hussein chalayan: récits de mode

if you’re in paris before november 13th, go see the hussein chalayan exhibit at the musée des arts décoratifs. it’s a fantastic retrospective of one of the most inventive and genuinely avant-garde designers of the modern era.

although i didn’t love the way a lot of the pieces were shown (on weirdly made-up and sculpted manequins), any visitor gets a glimpse into the mind of a genius through a wide array of his master works - the buried dresses, dna-inspired looks, shifting/mutating dresses, or the kite-shirt, to name a few. although chalayan isn’t so much of a household name as he was years ago, the retrospective makes one wonder why.

the infamous wood-table skirt, presented in the same context it was shown

a beautifully constructed and patterned oxford, also a kite

chalayan’s seasons exhibit many trends far ahead of the time (i remember explicitly one season that proenza schouler almost directly ripped off), really pushing the boundaries of fashion into realms never before seen. shows weren’t runways, but literally shows. in one season, chalayan’s models wandered around a white room, changing seat covers into dresses and a wooden table into a skirt.

one season, chalayan presented a video where each piece of a look was pulled off a piece of paper, as shown above. chalayan’s commentary on fashion’s cookie-cutter tendencies can be seen quite clearly, but communicated in a way i don’t believe anyone else has before.

can one name another designer coming up with spectacles like this now? without mcqueen, chalayan seems almost left alone in the realm of fashion showmanship. yes, other designers like riccardo tisci or nicolas ghesquière exhibit supreme talent, but their looks simply process down the runway in a straight line. chalayan’s shows are deeper, prismatic and multifaceted, the mark of a genius in more than one media.