Today there are shoes with animated display on them,
controlled by an app downloaded on your smart phone. But do you know who came
first with this idea? Or, do you know who created the first dress controlled by
a remote control? Or maybe you heard about luminescent dresses, created with
optic wire. But do you know who`s the one who came with this invention, who
showed that technology can be incorporated in clothes, not just helping to
create them? Well, the name behind all these ideas is Hussein Chalayan.
Hussein Chalayan is a designer known in fashion industry especially for his innovations brought in the domain of multifunctional
garments. His is Cypriot by origin, born in Nicosia, and he migrated with his
family in London at a young age. Here he graduated London`s Saint Martin School of Arts and
Design in 1993. His degree collection was bought by Browns (an iconic British
shop chain). In 1999 and 2000 he was awarded Designer of the Year of Great Britain.
He collaborated over the years with artist, musicians, actors, directors and
technicians for making his collections and exhibitions. In his works he
frequently approaches social, political and philosophical themes, expressed not
just through garments, but through the entire presentation – a show after all – in which is presented the collection, installations and films. And
because of his interest in technology, he created some of the most extraordinary
and spectacular dresses in fashion (he creates predominantly for women), which
have came to be exhibited in important museums around the globe (for example,
the collection exhibited in Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo in 2010).
Because of these, I consider him one of those designers who will remain in
fashion history.
Down below I made a list of 10 most innovative dresses
created by Chalayan, shown in chronological order.
1. Airplane Dress
The Airplane Dress is from spring 2000 ready-to-wear
collection. It is actually an experiment which took Chalayan two years to
finish. The dress is created from fiber glass and contains metal elements
because it is controlled by a remote control (the dress that was recreated in
2005 is manually operated). Its rigid structure allows just a certain female
body type, with strict dimensions to wear it. But despite its rigidity, the dress can be unfolded. Better said, the inferior part of its back can
unfold, revealing a mass of pink folds of tulle. This is the charm of the
dress. It changes its initial form and contains the technology that Chalayan is
so passionate about. Plus, it is spectacular and extends the limits of fashion.
2. Table Dress
This is a dress that was presented alongside winter 2000
ready-to-wear collection, literally ready to be worn. The show had two parts,
an introductive one – with the collection put on sale -, and a demonstrative
one – with garments that were meant to show the talent and the potential of
their designer. From this second part is Table Dress part off. The scene was
built to look like an ordinary room, decorated with a table, five chairs and a
TV put on the wall. The models came in wearing a straight cut neutral gray
dress. They were told to take of the covers of the chairs and to wear them as
dresses (with not so simple cuts), and to fold the chairs to make them into
suitcases with which they left the scene. The sixth model, wearing the same
kind of neutral gray dress, was told to disassemble the table – to take down
the top - and wear it like a dress.
The source of inspiration for these multifunctional
garments is a short story, one that resonated with the designer: when you are
forced to leave your home, you want to take with you all the things that have
value for you, that`s why the cloth that you are wearing becomes your home,
being the reflection of all that is valuable for you. The Table Dress is an
analogy, a visual expression of migration.
3. Wireless Dresses
The name Wireless dress has nothing to do with the texture
of the materials involved, but it`s about the remote control that is wireless.
And yes, there exists such things and they are 6 in number, Chalayan presenting these
dresses in the spring of 2007 ready-to-wear show-collection. The show started with
the presentation of dresses that had one design (a permanent one), continuing
with the presentation of these changing designs, multifunctional dresses,
controlled by a wireless remote control. The hats were the “helpers” for the
dresses, modifying alongside them. The last multifunctional garment that was
presented was made of a white transparent veil dress which was absorbed by the
hat that the model was wearing, letting her nude on stage.
Even though these dresses were named The Transformer Dresses, I prefer the Wireless dresses name because it accentuates the technological and
creative process, one in which Chalayan has an interest in, and not just the formal
part of them.
4. Bubble Dress
A name suggestive enough, I might say. This dress was
part of the same show described previously (spring 2007 ready-to-wear
collection). It was made of transparent plastic spheres, of different sizes,
filled up with air, and assembled on a series of silver textile stripes. The
bubbles gave the dress an alien vibe because it couldn`t be seen how they were
assembled, and the missing (or more correctly said – the professional hiding
of) the opening system of the dress created the feeling that the bubbles were just floating
around and randomly decided to accumulate on the models body, to partially cover
it. It is absolutely fascinating how a texture like this can exist.
The concept behind this garment and of those mentioned
previously (the Wireless dresses) was time travel, an extraterrestrial
technology not know to humankind. And the show really looked like it was a SF
movie, where everything is possible.
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| LADY GAGA WEARING THE BUBBLE DRESS |
5. LED dresses
The show presented in fall 2007 had luminescent hats,
blown by wind dresses and an automatic hood which covered the entire head (for
rainy days). But probably the two dresses, the one which opened the show and
the one which ended it, were the main characters of the collection. The two
dresses were created with the LED technology, every one contained 15.600 LEDs,
named because of this reason the LED Dresses. They are also known as Display Dresses
because they are not just luminescent, but they contain a screen which display
different colored lights, which represents the sun and the moon – meaning, the
starting of a new season (“One represents the coming of spring and the other
one represents the coming of summer” – says Chalayan in the interview-film in
which he presents the process of making them). They were made in collaboration
with Swarovski.
It is interesting the fact that the background music
reminded me of an anime soundtrack. Which, after all, is partially true - because
the collection was inspired by the Japanese subculture of samurais. Better said,
their armors. This can be seen especially in the first garments presented in
the show – they had red and black squares displayed on large surfaces on the
garment reminding of the samurai`s armor structure.
6. Laser Dresses
The Laser Dresses are part of another project made of
Chalayan in collaboration with Swarovski. They took part in the spring-summer
2008 ready-to-wear collection. This time too, the dresses were the main
character of the show, but they were presented in the ending. The concept
behind the collection is the creation of the universe and its beginnings. The concept
was reflected in collection especially through the pallet color used by the
designer, it being composed by earthy shades and warm grays. And gradually
different types and sizes of rock made their appearance, being suggested in collection by
form, volume and prints. Swarovski crystals used to create the main dresses
(crystals being just a more beautiful type of rocks) find perfectly their place
in this collection. The red lasers were put onto the dresses in such a way that
they hit the surface of crystals and refracted it in different directions. These red
lights were the visual representation of a volcanic eruption.
Even though Chalayan had a certain idea of what the red
lights were supposed to meaning, their exteriorization can be interpreted, in my
opinion, as a metaphorical birth too. Blood is also red and it comes, as lava,
from interior. According to specialists, the human race was born in a specific place
on Earth (somewhere in the North Africa) and from there spreading radial from
its epicenter - this theory made in the context of the concept of the collection. Exactly how the red lights take place from a specific point from
the dress` surface and after that spreading all around. Exactly like lava flows
radial on the volcano`s cone.
7. The Smashed Dresses
The show from 2009`s spring started with the presentation of
dresses made predominantly of latex and veil, on a circular stage that had a
spiral drawn on it. In the background, the music was played by the main
instruments: glasses. The last five dresses of the collection, which were the
reflection of movement stopped in time, were presented on the same stage, but
this time the stage was the one that was moving, creating the vibe that the
dresses were some pieces exhibited in a
museum, not some garments that are part of a show. The music intensified till
the point it was almost unbearable, and in that moment the glasses were broken,
the sound being combined with the one made by breaks. It was in that moment when
you realized what this collection was about and what those five dresses
represented: they were the visual representation of the moment of contact.
Even though the sources of inspiration for this
collection were the disassembled and smashed cars from the accidents that they
took part in, and the collection can be interpreted as caution sign for those
who get in a car, I consider that the interpretation can be extended. Chalayan
said in a interview for the Vogue magazine: It
is about the speed in our live that can result just in a crush. For this
reason I believe that these five dresses speak about those moment in our lives
in which we realize, in a bit of a second, what is going on, but it is too late
to do something, the impact is inevitable, and it cannot be stopped unless you
stop the time. And this is what Chalayan made: he showed us that the time can
be stopped.
8. The Floating Dress
The Floating Dress was part of the fall-winter 2011 ready-to-wear
collection, released in Paris, and made in collaboration with Swarovski. But
despite its being part of the collection, the dress was presented in a
(fashion) film, Chalayan being known for his interest in the film making
industry. The three minutes long film starts with the model entrance in a room
with the floor cover in smoke, making her way through the dress. The dress is a
metallic mold, which can move around (“it takes you to a walk”, says Chalayan),
being also controlled by a remote control. The film ends with the show of the
electronic little “seeds” detached from the surface of the dress. Some say,
because of their form, they are dandelion seeds, but they remind me of the
captivating dance of maple seeds falling.
The inspiration for this dress has its origins in the
Japanese culture – one that has came to fascinates the designer, and I think
that the technological advance of Japan is one of the main reasons why. The
name of the film is Kaikoku which in Japanese means “open country”. This is the
official name of the dress, but the public knows it as the Floating Dress.
Probably because this is what remained in the public`s memory. The dress was
exhibited in one of the biggest fashion exhibition Manus x Machina, a fashion
exhibition organized by Costume Institute at Metropolitan Museum of New York in
spring 2016.
9. Transforming Dresses
A very expressive name. They are three at number and are
part of the fall 2013 ready-to-wear show/collection. Despite the fact that
Chalayan has the habit of presenting the most relevant garments for the
collection at the beginning or at the ending of the show, this time the
multifunctional – indeed – garments were presented through the whole show,
shrouded among the other ones.
The dresses are sublime, and the technology behind them
is extremely complex, even if it seems simple at the first sight. The dresses
are not changing, but they transform entirely – this is the reason why they are
called like this. They become a whole new dress, with other length, another
form, another volume, another material, another texture, another color. These dresses
prove not just that Chalayan is a master in manipulating the technology to
create his garments, but he is a true master of the multifunctional.
10. Dissolving Dresses
Even before the show started, two models were standing,
as two mannequins in a case, dressed and put on a podium in the center of the stage. Bypassing them, the
others models started to parade down the spring-summer 2016 ready-to-wear
collection show. At a certain moment no one walked in and suddenly it started
to poor down water on models, from the false ceiling above them. The dresses
they were wearing started to melt down (almost completely) because they were
made of paper, and the dresses made of textile material that the model worn could
be seen now.
The concept of the collection was war, express not just by
the pallet color, but through the military print of the paper dresses too. The dissolving
was an analogy for the dissolving of the frontiers in the wartime, but it was
meant to represent the dissolved motives of the soldiers fighting: after a long
period of time in which you fought, you came to forget what you fight for. And
in that moment you realize that, permanently, you`ve changed because you took
part in a war.
AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY ALEXANDRA - GEANINA BURTIUC
