Word: chalayan
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...Hussein Chalayan, a Londoner of Turkish-Cypriot descent with strong cultural ties to Istanbul, often finds assumptions about the city to be wide of the mark. "It's the New York not only of Turkey but of the region," he says. "Being next to water is liberating and makes it liberal?gay and lesbian scene and all. It's a cultural soup where one minute you could feel like you are in Paris, the next Cairo, then Moscow...
Sure, there was a futuristic mood on many runways--including silver-streaked trapeze dresses at Fendi, plastic corsets at Dolce & Gabbana and even articulated gold-colored robot leggings at Balenciaga (right). There was a hint of the high-tech future in Hussein Chalayan's remote-controlled dresses, as they shifted from long to short. (Disappearing hemlines are also a trend--most are upper-thigh high). And the '80s notion that fashion will be about athletic wear in ever more technologically advanced fabrics still has plenty of currency...
...many designers have explored the veiling concept. At Balenciaga, a cyclamen head scarf that appeared at the end of the show was a replica of a similar one Cristóbal Balenciaga designed in the '60s. Politics has surfaced in the past too. Eight years ago, the Turkish designer Hussein Chalayan presented a collection modeled by women in chadors...
With her black Balenciaga pants, black Hussein Chalayan top and punkish hairstyle, Elizabeth Pearce doesn't look like a hard-driving attorney. Yet Betsy, as she likes to be called, is often the first person a designer contacts when it's time to sign a contract. She represented Alexander McQueen when he left Givenchy and sold a majority stake in his company to the Gucci Group. She handled the contracts for Lars Nilsson and Rick Owens at Nina Ricci and Revillon, respectively, and is representing architect Thomas Juul-Hansen in a deal to design stores for jeweler David Yurman...
Rather than reference styles from past eras, Chalayan, who is Turkish Cypriot and based in London, molds each collection around a concept derived from outside the fashion world, whether it be the role of women in Islamic society (chadors of varying lengths) or the plight of families forced to leave their homes in times of war (the inspiration for the table skirt). He is equally dedicated to exploring technology (plastic dresses with shifting mechanized panels, and fabrics adorned with computer-generated prints). "The only new work you can do in fashion is via technology," he says. "It lets you create...