There’s been a lot of talk of late about international fashion weeks and, as always during the catwalks season, it feels very near the point of information overload, and that a wow factor is much needed for keeping interest at high levels.
But surely, the Paris catwalk carousel has not been short of tricks, and has kept us entertained till the end.
Aside from the always wonderful collections by the big couturiers, Paris also provided us with numbers from well-known fashion mavericks – a name for all, Hussein Chalayan, an outstanding design mind who never fails to turn a simple catwalk into an engaging multi-sensorial experience.
Although relatively young, and at the head of a studio which experienced economic hardship in the past – as opposed to the established fashion houses along which he shows in Paris – Chalayan can now count on a prominent position in the fashion business, which last year also granted him an appointment as creative director at Puma and a partnership for his label with the Gucci group.
Making a full display of his visionary fashion mind with his Central St. Martins graduate collection The Tangent Flows (Spring/Summer 1994), Chalayan found himself catapulted since the beginning of his career to the forefront of contemporary fashion design, thanks to his ability to transcend the boundaries of fashion.
He exploits the fashion medium to illustrate his faceted view of the world, the result of his international upbringing. To this, he adds an all-round interest in the synergy between different design expressions, technology and architecture, which allows him to venture in fields other than fashion, like art installations and video productions. And which, above all, has turned him into one of the most visionary fashion designers, producing avant-garde pieces like living-room furniture being turned into clothes (one of his signature pieces, the wooden skirt collapsing into a coffee table, was part of the Afterwords installation for A/W 2000), the 2007 ‘bubble dress’, or the windswept structural pieces from Inertia (S/S 2009).
Most of the times, Hussein’s collections are presented as installations rather than catwalks, with models ‘performing’ the garments, or in the form of videos. And when it comes to video productions, let’s not forget the wonderfully conceptual Place To Passage from 2003, or Absent Presence, featuring the beautiful Tilda Swindon, which was the buzz of the 2005 edition of the Venice Biennale.
These, along with some of his amazing garment creations, can be viewed at Chalayan’s first major exhibition in the UK at the Design Museum in London, a veritable journey through the first 15 years of his eclectic work. An interesting addition to this spring’s shortlist of things to see, the retrospective runs till 17th May. 
Michel d'Anastasio: Taking Writing to Another Level
Senz Umbrella: Wind tunnel tested!
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
-
