It’s funny how once you become aware of someone, they suddenly pop up everywhere. That’s what happened to me with Turkish-born, England-based fashion designer Hüseyin Çaglayan, aka Hussein Chalayan.
A couple of months ago, I came across a video of Chalayan’s 2007 Spring/Summer collection which was more of an art performance than a fashion show—dresses morphing from 1906-style to 1916 to 1926, from 2009 to 2029, zippers v-ing, panels spreading, hemlines magically lifting, ruffles self-plumping. Right up my alley—a gorgeous melding of fashion and technology. Although it did also occur to me how useless the clothes were, purely conceptual and unwearable.
Then, not one month later, I read a report that Michelle Obama wore a printed silk dress from his 2009 Spring collection when she was in London. Lo and behold, Chalayan is one of those rare artists who can balance blurry long-range vision and mundane sharp focus. He creates both fascinating and technologically sophisticated “art” shows of fashion while producing wearable fashion separately.
Which makes me wonder, is it necessary to do these two things in isolation from one another?
LINKS:
- Hussein Chalayan
