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Hussein Chalayan: Tour de Force
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
Click on image to see bigger photo.
Oct 7, 2001/ FWD/ --- The prescience of designers and their ability to sense change in the world was the subject of
conversation after the presentation of Hussein Chalayan's darkly original and highly memorable
show in Paris Friday night.
The reason? Chalayan's collection appeared, at first sight, inspired by the terrorist attacks
in America, a suggestion, however, that the designer adamantly denied afterwards, insisting that
the whole collection had been designed well before September 11.
Nonetheless, in Hussein's finale all the models donned worn multi-layered dresses that were torn,
shredded and generally wrecked, looking quite frankly like they had just escaped a bomb blast.
The whole cataclysmic mood was further enhanced by make up star Pat McGrath's decision to give
the girls blotchy camouflage faces, along with the extremely evocative music provided
by a live Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, who played Mishima by Phillip Glass.
Mishima, you will recall, was the right-wing Japanese writer who immolated himself after failing
to ignite a military coup in his homeland.
Moreover, Chalayan invitation featured an oil painting of Medea, the tragic Greek mother who
killed her own children.
"I chose that image because I liked it," Chalayan told FWD backstage. "The collection was about
fear and insecurity. It had nothing to do with happened in New York. It was conceived before
then."
The clothes themselves were an extremely clever blend of punky references, deconstruction and
attitude.
Asymmetrical dresses were ruched up and pulled together with strings, clasps and zips;
bustier jackets morphed into petticoats.
They sound complicated, and they were. Yet the collection
was highly wearable and filled with new and powerful ideas.
Hussein's presentation in a medieval hall in a wing of the Paris medical school was as effective
as the collection itself.
Models paused between mini plexiglass walls in their monochromatic
olive khaki clothes, as if bearing a message.
Chalayan's show may not have had political intent, but its vision was uncanny.
A tour de force.
Hussein Chalayan Fashion
Hussein Chalayan Fashion
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