“I think when I was very young I was most interested in the idea. Now I am interested in combining that idea with creating a desire to wear the clothes.”
After offering Turkish coffee and Turkish delight, Hussein Chalayan was speaking in his store on Bourdon Street, London. It’s a location that—just like his clothes—is both unobvious and stands apart from other brands.
This Pre-Fall collection (which incorporates several of the unisex pieces shown at Chalayan’s “jewel box” Fall ’17 men’s show) demonstrated why Chalayan is worth seeking out.
His “idea” this season, which will climax in the more experimental articulation always reserved for his Paris womenswear show, started with a meditation on the nefarious impact of large corporations on society, particularly the entitlement their employment accords the unqualified, and the marginalization it foists on others. This led to thoughts of Hellenic culture—that wellspring of so-called civilization—and an urge to reimagine its clothing.
Idea, check. But desire? Oh, yes.
Fawn double-faced capes of silk loden; brushed flannel pants with a tied belt detail at the hip; wide-legged three-quarter pants in either plain black, blue, or gray (or in a grid of monochrome pyramids) with an open slash above each ankle; and flowing cashmere-feel smocks with semicircular pockets (an “idea” detail, imagined for medallions) were all imbued with an Italianate luxuriousness in tandem with their activist conception.
There were many quintessentially Chalayan-esque pieces here. Clever stuff, recasting certainties most designers never question. In a long black dress the boundary between lining and outer layer became the defining exterior detail, lining bursting forth to curve down from the neckline and behind the shoulder. An at-first-glance unremarkable black jacket, when opened, inside-outed itself so that the front side somehow ended up hanging off the back, not the front, of its wearer.
“If it looks like something else, I just don’t do it. I’m very proud like that,” said Chalayan, then added: “But I do continue to develop ideas that are mine.”
