Led by Naomi Campbell, who gave a stirring speech for her late friend.

At last night&#39;s&nbsp;Fashion Awards ceremony, Naomi Campbell read a moving speech in memory of the late Azzedine Ala&iuml;a, cult French couturier and her close friend, known to her as &quot;Papa.&quot;&nbsp;Together with her on the stage was an army of other supermodels who worked with&nbsp;Ala&iuml;a&nbsp;&mdash; all wearing his designs. Among them were Stephanie Seymour, Imaan Hammam, Veronica Webb, Maricarla Boscono, and Marie-Sophie Wilson.&nbsp;With this gesture they wanted to show that&nbsp;Ala&iuml;a&#39;s skill and his ideas of femininity will continue to live on after his passing. Read Naomi&#39;s full speech&nbsp;below.

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&quot;Everyone in this room knows that Azzedine was able to transform a woman&#39;s body into something special &mdash; make you look great and still like a woman.&nbsp;He captured the essence of femininity.&nbsp;But beyond his work as a designer, from the second day I met him, he became my papa.&nbsp; 
 
He was the most generous, kind, compassionate and humble man I have ever known, with a mischievous sense of humor in the glint of his eye, and he filled my life in the room.&nbsp;I moved to his home at 16 and he opened my eyes to the world: to artists, art and design, architecture, French, and Tunisian culture.&nbsp;How blessed was I to have papa show me these different worlds?

Imagine being put on Concorde and sent to New York at 16 years old, to work with Steven Meisel for American&nbsp;Vogue, dressed head to toe in Ala&iuml;a &mdash;&nbsp;it was not reality.&nbsp;He never did advertising: he always said that we were his advertising.

Back in the day, our fridges were not stuffed with food: we bought what we ate on a daily basis and if there was one [egg] left in his fridge, papa would offer it to me to make an omelette.&nbsp;There is no man who understood me like him, or who saw me in the way that he did.&nbsp;Always when I was with him he would make me feel like my 16-year-old self-and without him, I would not be the woman I am.&nbsp; 
 
He protected me in every way possible&mdash;- even when I was attacked in Paris in 2012, papa came rushing out to stand in front of my attacker while I was pulled to safety.&nbsp;Azzedine was a protector, a teacher, a seeker and defender of all that is good and positive in this world.&nbsp;I am proud to honor, along with his daughters, a giant of fashion and a true master of humanity.&quot;

Supermodels Honored Azzedine Alaïa at Last Night's Fashion Awards

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