“Chalayan’s bringing new approaches to fashion design”
Architecture To Wear?
Hussein Chalayan brings a new side to Fashion. The Turkish/British designer is an internationally regarded fashion designer who is notorious for his innovative use of materials, detailed pattern cutting and futuristic attitude to new technology. Chalayan is one of the most futuristic designer working in fashion today. His inspirations come from architectural theories, science and technology. The world can’t keep up with Chalayan; he seems to constantly be bringing in new innovations to the realms of fashion. He set new limits to the world of fashion. For instance, looking back at Chalayans Spring/Summer 2000 collection, he created a ‘airplane dress’ made from materials of aircraft construction with mechanism that enabled remote control movement. Likewise with his Autumn/Winter 2000 collection he designer a coffee table, which revealed itself to be a wooden skirt. His work explored the concept of wearing portable architecture. He continues exploring by bringing new technology into fashion with his Autumn/Winter 2007 collection by designing an extravagant dress consisting of Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights. In his same collection, still using lights, he then designed a dress made up of over 200 moving lasers presenting an extraordinary spectacle of light. They say “Chalayan is a designer with the heart of an artist but the brain of a scientist” and I couldn’t agree more. His designs have brought new heights to the world of fashion, not just by his architectural designs but also by the inventive use of materials and the progressive approach to new technology. Soon we’ll be seeing other designers using similar creations, no longer will garments just be fabrics,
they will include metal, plastic and wires etc. Therefore also leading to new forms of manufacturing the products. It’s no surprise to hear that people don’t know whether to categorise Chalayan as an architect of a designer, his ideas are not associated with fashion but history, anthropology, science, architecture and technology. Fashion is no longer simply fashion by technologically enhanced fashion and the concept of working with the relationship that the garment has with the human body. What Chalayan seems to be doing through his designs is intertwine the body with extra technological functions to enhance the human body. H strives to extent the function of clothing. Clothing seems to be an rea that to date has remained somewhat untouched by technology by has great scope for development. Chalayans designs show just how far fashion has evolved from its roots. The addiction of technology is a natural progression in the evolution of clothing and its functions. He fuses his technological advancement with the movement of the body in such as futuristic manner that leaves one wondering just where his vision will lead us.
By Aimee Robinson