REAL Exclusive Magazine

ALAÏA PARIS Available At Saks through August 2016.

After a celebrated career spanning more than three decades, renowned Parisian couturier Azzedine Alaïa debuts his first fragrance for women. Eponymously titled ALAÏA PARIS, it is available exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue stores and on saks.com through August 2016.

As is his custom, Alaïa meticulously and personally oversaw each detail, working closely with a team of experts including longtime friend and collaborator Carla Sozzani, perfumer Marie Salamagne, photographer Paolo Roversi, bottle designer Martin Szekely and model Guinevere Van Seenus.

“It is an honor that Azzedine Alaïa will be launching his first fragrance at Saks Fifth Avenue this August,” said Kate Oldham, Senior

Vice President, Beauty, Saks Fifth Avenue. “Mr. Alaia’s exciting new scent will be offered exclusively to Saks customers and we are delighted to be adding it to our portfolio of exceptional fragrance offerings.”

The Scent:

Resolutely modern, the olfactory construction of the fragrance defines itself by its freshness. “It is not a parfum, but an eau de parfum,” says the designer. “Besides, to perfume oneself is like to refresh oneself, it’s a very usual gesture, complementary to that of the toilette.”

Marie Salamagne, one of a new generation of perfumers, undertook Mr. Alaia’s challenge to create an accord that echoed the sensation of cold water falling on hot chalk, a memory of the designer’s childhood in Tunisia. “Very quickly,” she says, “I came up with a formula that evoked this feeling: they were fresh, aquatic mineral notes. Then, I added an animal note by surrounding it with musk.” The final pyramid includes airy notes of pink pepper, floral accords of freesia and peony, and animalic notes combined with musk to create the impression of bare skin.

The Bottle:

Conceived by designer Martin Szekely, the bottle, formed of heavy and precious translucent black glass, is adorned front and back with the famous Alaïa laser-cut pattern, an emblematic pattern which first appeared on the leather corset in the 1990s. The cap, in contrast to the bottle, is homage to Alaïa’s craftsmanship—a spool of golden thread, made of zamak and pink gold. The outer packaging, delicately framed with black, is finished in Alaïa nude, an intense pinky-beige that is one of the creator’s favorite colors.

The Visual Campaign:

For the visual, Azzedine Alaïa selected the so-called “houpette” dress from the 1994 spring-summer collection of his mythical dresses.

This long and sinuous dress with horizontal black bands draws the contours of the hips, revealing the slenderness of the waist and transforming Guinevere Van Seenus, Alaia’s hand-picked model, into a fatal goddess. The image is realized by the astonishing talent of photographer Paolo Roversi, one of the major fashion photographers of his time.