PARIS — When a teenaged Azzedine Alaïa first set foot in the hallowed house of Christian Dior , little did he know their names would one day get equal billing.

Alaïa spent only five days in June 1956 as an intern at the Dior haute couture workshops, but he went on to become not only one of the greatest designers of his generation, but also the world’s largest private collector of vintage fashion.

Now La Galerie Dior, the exhibition space at the luxury brand’s historic flagship in Paris, has teamed with the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation to stage a double show highlighting the foundation’s collection of some 600 Dior pieces, of which the majority were designed by the founder.

“This is the first time we’re presenting a collection that isn’t our own,” Olivier Flaviano, head of La Galerie

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