“I called this collection Momentum because I think the life we are leading is no longer to do with our own mass, I think it’s to do with other people’s opinions. And I guess I’m kind of anti that.” After touching on the theme last season, today Hussein Chalayan made a full throttle statement of discontent with what he termed “‘like’ culture.”
The sweatshirt with embroidered symbols and soft tonal pant shapes in gray fabrics were, he said, a sort of analogue rebuke to the instant message. A folding detail ran vertically down the left breast of many pieces—these included a mid-sleeved shirt worn over mesh paneled pants, a tailored jacket in micro houndstooth worn above pants whose cuffs went up to the knee and were secured by strapping, and an attractive volumized-notch-lapeled double-breasted top coat. Those folds, Chalayan said, were designed to communicate a suppression of the person within the clothing. A shirt and an oversize track jacket both featured two strata of buttoned fastening; the usual running from Adam’s apple down, and an unusual arc from left inner wrist to right.
It was a very gauche observation to make, but one editor (okay, this one) observed that some of those oversize sporty jackets looked reminiscent of ’80s skiwear. “Yes!” said Chalayan. “But I didn’t look at ’80s ski for this. I don’t really look at anything anymore. I just think, I am. And I do what I am.”
