Tunisia joins global celebs in mourning Azzedine Alaia
PARIS: Fashion and entertainment celebrities from around the world are mourning the death of Tunisianborn designer Azzedine Alaia.
Fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham said on Twitter that it was a sad day and called Alaia “a true master” and one of her biggest inspirations.
Singer Rihanna posted an online photo of her and the famed designer, saying “you will live on forever.”
Indian actress Sonam Kapoor said she was “deeply saddened” by the news and thanked Alaia for “always empowering women and embracing diversity.”
Alaia was known as a fashion iconoclast whose clingy styles helped define the 1980s and who dressed famous women from Hollywood to the White House.
The French Haute Couture Federation announced Alaia’s death Saturday without providing details. He was 77.
As a rare Tunisian with global name recognition, Alaia’s death prompted collective grief in his native Tunisia on Saturday, with tributes pouring in from the business and culture worlds and the government.
The Tunisian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Alaia was born in the medina, or old town, of the capital Tunis in 1942, and developed a passion for fashion thanks to his sister Hafidha. It said he had expressed a wish to be buried in Tunisia. His house’s website described him as “the little man in eternal Chinese pajamas” who “built a legend, that of a rebel designer who worked against the system and its trends.”