Fashion

 Meet Hussein Chalayan’s Peeping Ladies 

If Vivienne Westwood had designed the long chiffon dresses with their embroidered images of women in chadors and veils, she might have helpfully provided the journalists backstage with some clues as to her thought processes. Something along the lines of her illuminating views on the Scottish referendum perhaps, such as: "I love veils. I think they're much better than what we wear in the West. I hate the West."

Instead we had Hussein Chalayan's more gnomic responses to interpret. "It's not really about Arabs," he said, "but about North Africa, Andalucia and the Moorish influences in Spain."


But what about those face veils, Hussein? Didn't you once preface a collection with a statement about how much you didn't like them?"
"This collection was called the Moor's Gaze," continued Chalayan. "It's about looking out. We called them Peeping Ladies. They're looking at you… they're half concealed in the folds. They become almost part of the wearer. And I like the way they also look slightly Ninja."

The backstage rush doesn't do justice to Chalayan, who approaches his work from a deep and thoughtful, if occasionally naïve, standpoint that doesn't always translate into coherent sound bites. So perhaps it's best to simply focus on the clothes, which after all, showed him at the top of his game once more.



Long, draped , tiered or flared, flute-hemmed dresses, jumpsuits, kimono sleeved tunics, laser, lace-effects, braid embellishment, shadow patterns and a refreshing lime-green orange-tree print built into a collection of classic, Chalayan fluid shapes, with plenty of new interest.

That the minimalist opener was as compelling as the abstract and impressionist prints is testament to his talent, even if sometimes it leaves his clothes in store without the didactic identity required to mark out brands these days. That won't matter a bit this time.

 

 

 

Getting steamy with Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake's surreal show included highly textured, honeycomb-style clothes that had been made employing his 3D Stream Stretch technique

Show notes announcing that Issey Miyake was preparing to harness the "creative power of wind" caused a few sniggers among the British press before this show, but we were forced to stifle the snorts when it became clear what that entailed.

Smirks turned to grins of sheer delight when Ei Wada, a member of the Open Reel Ensemble, took to the catwalk to set off a series of helium balloons attached to the ends of strips of magnetic tape. As the magnetic tape was reeled and unreeled by devices that looked like old cassette players, the balloons went up and down and emitted sounds. Then Wada sat down at an organ and starting bashing out chords to a background beat.


It was typically surreal stuff from Miyake, who hadn't finished with us yet - for his next trick, he would use steam to create 3D fabric, according to his 3D Stream Stretch technique. This is his method of applying steam to cloth that has been pre-creased and folded into a pattern. The steam then pops out various shapes, so the material takes on a three-dimensional quality that looks at times like a honeycomb, or an ice cube tray, or a shell, or ripples on water. It has been employed before in Miyake shows, but not in such easy shapes.

While Wada crashed away on the organ, smiling models (another innovation) sauntered down the runway swathed in textured fantastical forms over crunchy, starched loose trousers and shorts. The origami-style materials were fascinating to watch, fashioned into simple shift dresses and oversized blazers, bubble-hem skirts and shirts. Some wore hats, rippled like giant conches, others carried more conventional patent bags.


Miyake is often quoted as saying that his designs are not for hanging on walls - they are for wearing. And as conceptual as this collection was, the angles were striking rather than unflattering, the shapes louche rather than tricky. Statement pieces, sure, but not impossible.