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.
Looking for the answer, he combined his own past, present, and—presumably—future in one package that he defined as a whole wardrobe, from T-shirt to suit to cocktail dress. Chalayan has never made it easy for the people who have loved and followed him for years, but the avant-garde elements here were thoroughly integrated into the clothes: a dissected jacket was asymmetrically laid over a full pleated skirt; tightly woven netting gave a techno shimmer to a floral print. But avant-garde aside, Chalayan also showed pieces that had enough strong, simple, gimmick-free beauty to remind us just how underrated he has always been.
