydown.

If leather in Alaïa EDP is black and often cool, here it is fleshed out with the warmth of human touch.