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"  Representing our 1992 Flashback is a spring spotlight on Tunisian-born, Paris-based designer Azzedine Ala\u00EFa. Photographed by Gilles Bensimon and styled by former ELLE Fashion-Editor-at-Large Melka Treanton, the 10-page spread was shot entirely in the designer&amp;#039;s atelier in the Marais district. Also among the pages is an interview with the then 51-year-old designer, where he delights in the space-age fabric he used for his Spring `92 collection (he calls the NASA-developed material &amp;quot;Relax&amp;quot; for its purported ability to act as a screen against microwave emissions) and shares credit for those shoes, &amp;quot;a collaboration,&amp;quot; he reminds, with shoe designer Beth Levine and shoemaker Raymond Massaro. Probably one of the only designers who can claim to have dressed both a First Lady and Grace Jones (did anyone else catch A View to a Kill on G4 yesterday? Jones&amp;#039; wardrobe was almost exclusively his), those loyal to the designer&amp;#039;s creations are a veritable who&amp;#039;s who of every industry&amp;#039;s best-dressed. From Madonna to Victoria Beckham to Katie Holmes\u2014who last October wore a stunning, head-to-toe Ala\u00EFa look at our Women in Hollywood Awards\u2014Ala\u00EFa dresses the elegant, the edgy, and as he has for decades, The Supermodel. Though extraordinarily pricey (cardigans run around $1,400; dresses between $2,500 and $3,500), and not widely shown during Fashion Week, Ala\u00EFa designs consistently sell very well at the select international retailers that carry the line.  To wit: Back in March, on a day I was in need of looking at something pretty, I came upon a Victorian-inspired swing-skirt showpiece overcoat by the designer at Bergdorf Goodman. Artfully structured, simply-lined, available in both bone and black (I was looking at the latter), this was a coat on which I would&amp;#039;ve bet my best pair of shoes no woman could say wasn&amp;#039;t her. Its dizzying $3,995 price-tag, however, was a different story. Just as I was returning coat to hanger to rack, a saleswoman approached me. &amp;quot;We just got those in yesterday\u2014all but two are spoken for,&amp;quot; she said in a kind but matter-of-fact way. &amp;quot;I would get it, dear. Ala\u00EFa pieces are very special.&amp;quot; And now, a look back at Azzedine Ala\u00EFa as he was 18 years ago, then already creating very special pieces for very special women, three of whom are featured alongside him here: Veronica Webb (then 27), Christy Turlington (then 23), and this afternoon&amp;#039;s highly anticipated Oprah interview subject, Naomi Campbell (then 21). \u2014Johanna Cox     "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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