Whether you perceive the sand pouring through the hourglass as fast or slow, the subject of time is one that has come to the fore during this pandemic, which has put “normal” life on hold. Time was the topic of a series of interactions organized by Azzedine Alaïa with his creative friends. These conversations have now been collected in a new book, Taking Time, organized by the designer’s “steering partner,” the art critic and curator Donatien Grau, and published by Rizzoli.
“In fashion, we’ve barely finished a collection before we’re moving on to another and then another. We must continuously dream up new ideas. I don’t think ideas are so easy to come by. When I capture a good idea, I hang on to it and work it out.”
— Azzedine Alaïa
The book is a rare invitation into Alaïa’s inner circle. “I think it gives a glimpse into his world and his extraordinary, extraordinary vision and personality,” notes Grau. “Azzedine could have had somebody write his biography, as Chanel did. He could have written his own autobiography as Christian Dior did, or Elsa Schiaparelli, but what he did [instead] was to propose a sort of self-portrait with his friends. He was representing himself—because he intervenes in every conversation—with his community. This notion of generosity is especially poignant today.”
Alaïa was devoted to fashion history, but this is no Proustian exercise on his part or on that of the cross-generational participants, Charlotte Rampling, Jony Ive, and Julian Schnabel, among them. The designer, says Grau, spoke to him of “the need for younger generations to find their pace and their space within the pressure of the [fashion] industry and of accelerated times.”
Here we invite you to take a moment to consider five takeaways from the book, offered by Grau.
Set your pace
The book was meant as a manifesto, but then because of Azzedine’s passing, it becomes a testament. One of the lessons of the book is not to say that everything has to be going only slowly, [but] to say that people need to be able to follow a more personal and also more creative pace than [is allowed by] the pressure that is imposed upon each of our lives—and that is definitely imposed upon fashion designers by the industry. It’s not saying that everything definitely needs to have always, in any situation, a slow place—even though it does need to have that pace quite often—but actually it is the manifesto for each and every one of us to be able to reflect and to be able to do things in a way that is fostering us rather than limiting us.
Be generous
The idea of everybody speaking, having a voice, [and the opportunity] just to think about their life and to share something is also something that is especially important today. Another thing that we should learn about these days is generosity. You know, taking care of other people, participating in this idea that you’re sharing things for other people, and that they are participating in something that belongs to them and belongs to you as well.
Work hard
Azzedine is somebody who worked enormously and consistently. When we think of him, it’s something always to remember that he only became “famous” when he was 45 or 46, which is very interesting as opposed to the current world when people get famous very, very young. Then they have to cope with that in a world that can be, at times, very challenging. For 25 years of this life before reaching celebrity in the 1980s, he worked quietly, ceaselessly, discreetly, and passionately. In a way his life ethics were based on skill, training, craftsmanship. He was so passionate about what he did that he would never stop because indeed his life was his work and his work was his life. For that reason, [there was not] pressure for a work-life balance. What he did was to embed within his own life moments of creative breaks. Each [of these] conversations was one such moment, a creative break.
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Don’t get boxed in
It was a very important thing for him to give the wake-up call that each of us can be creative across disciplines. You know, you can be an artist, you can be a filmmaker, you can be an actress, you can be a dancer, you can be a writer, you can be a cook. You can do whatever you want. There is no hierarchy of discipline, [but] there is a hierarchy of work and commitment to what you do, and this commitment doesn’t limit you, it actually gives you freedom. If you think like that then you start embedding everything within your own holistic life. If you do that, if you are so committed to what you’re doing, then everything starts to fall into balance. At the same time, it is fundamental not to yield to the pressure that is pushed and pressed upon you. What Azzedine wanted this book to be is quite ambitious, and at the same time quite a modest invitation, for each and every one of us to experience and push the freedom of our lives.
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Always look forward
Azzedine liked to say that he was a couturier, not a designer, and it’s a very interesting tension. I was reminded of that famous quote: “There will never be another Camelot.” He was always really wary of people saying that he was the last couturier. He would always say: “This is a ridiculous thing to say that I’m the last couturier. There are other people coming all the time and as long as people work for their craft, they will reach a point when they can, where they can be real couturiers. So I’m definitely not the last one; I don’t want to be the last one.” But it is true that the community he had around him, the work, seriousness, steadiness, and commitment to one’s life that was around him was, to my experience, absolutely unique.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.