There are two weeks left to visit the Hussein Chalayan exhibition at London’s Design Museum. To remind you about it, here’s an extract from a long interview with Chalayan I did for the next issue of Zoot Magazine (Spring/Summer 09 issue – available from early May).
One installation at the recent “From Fashion and Back” exhibition organised at London’s Design Museum to celebrate Hussein Chalayan’s 15-year long career, explores the limitations of language and features three dummies wearing the minimalist tunics from the ‘Panoramic’ (A/W 1998-99) collection, painting a wall.
Though engaging with the space, the figures can't actually see what they are doing as egg-shaped headpieces constrict their heads and entirely cover their faces, while a dummy clad in a black dress and cape keeps guard over them. The way the collections are exhibited mirrors in a way Chalayan’s approach to his work.
Indeed when he designs Chalayan doesn’t focus only on the garments, but also on their meaning. “The event shows how different worlds relate to each other, how everything is interconnected,” Chalayan explains, “my work is a reaction to things that happen in the world - in history, anthropology, science, technology - it represents a merging of all these worlds which is what makes the work unique.”
Creating bridges between different worlds and disciplines is what Chalayan enjoys best: “People are not sure where to place my work,” he states. “It is interesting when a school of architecture uses my designs as a basis for student projects – choosing garments based on geography, identity and culture and asking the students to create an environment based on these clothes. But academia is spreading beyond people who teach, more members of the public are appreciating the processes and research behind design.”
Does it bother him the way the fashion media often portray him as an avant-garde designer? “Sometimes, I feel that there are a handful of people in the fashion media who have no vision but who are allowed to rule the industry,” he replies. “It is about time fresher blood with more vision is given more of a chance. As far as my work is concerned, there is a certain duality. I feel there are monuments in each project that emphasises an idea. But, mostly, they are monuments which exist to inspire the rest of the collection which is highly wearable and flattering.”
As a whole the exhibition is very important as it allows visitors to get to know all the most important projects the designer was involved in: since 2003, Chalayan also directed art projects, including the short films “Temporal Meditations”, “Place to Passage” and “Anaesthetics” and, in 2005, he represented Turkey at the 51st Venice Biennale with “Absent Presence”, featuring Tilda Swinton. “Catwalks are for a limited audience and art projects were only shown in galleries,” he says, “so this is an amazing way to show so many projects in one place and, specifically, in London where everything has been conceived.”
At last year’s “Skin+Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture” exhibition at London’s Design Museum, Chalayan’s works were compared to those of architect Thomas Heatherwick and, a while back, the designer was also invited to speak about art and architecture with Zaha Hadid at London’s Tate.
Architecture is another discipline Chalayan drew inspiration from for his designs. “Everything that surrounds me is a source of influence,” he explains, “I am ultimately inspired by beauty. But it can be said that my work is a gap between fantasy and reality. I always feel that a cross-disciplinary approach to design leads to more interesting results. However, the processes which create a collection are there to create a base for the designer. People who wear the clothes do not always need to know about this process.”
Yet it’s fascinating to hear about the processes that led Chalayan to specific designs: for his A/W 09 collection, entitled ‘Earthbound’ and inspired by the principles of building engineering, he created concrete buildings for the body with the help of high-tech fabrics and foam employed to mould rigid and sculpted silhouettes for his coats, jackets and dresses.
As a child, Chalayan reveals, he was attracted by the power of the body, “I was so excited about anything to do with the body and I was brought up mainly by women which perhaps helped to fuel this fascination,” he recounts, “I started to create narratives around the body. In my culture, a lot of emphasis is placed on going out and looking good, it is a hot environment, which also creates a sexual charge around the body which always fascinated me. I guess fashion for me was the closest thing which celebrated the body and that’s why I decided to study it (...).”
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