Do you wanna be in my Gang?

MY SITUATION, MY ROLE
The role I was given was the Editor, along with Angela.

Because of my financial situation I can't afford to spend money on Ink or printing in Uni. I panicked about what to do because I had done all of my research but thought I would have money by the end of the project to do my prints with for my sketchbook. Unfortunately that didn't happen and so on the weekend I had to quickly come up with an idea. I thought I might do essays with images on a myspace page or something. Vawn suggested I do a blog. I thought this was a good idea and so this blog was created.

What A Man

ABOUT HUSSEIN CHALAYAN

Twice awarded British Designer of the Year (1999, 2000), Chalayan caused a stir as soon as he had graduated with his collection The Tangent Flows (which was bought by designer store Browns in London). His innovative and experimental use of materials gave him an unique edge. Often his themes are inspired by his own history as someone whose identity is shaped by different cultures, his collections always stem from a project which can tranform his garments into anything from art to technological. His collections are ready to wear consisting of a few momumental garments while the rest of the collection is wearable, and relating to the 'momumental' creations.

I was pleased to learn that we had been assigned Hussein Chalayan, although I don't know much about him at this point other than he delivers spectacular catwalk presentations and of course, he created the famous 'table' dress.

Graduation and A/W 1994

Graduation Collection 1993

THE TANGENT FLOWS
Chalayan sprinkled clothes with iron filings and buried them in the garden for 6 weeks. Giving the garments an earthy, rustic look.

a/w 1994

CARTESIA

This is Chalayan's first commercial collection. It embodies more 'buried' dresses. It's inspired by a story he wrote based on the Cartesian world view.

1995 and S/S 1996

s/s 1995

TEMPORARY INTERFERENCE

This collection of garments revolves around a board game Chalayan created which was to do with jumping off a great height to reach the Divine. The balloons used on the dress above, is an idea he returns to later on in his career.

a/w 1995

ALONG FALSE EQUATOR

This collection is about different variations of flight paths on clothes representing the notion of being in two places at once. If I'm honest on this one I don't really understand the theme in relation to the garments.

s/s 1996

NOTHING/INTERSCAPE

Inspired by Noah's Arc and the Armageddon. The garments indicate what might happen to a body during this final battle, and the surgical corset represents an injured body after a potential disaster. I'm not particularly interested in this collection but I do love the corset and what it represents.

S/S and A/W 1997

s/s 1997

LANDS WITHOUT

Based on women's roles in German fairy tales. For example, Rapunzel escaping the tower. Which is clearly represented by the dresses covered in thin rope.

a/w 1997

SCENT OF TEMPESTS

A collection based on the idea to regard weather as a kind of God. You can see this in the garments that have a sort of Egyptian feel and the garments that look like ethnic garments.

S/S and A/W 1998

s/s 1998

BETWEEN

In this collection some of the models wore egg-shaped headgear which covered their faces depriving them of individuality and also protection. Some models had their heads framed with square mirrors so the audience could see the models and themselves. Ultimately the collection is about cultural codes and their respective standards. This can be seen at the end of the show when the models stand in a line wearing different length chadors.

a/w 1998

PANORAMIC

Panoramic represents how religion and technology provide a one-sided view of reality and that language is eventually too limited to be able to explain it. It's a sort of guessing game of origins of clothes that demonstrates that every reality ultimately consists of the same elements. Effectively this collection is all about language and the limitations of language. I think Chalayan presents the problem with language perfectly through his creations above.

S/S and A/W 1999

s/s 1999

GEOTROPICS

Chalayan based Geotropics on what a nation signifies and how its borders are determined by natural elements.

a/w 1999

ECHOFORM

This collection is based on the idea that everything we do is an externalization of the body. Again, it's about speed and Chalayan takes direct inspiration from the interiors of cars and planes. The last monumental garment the 'aeroplane' dress operated electronically. From this, Chalayan subsequently went on to make a film with Marcus Tomlinson.