Chalayan’s programme notes stated The body, conveyed through print and texture, acts as a tool, first portraying non-existence, then the Big Bang and various stages involving water, life, the apes, agricultural societies and those conquests enabled by steel and guns.
Heady stuff indeed, especially on an empty stomach at 9 o’clock at night! But this impassioned designer pours so much intellect and emotion into his clothes, and is unswervingly supported by Swarovski Crystals,; he deserves a respectful viewing even if you are almost fainting with hunger.
The floor was painted to resemble snowdrifts and a whistling wind, accompanied by heavy breathing on the sound system ushered in a blue and bronze checked jacket with jeans in a dark forest-green leather, followed by “Stone Age” dresses in silk, patterned with pebbles and accessorized with a necklace made of chunks of ‘rock’.
Black slip dresses with ‘winged’
shoulders were printed with motifs of birds and flowers and a rainbow,
boucle tweed was used for swing coats, drop-waist coats with
bubble-hems and even boots.
Then, two models, looking as if they were wired for sound, appeared out of the gloom with tiny winking lights all over their bodies.
Now, in a major ‘fashion marriage’ which will both secure his own brand and ensure his ideas reach a wider audience, Chalayan has joined forces with Puma, the global lifestyle sportswear company.
He was named worldwide creative director of Puma and Puma has also bought a majority stake in Chalayan.
Hussein Chalayan autumn/winter 2008/2009 collection
Photographs by Getty
