Contrary to what people may think, the best collectors with the most jaw-dropping fashion finds are not show ponies or materialistic braggarts. Instead, as stylist and consultant Alexandra Carl found out in putting together her new book Collecting Fashion: Nostalgia, Passion, Obsession, the pulse-racing thrill can be entirely for their own pleasure. Oftentimes, the collection is not even intended to be seen.
Like Azzedine Alaïa’s. “He collected 22,000-plus couture pieces. He’s probably the biggest private collector, existing,” she says, with pieces from his archive included in the book, out this month. But it’s hard to know – especially when people like Alaïa don’t always advertise their treasures,
