WHAT would fashion in the 1980s and 1990s have looked like without Peter Lindbergh and Azzedine Alaia? As a new book, Peter Lindbergh Azzedine Alaia reminds us, the German photographer and the Tunisian designer effectively invented the age of the supermodel, after all.

Alaia’s body-fitting yet flattering clothes and Lindbergh’s striking black and white photographs were essential components of the careers of Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Naomi Campbell, who even slept in Alaia’s workshop when she arrived in Paris, aged 16.

Both men found each other in their adopted city of Paris and began to work together, sharing a love of monotone and strong women. “We met in 1979, I believe. Ever since, Azzedine and I are hand in glove,” Lindbergh once recalled. “We know each other very well,” Alaia agreed. “We don’t even need to talk. Everything flows.”

The result was a collaboration that revitalised fashion imagery and fashion itself.

The Herald:

Peter Lindbergh. Azzedine Alaïa, Peter Lindbergh, TASCHEN, £60 © Peter Lindbergh (courtesy Peter Lindbergh Foundation, Paris)