Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum

One of my favourite fashion designers, Hussein Chalayan, is exhibiting at the Design Museum- I HAD to go! Having never seen his work up close before I was mesmerised by what I saw. Mannequins dressed in his previous collections were all “busy at work”, some painting walls, others cleaning glass. His quirky designs and concepts were oozing out of the whole exhibition.

My favourite and most inspiring collection of his was his graduate collection in 1993, entitled "The Tangent Flows", which contained garments that he had buried in his back garden and dug up again. The result was beautiful, as the whole collection had rusted and rotted feel.

 

Chalayan’s designs are innovative and conceptual, ranging from lazer technology to his more current 2008 collection ‘Intertia’, which explores garments that are encapsulating the moment of a crash. Another memorable collection, where he created "fashion as furniture" in 2000, entitled ‘After Words’, featured models that emerged from chairs and tables that literally transformed into dresses. He is a designer that crosses the boundaries of fashion and art, cleverly combining the two.

Chalayan describes his work as being a narrative - a form of storytelling incorporating different themes. 

Exhibition: Hussein Chalayan- From fashion and back

Design museum 22 January- 17 May 2009