World of Design: Hussein Chalayan

As the world knows Hussein Chalyan as a Fashion Designer, he describes himself as an ‘Immigrant in various disciplines’, someone who insolently experiments with art, design, film, commerce and everything in between.To understand why I am inspired by him, lets have a peep into the journey of this outsider and a mystic in fashion industry.Being an immigrant in various disciplines implies that he likes fusing unlikely cultures and embracing duality in life and work.Interest in technology, design and in the world of women beginning from a young age, he designs on concepts and feelings like:Separation – As he was separated at young age from mother for education– Airmail clothing was a manifestation of his feelings.Value – Cartesia was buried in earth for a few months/years , making him realize that dress with a present value becomes future archaeological object with a different value.Displacement – How you could carry your possessions at the time of war – Table dress was inspired.Speed – Inertia – speed in which lives revolving, speed of body to speed of consumption, economyHe designed the Crystalized moment of crash in art gallery, then fashion show and finally as the swift shoe with Puma.Disembodiment – religious ideals of past replaced with obsession with lifestyle, ethereal form of body with a juxtaposition inspired by Jacob’s ladder, fusion with image of the body from French riviera from the 60’s - douche fondante.His design objective is to empower women who is self-confident, not an object and who doesn’t have to hide behind her clothes.He uses live Turkish classical music and many kinds of live arts in his shows to showcase hybrids.Transformation – To showcase impossibility of technology, he worked on project one hundred and eleven which emphasized on movements relating to liberation of the body. He created these dresses with mechanical engineers, programmers, bringing different technologies together to project change of an era in each dress.He thinks being an outsider is a privilege that has allowed him to see that aliens worlds can co exist and can inspire each other leading to connections leading to developing new disciplines all together.Very inspirational for a person like me with interests in many disciplines and how to bring all of them together and create some design magic!