The little master

Couture's rebellious outsider Azzedine Alaïa and the exhibition he helped create before his death last year.

There have been numerous tributes to Paris-based designer Azzedine Alaïa since his death last November, but none as pertinent as Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier at London's Design Museum. Conceived and co-curated by the Tunisian-born master of the cloth, the first exhibition to be shown in the UK on the renowned designer spans his career from the early 1980s to his final works in 2017, and includes many of his greatest hits – the bandage dress, the zipped dress, the corset belt and the stretch body. His dresses have embraced the bodies of the world's most seductive and successful women, and the name Alaïa was always synonymous with high glamour, sensuality, style, cut, self-confidence and independence.