Art á Porter: Hussein Chalayan and the wow factor in fashion

As our attention spans are getting shorter and as social media is becoming an increasingly vital resource for fashion brands to stay relevant, it is key for designers to possess the ability to surprise their audiences. Hussein Chalayan, a British/Turkish Cypriot designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins, can arguably do this better than anyone else in the industry. From the very beginning of his career, he has always started the process of designing clothes with the purpose of telling a story. Often known for incorporating state-of-the-art technology in his clothes, Chalayan never fails to deliver shows that can be likened to performance art pieces.

One instance in which Chalayan blew his audience’s mind through his clothes was for his Fall-Winter 2000 show, “Afterwords.” When the lights came on, the catwalk resembled more of a stage for a theatrical play, presenting four armchairs and a coffee table. Four models walked in wearing plain white dresses and slowly started taking the lining off the chairs and, as they did so, wrapped the lining around themselves, turning what used to be covering the four chairs into dresses. The most spectacular moment, however, was when a fifth model walked onto the stage, stepped into a hole in the center of the coffee table and pulled it up onto her waist, forming a cone-like skirt. During “Afterwords,” not only did the designer show his unparalleled skill in cutting techniques, but he also tangibly displayed his belief that clothes can alter the wearer’s identity. The four models went from wearing plain white dresses to physically putting furniture on their bodies. By having them do this, Chalayan highlighted how different clothes make us perceive people differently.

Another demonstration of Chalayan’s unique vision was his Spring-Summer show of 2008, “Readings,” which was released in the form of a fashion film. The collection he presented at the event featured several dresses covered in Swarovski crystals that emanated red laser beams. The lasers were attached to each dress in a way that made them move and constantly change the audience’s perception of the piece. In an interview with Vogue, the fashion designer stated that this choice represented “the interplay between a scrutinized figure and the audience which keep that interplay alive.”

It is interesting to compare such a collection, which puts emphasis on the act of viewing rather than on the object itself, with recent works of media art, such as Tony Oursler’s “template/variant/friend/stranger” (2014).Exhibited during Art Basel in 2016, this work is composed of seven photographic panels of faces punctured with projected eyes or mouths. The artist further explored this concept by premiering a similar work titled "L*ng," at the Armory Show in New York last month. Like Chalayan, Oursler uses a mix of technology and visual stimuli in order to critically evaluate the act of viewing and specifically to examine visual recognition techniques and their impact on people’s daily lives.