‘Azzedine Alaïa couldn’t give a damn what other people said was the new mood’
Ahead of the first UK solo exhibition of the couturier’s work, former colleague Sophie Hicks remembers his exacting pursuit of fashion perfection
Art
Damien Hirst hates sausages! How Instagram became art’s new playground
Twisted selfies from Cindy Sherman, strange fruit from Wolfgang Tillmans, skull revelations from Damien Hirst … as artists muscle in on the app, what have we learned about them?
Former swimming baths in south London to reopen as art gallery
Turner prize winners Assemble are designing £4m gallery, which will open in September
Galeries Lafayette heir joins French tycoons in opening art foundation
Guillaume Houzé’s cultural centre will rival that of France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault
Pensioner stunned as old vase kept in a shoebox fetches £381,000
Unnamed UK buyer pays record sum for Hans Coper piece – bought for £250 in the 1970s – suggesting a boom in ceramics market
London will lose creative crown if rents keep forcing artists out
Head of Space network issues warning in book marking 50th year of studios set up by artists Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgely