Azzedine Alaia. Getty Images

Azzedine Alaia will open a flagship store in the heart of the French luxury retail world — ie Avenue Montaigne — next spring, the designer revealed recently with a certain amount of glee. Actually, it’s not exactly a flagship — it’s a five-floor hotel particulier with an interior courtyard/garden that will function as store/showroom/some offices — and it’s not exactly on Avenue Montaigne (it’s on the Rue de Marignan, off Avenue Montaigne past the corner where L’Avenue, the LVMH quasi-house canteen, sits). But it’s a big move for the designer who has preserved his independence from the fashion system partly by preserving his distance: resolutely remaining in his atelier/headquarters/apartment in the 4th arrondissement, and having the world come to him, on his terms. Read more