Loris Azzaro

Loris Azzaro was a French fashion designer.

Loris Azzaro was born of Italian parents in Tunisia in 1933 and later his family moved to France. He studied political science in Toulouse before travelling to Paris.

He started own label in Paris in 1962. He began making very successful dresses right from the beginning.

By 1968 his business was a huge success. He was well known for making glamorous party dresses for the elite of French society.

Azzaro's collections are always named alphabetically by season. The first season's collection featured clothing all given names starting with an A, the next with B names and so on. Azzaro admitted that he would sometimes skip a letter like Q, X or Z because it was too hard to find names for those letters.

Azzaro released a wide range of products including women's and men's clothing lines and accessories as well as a wide range of successful fragrances. In 1975 he created his first fragrance for women, 'Couture', which became his signature scent. Over time Azzaro became known for his fragrances as much as his clothing.

Azzaro's gowns are imaginative and sexy, and are still very much appreciated even though some of them are more than 30 years old now, and are available on a vintage basis.

Recently, there was an exhibition of his garments in the United States, which you can see at the website www.decadesinc.com

Loris Azzaro was hard at work on his collections, when he died in November 2003 at the age of 70. His daughter Beatrice is carrying on management of his company. He will be sorely missed.

The new designer appointed at Azzaro is Argentinian Vanessa Seward (born 1972) who was earlier with Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel for 9 years, and two years with YSL Rive Gauche under Tom Ford. She adores the clothes which Loris Azzaro has been designing all these years, and will carry on his legacy.

In August 2004, Vanessa held a party at Harvey Nichols in London, to introduce her Autumn/Winter 2004 collection for the house of Azzaro. Many celebrities attended and ladies of London interested in Azzaro's stunning designs.