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More Collector's Items from Chalayan
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photo by Gruber-FWD
Mar 11, 2002/ FWD/ --- Two days into the French fashion season, a designer paid the price
for the grueling Paris schedule -- Hussein Chalayan was forced to stage his brilliantly
conceived show to a bleary-eyed audience in the late hours.
Chalayan had to move his show back an hour and change locations due to the sudden security
concerns at the original venue, the Palais de Tokyo.
His final destination was the magnificent Cite de la Musique, by Christian de Portzamparc,
the architect who designed LVMH’s 57th Street headquarters in Manhattan.
Hussein is one of the real artists using fashion to express himself.
Each of his shows is a work of conceptual art with its own unique premise.
Chalayan entitled last night’s presentation "Ambimorphous," his own word characterizing
the differences and similarities between distant cultures’ dress.
The collection began and finished with a poised young woman appearing in a bright, embroidered
Himalayan costume.
During the opening, four outfits followed, which gradually lost the mountain elements and
morphed into a western look.
The blend of east and west continued in the music -– a band composed of six violins,
two cellos, a bass and a grand piano played discordant, Asian-influenced music.
Fiddles sounded like flutes.
Chalayan then followed with a series of brilliant clothes with complicated darts, ribs,
gathers and tucks, overlaid by leather, which were like tentacles creeping around the form.
Hussein’s own description, "mechanical forms remolded by organic forms," sounded pretentious
in the program, but turned out to be a pretty accurate description.
His series of mini skirts, part cut-off cargos, part accordion pleat, were instant collector’s
items, as were his short bomber windbreaker, on one side an Eisenhower, on the other a
bowling jacket.
Chalayan is such a clever designer of original and beautiful clothes that he is assured of
a successful future.
And there were hoards of retailers, even if much of the fashion Hussein showed Friday was
not for everyday wear.
One of Europe’s savviest boutique owners commented, "Having one of these pieces is akin to
buying a Jaguar -- you keep it in a garage to bring it out for special occasions."
In the land of the 35-hour work week, we left the Cite de la Musique deeply impressed by
Hussein’s fashion at 11pm, ending our 14-hour day.
As they say tiredly in France, we like the 35-hour week so much, we work two of them in one.
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