AS far as fashion fairytales go, this one is unique and special. It all started with the engagement of Sultan and Deena way back when. This love story needed the right dress from the very beginning. Only one couturier had the approach, the talent, and the way with fabric to capture the special moment. That person was none other than Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa, famed for his ability to transform swathes of fabric into art that respects each curve of the individual wearing the garment. While there are endless column inches celebrating the late Azzedine, there is no substitute for being his customer and friend, who sat at his table for hours on end. With shared plates of food, candles, and characters decorating the kitchen of his atelier and home, food was inextricably linked to the culture he commanded at his fashion house. He could turn clients away for not sensing the right connection with the person. For some designers, it’s not about the money… For Azzedine, making a garment for someone was so personal that you had to become woven into his world. Here, for the very first time, Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz goes on the record to tell the story of how this man not only made her wedding dress, and many more looks that are lovingly worn today, but how he opened her eyes to style and substance, igniting a feverish love of fashion that will never end.

Deena: Let me start from the very beginning on how I first met Azzedine Alaïa. It goes something like this. I owned a copy of a magazine called Top Model, it was published by Elle. In this particular issue it was talking about Stephanie Seymour’s wedding and there were many pictures of her bachelorette party, and her fellow model bridesmaids, and in addition to that there were many pictures of her wedding dress and of Azzedine. While I was vaguely aware of Azzedine Alaïa in the ’80s and early ’90s,  the photo spread lingered in my mind. I thought it was really chic and amazing, I particularly recall Seymour’s veil… it looked Medieval and Muslim. It’s something that struck me to my core. Almost a year later, I was engaged and I was on a shopping trip in Paris for my formal engagement dress. My mother had selected a look by Christian Lacroix for me to wear for my engagement party. Lacriox was an especially popular designer with Saudis at the time, and while I have huge respect for Lacroix, it was too Marie Antoinette for me at the time. I was predictable and not totally cool for that point in time. I was younger and she is my mum, so I was happy for her to pick what I wore for the party, but I did not listen to her when it came to my wedding dress. I went out on a limb and said I wanted to see Alaïa. Determination took me over.

It was an interesting time to choose him as my top choice designer for my wedding dress because in 1996 Alaïa was not the King of Cling… it was a dormant period of time, that might be an unfair assessment, but that was prior to Prada purchasing the company, and prior to Richemont purchasing it from Prada, as the fashion history books go.

Galliano

I did have a meeting with John Galliano who was fresh in to Dior that exact season, having moved from Givenchy. He hadn’t yet presented his debut Dior collection. I met him on the set of his own label show, Circus, in Paris. A little anecdote about John; he was still a pirate, meaning, he had a bandana on his head and dressed accordingly. John was lovely and asked my mother and I for permission to smoke. He was so humble, so adorable, and very sweet. He sat down on the floor near us and smoked while we talked together. He made some sketches for me that I still own. It was just not the direction I had requested because I knew what I wanted even though I was 21. I thought of myself as an adult at the time but I really wasn’t. The fashion world made me star-struck at the time, how a person might feel in the world of celebrity. That was my jackpot - where I was in awe of the greats within it. 

A side note about another great – Azzedine had a sense of generosity, he offered up his studio space for Vivienne Westwood’s first collection. While he was a total snob at the craft of making clothes, he was absolutely humble in everything else… the kindest person to be found in fashion.

The First Meeting 

I will never forget it. It was a dark December day. Paris was rainy. I remember it being cold, cloudy and grey - it almost felt like London in Paris that day! My family and I got to the Atelier Rue de Moussy in the Marais (at that point in time I didn’t know Paris like I do now, so this was an unusual part of town for me. I didn’t know it.) We entered and it was very silent there. It was the opposite of going to the Lacroix studio, which was situated opposite to the Bristol Hotel at the time. Everything about Azzedine’s atelier was different to everywhere else I had been. It was the home of an enduring spirit of fashion contradictions: humble but proud, warm but cutting, a space of perfectionism and sweet laughter.