Thanks to Swarovski, we can now get to experience the beautiful Autumn/Winter 2016 fashion show from Hussein Chalayan in full 360-degree (yeah, some say that it’s akin to a immersive virtual reality show, but we’ll see).
Coining the German culture as inspiration, the British/Turkish Cypriot fashion designer who has a penchant for avant garde concepts imagined his latest collection as a journey along the autobahn, from folk culture fairytales to clubland and the space age, at the recent Paris Fashion Week.
And in the midst of them all, Chalayan managed to infuse the pristine-cut crystals from Swarovski, as forms of embellishments – or highlights of the show.
Runway Photo: Dan Lecca
These range from ponytail-style earrings and accessories with dark crystals, to the emboldening of tiny coloured stones on prints inspired by cutting patterns in German magazine Burda as well as blocks of sewn-on crystals on prints inspired by the road signs from German Autobahns, along with patterned embellishment on long smock dresses.
Chalayan commented:
“The whole show was based on Teutonic culture, so the digits on the landscape concept was about speeding across the country. I liked the idea that the digits were made of crystal, which is something that’s usually quite glamorous, but here we used it in a more technical way. The numbers are static, but the way they shine as well almost suggested movement. It was a nice way of capturing the idea without using moving digital clocks. The crystal words are from German fairy tales, because the whole fairy tale culture comes from Germany. I thought that instead of using imagery from fairy tales it would be much nicer to use the words which I thought was much more powerful. There was also a section based on Berghain and techno culture, so we had club lights where the light became crystal, and I looked at the floor plans of Berghain, where each floor was sequins but then had Swarovski inserted in the middle of the embroideries, where the dancing and the activity happens. The other crystal embroideries were based on spaceship dashboards. I looked at cars first, but then I thought it would be nice to look at spaceships because spaceships are the ultimate car. And then we embroidered it with Swarovski because it was really nice to take something quite slick and add charm to it by embroidering it and adding crystals.”
Watch the show in full 360° here:
COUTURE TROOPERS MAGAZINE 