Loris Azzaro (Memoire)

Abandoning a career as an academic, French designer Loris Azzaro arrived in Paris and opened his first shop in the 1960s. Perhaps best known for designing non-couture clothes for such stars as Raquel Welch and Sophia Loren, he also created signature perfumes. On the occasion of the house’s fifth anniversary, Assouline is pleased to present, Loris Azzaro, an illustrated retrospective of the iconic luxury brand. Azzaro was created in the image of its founder, Loris Azzaro, a Sicilian born in Tunisia, always tanned and sensual. Azzaro is the quintessential sun-infused brand of the Mediterranean. Fluid fabrics, vibrant and frank colors, Mediterranean blue, green, white are the timeless characteristics of Azzaro couture. From 1968 on, Loris Azzaro created flowing, sexy and glamorous customized gowns for evening parties and hobnobbing among the “happy few” of the planet, from the yacht bridge to the poolside of the jet-set. Seduction and glamor are an inherent part of the Azzaro image, resulting from a relationship to the body founded on freedom - the freedom of mind and body that marked the 1970s, a transgressive decade with no restrictions, where avant-garde fashion and photography celebrated bareness. Beyond fashion, Azzaro has, from its inception and continually to this day, incarnated a chic and jet-setting life style, synonymous with present-day luxury. This art of living gave birth to the powerful Azzaro brand expressed through a universal and assertive male dimension in fragrances and men’s ready-to-wear fashions and also through resplendent women’s fashions and eagerly expected scents.