Artist Info
Hussein Chalayan
Hussein Chalayan MBE is a Turkish Cypriot/British fashion designer.
Chalayan and his family were forced to move to England in 1978. He studied for a National Diploma in fashion and clothing at the Warwickshire School of Arts, and went on in 1989 to study Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. His graduate collection in 1993, titled "The Tangent Flows", contained clothes which had been decomposed and rusted after having been buried underground for six weeks with iron fillings. The collection was bought in its entirety by high-fashion boutique Browns.
In 1994, after an internship with Savile Row tailor Timothy Everest, Chalayan established his own company, Cartesia Ltd., as well as Hussein Chalayan ready-to-wear line (he changed the name in 2010 to just "Chalayan").
His catwalk shows are often referred to as performances rather than fashion. In his fashion designs he integrates human body and clothing with technology, science and architecture, playing with the narratives constructed around culture and anthropology.
In 1995, Chalayan worked with avant-garde star Björk, designing the jacket featured on the cover of her album “Post”.
In 1998 he was appointed as creative director of TSE New York; creative director of jewellery brand Asprey, 2001-2004; creative director of Puma, 2008; member of the creative team for ready-to-wear at Vionnet, 2015.
In 2015 Chalayan opened his flagship store in London.
Chalayan was professor at University of Applied Arts Vienna at the school's fashion department, 2014-2019.
Chalayan’s designs have included dresses containing moving airplane parts, a robot dress loaded with Swarovski crystals and Tyvek garments that resembled furniture and could be folded down to envelope size. They have been showcased in museums such as the Palais du Louvre, London’s Design Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.
EXHIBITIONS
"Hussein Chalayan, The Box" art project commissioned by the Pippy Houldsworth Gallery (2013 May)
Solo exhibition "Fashion Narratives" at Les Arts Decoratifs, Paris (2011 July – November)
Installation " I Am Sad Leyla (Üzgünüm Leyla)" exhibited during a solo show at Lisson Gallery, London.
Solo exhibition '1994–2010' at the Istanbul Modern (2010 July – October)
Solo exhibition ' From Fashion and Back' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (2010 April – June)
Hussein Chalayan: From Fashion and Back – Comprehensive selection of Hussein Chalayan's 15 years of work exhibited at the Design Museum, London (2009 January – May)
Hussein Chalayan, 10 years of work retrospective exhibition, Groninger Museum, The Netherlands, then travelled to Wolfsburg, Germany. Sponsored by Turquality (2005 April – September)
Echoform retrospective, Galerist, Istanbul (2003 April)
Airmail clothing – Musee de la Mode, Palais du Louvre, Photography by Paul Wetherell, Graphics by Mike and Rebecca (1999 December)
Solo exhibition at Collete, Paris (1998 Paris)
Solo exhibition – The Window Gallery, Prague (1996 August – September)
Chalayan has been listed as one of the "25 most powerful figures in the industry" by the British Fashion Council, and was also credited by Time magazine as one of its ‘100 Most Influential Innovators of the 21st Century’.
AWARDS
Hussein Chalayan received "Fashion Visionary Award" for his 20 years of Design Excellence during Audi Fashion Festival, Singapore (2013 May)
Hussein Chalayan received The Lucky Strike Designer Award. This award is annually presented by the Raymond Loewy Foundation (2012 November)
Winner of Outstanding Lifetime Achievement to Design at the FX International Interior Design Awards, London (2009 November)
Brit Insirance Designs of the Year Award in the Fashion category for the A/W'07 Airborne collection (2008 March) . A/W'07 LED Dress exhibited as part of the 100 nominations exhibition in the Design Museum, London.
Awarded Design Star Honoree by The Fashion Group International at their annual Night of Stars Gala, New York (2007 October)
Hussein Chalayan awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2006 (2006 June)
British Fashion Awards – Designer of the Year (2000 February)
British Fashion Awards – Designer of the Year (1999 March)
Winner of the first Absolut Vodka, Absolut Creation Award (1995 September)
