Hussein Chalayan
PARIS, March 7, 2003
By Sarah Mower
Is it possible that Hussein Chalayan is thinking the same way everyone else is? For fall he showed small, drapey cutaway dresses; skinny, skinny pants; and some great utility/patchwork jackets and coats, decorated with embroidery and zippers. Add in a miniskirt with D-ring garter tabs, glove-leather formfitting dresses and high heels, and the descriptions begin to read like a roundup of the season’s most important fashion headlines.As always, though, the genius is in the execution. Chalayan came at these ideas from his own distinctive direction, elevating the collection above mere trendiness. For several seasons he’s been influential in cutting abstract layers into clothing and superimposing elements of ethnicwear onto urban materials. Now all that experimentalism has come together to form cool, downright wantable stuff. Dresses, jackets and coats came with pieced-in jigsaws of plaid, zones of military drab, the odd patch of shearling and fragments of olive branch–patterned embroideries derived from Turkish folk costume. Sound complicated? It wasn’t. “It looks much less conceptual,” beamed Julie Gilhart, fashion director of Barneys New York, after the show. “The jackets and miniskirts are great.”
Nevertheless, the burden of Chalayan’s allusions is impossible to ignore. His complex performance-art presentation plumbed the foreboding imagery of religious guilt and impending war but ended with a group of girls popping open inflatable pockets as they stood next to a wooden boatlike installation. The designer said it symbolized Noah’s Ark: hope for humanity after the deluge.
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Fall 2003 Ready-to-Wear
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Alberta Ferretti Alessandro Dell'Acqua Alexander McQueen Anna Molinari Anna Sui Ann Demeulemeester Anne Klein -
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Badgley Mischka Balenciaga BCBG Max Azria Behnaz Sarafpour Betsey Johnson Bill Blass Blaak Boudicca Burberry Prorsum -
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Calvin Klein Collection Capucci Carolina Herrera Celine Chloé Christian Dior Clements Ribeiro Comme des Garçons Costume National -
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D&G Diane von Furstenberg DKNY Dolce & Gabbana Donna Karan Dries Van Noten -
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Emanuel Ungaro Emilio Pucci Emma Cook Emporio Armani -
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Fendi -
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Gianfranco Ferré Gibo Giorgio Armani Givenchy Gucci -
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Hamish Morrow Helmut Lang Hussein Chalayan -
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Imitation -
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James Coviello Jasper Conran Jean Paul Gaultier Jeremy Scott Jill Stuart Jil Sander John Galliano Julien Macdonald Junya Watanabe -
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Katayone Adeli Kenneth Cole New York Krizia -
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Lagerfeld Gallery Lanvin Louis Vuitton Luella -
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Marc by Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs Marni Martine Sitbon Martin Grant Matthew Williamson MaxMara Michael Kors Missoni Miu Miu Moschino -
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Narciso Rodriguez Nicole Farhi Nicole Miller -
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Oscar de la Renta -
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Paul Smith Peter Som Pierrot Prada Preen Proenza Schouler -
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Ralph Lauren Rick Owens Roberto Cavalli Rochas Roland Mouret -
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Sonia Rykiel Sophia Kokosalaki Stella McCartney -
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Tommy Hilfiger -
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Undercover -
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Valentino Vera Wang Veronique Branquinho Versace Versus Viktor & Rolf -
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Wink -
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Y-3 Yohji Yamamoto Y’s Yves Saint Laurent -
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Zac Posen Zero + Maria Cornejo