Born: Nicosia, Cyprus, 1970
More fine artist than fashion designer, Hussein Chalayan has broken the mould of British fashion by being a quiet minimalist as opposed to rebel without a cause. He is the only British designer to compete intellectually with Comme des Garçons.
Chalayan graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London in 1993 with a first-class honours degree and final collection entitled ‘The Tangent Flows’. Armed with an envelope of metal filings and fabric buried in his back garden, his unconventional approach brought a commission from the equally unconventional Icelandic singer, Björk.
An intense thinker, who isn’t part of the fashion circuit, Chalayan’s main concession to commercialism is a capsule high street collection and a contract with New York cashmere company, TSE. His experimental ideas – the wooden corset, the moulded dress with armrest – are counterpointed by his pliable paper clothes. His designs – best analysed in depth and from all sides – suit the art installation approach: he has exhibited in Paris, Prague and at London’s Science Museum. Awarded British Designer of the Year in March 1999, it is a pity Chalayan cannot experiment with shape and form to his heart’s content. Fittingly, he constructed a plastic mechanical dress with designer Paul Topen to feature in London’s Millennium Dome.
