Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan (born Caglayan) is of Turkish origin, born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1970. His parent having separated during his youth, his mother remained in Cyprus and his father went to London. Hussein Chalayan joined his father there in 1982 when he was 12 years old.

Hussein Chalayan did not initially consider designing clothes, but rather wanted to be a pilot or an architect. He very nearly studied architecture but changed his mind at the last minute and tried to join St. Martins School of Art and Design in London. His degree show in 1993, was received with great applaud. It was displayed in many shop windows, including Browns, the store which has started so many young designers including John Galliano. His collection was made with fabric which he had buried in the garden with steel filings to give it an aged look. Hussein Chalayan had tried to put magnets on the catwalk in order to pull out steel rods in the garments, but it didn't work. Even though it was a radical design, the collection had commercial pieces which sold immediately.

In 1994, he presented his first solo collection. A year later, he used illuminated airport in-flight path patterns on his clothing. During the same year, he topped 100 rivals in order to win a contest organized by Absolut Vodka, who backed him financially for the London Fashion Week. In 1997, he used a profusion of beading executed with mathematical precision on all his dresses. The eveningwear took on the shape of column dresses in fine matte jersey, also decorated with jet beads, gold embroidery and gold chains.

In 1998, Chalayan was honoured as the Designer of the Year award at the annual British Fashion Awards.

The designer is admired by all the leading avant-garde designers. Alexander McQueen said of him "I admire his challenging mind." Chalayan has displayed an uncanny ability to present the most incredibly spot-on collections one season after the other. Some collections tend to shock people, such as his "Between" collection of 1998. He presented traditional Muslim garb combined with half-naked models shown parading down the catwalk.

Chalayan has also developed a reputation for being a very serious man of ideas, who avoids fashion's social circuit more than anything. His work is highly individualistic, he avoids borrowing from fashion history as so many designers usually do. For several seasons he cut clothes without armholes or sleeves, binding the arms close to the body but he says "I just do it for the shows, I don't expect people to actually wear them like that."

In addition to his own label, he also designed for 3 years for cashmere clothing label TSE in New York, and has created a new outlet TOP SHOP in London.

In 2000, he was voted British Fashion Designer of the year.

Hussein Chalayan is currently showing in Paris, but not London.

The Style of Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan's clothes are mostly minimalistic in look but maximal in the thought process which goes into the clothe's making. His work challenges what you can actually do with a given length of fabric. He always rethinks the body and challenges the concept of zones of the body. He tries to never make his clothes too sexy or attractive. He does not want them to be attractive in a too obvious way. He uses a lean sinuous silhouette, giving great attention to detail and fabrics such as felted wools, double-faced cashmere, and matte jersey. There is often a certain darkness to his themes, vampires, tombs and constriction which have all been featured in his collections. However, overall, his clothes are very innovative, exquisite and technically brilliant. They are high-concept pieces englobing the pure and immense beauty of femininity.
 

Find fashion by Hussein Chalayan @ the following eshop: