Model: Frida Gustavsson
Photographer: Andreas Sjodin
Elle Sweden, February 2012
Images: Fashion Gone Rogue

Designer: MSGM

Item: Long Skirt @ The Corner Shop

Wear It With:

Rupert Sanderson @ MyTheresa

Acne Jeans @ Ekseption

It dawned on me that this incredible artist and his creations are at times too daring for the average customer but I’d like to challenge you to try it…

Chalayan Draped Silk Satin Dress @ Net-a-Porter. Gorgeous peach colour, flattering shape for the woman that wants to look different than all others.

Hussein Chalayan – Spring 2012

I always like to read the reviews of the shows before looking at the runway photographs and I remember reading this and thinking ‘what a genius’. His mind is that of a poet, an artist. The moment you understand what is the message he is trying to send, his designs make a lot more sense. This is part of Style.com review:

Hussein Chalayan is turning himself into the Hitchcock of fashion by making guest appearances in his own presentations. There was that fabulous bandleader moment a few seasons ago. But how many people in his audience today even realized he was the waiter serving the models flutes of Champagne? Their ignorance was understandable, given that many of them were completely distracted by the curious connection between those flutes and the images appearing on the screen the models faced. Turns out that courtesy of Intel, a show sponsor, every sip the models took was captured by a camera in their glasses that relayed an image of the interior of their mouths. Yikes! But what could have been mere invasive high tech turned into something more elegant and playful in Chalayan’s hands. How do you see yourself? That was the question the designer posed.

Images: Elle.com

About the designer:

Born: Nicosia, Syprus, 1970
More fine artist than fashion designer, Hussein Chalayan has broken the mould of British Fashion by being a quiet minimalist as opposed to rebel without a cause. He is the only British designer to compete intellectually with Comme des Garcons.
Chalayn graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London in 1993 with a first-class honours degree and final collection entitled ‘The Tangent Flows’. Armed with an envelope of metal filings and fabric buried in his back garden, his unconventional approach brought a commission from the equally unconventional Icelandic singer, Bjork.
His designs – best analysed in depth and from all sides – suit the art installation approach: he has exhibited in Paris, Prague and at London’s Science Museum. Awarded British Designer of the Year, it is a pity Chalayan cannot experiment with shape and form of his heart’s content.

An excerpt from 20th Century Fashion: 100 Years of Stye by Decade and Designer

More on Hussein Chalayan

I have astigmatism, like El Greco.
I’m not comparing myself with El Greco for a minute, except that we both have the same physical disability. Partly because of his disability he saw things that most people don’t see. I see all sorts of things that you don’t see. I see girls and I see the way their feet fall off the sidewalk when they are getting ready to cross the street but they’re waiting for the light, with their marvelous hair blowing in the wind and their fatigues eyes…
Sometimes during my years in the magazine business, looking at all those thousands and thousands of contact sheets, day after day, year after year, I saw very beautiful things. I’ve seen pink grass, for instance, and green sky and a scarlet sea when a certain light would come across my eyes. The painters of Provence unquestionably saw such things, although they knew as well as you and I do that no sea is scarlet. They saw it thorough a combination of an act of the imagination and a physical reality.

An excerpt from Allure

It’s day 2 at home. I have a cold and am taking it easy by reading this wonderful book.

Image

Item: Shirt Dress with Star Button @ Mytheresa

Wear It With:

Lavin @ Net-a-Porter

Givenchy @ Jades24