Loris Azzaro

Loris Azzaro (February 9, 1933 - November 20, 2003), was a French fashion designer. He came to Paris to set up his line in 1962. By 1968 his business was a huge success. He was well known for making glamorous party dresses for the elite of French society. Often his creations featured ornate beading and daring cut outs. He was also known to use brightly colored chains woven onto shirts to make intricate chainmail dresses and tops. Over the course of his long career he dressed numerous celebrities including Sophia Loren, Raquel Welch, Marisa Berenson, Claudia Cardinale, Isabelle Adjani and Nicole Kidman.

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 designer 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. Loris Azzaro died at the age of 70 in Paris France.

In 2004 French designer Vanessa Seward took over as head designer of the Azzaro label. The Azzaro label continues to release clothing but is now more well known for their azzaro fragrance line. Original Loris Azzaro vintage pieces are still very much in demand.