Monday 11 May 2015

Chalayan - A/W 15 PFW
























(all photos from Vogue.co.uk)

You may, or may not, know that Hussein Chalayan, the Turkish British designer, is one of my all time favourite designers and so I was waiting for Chalayan's A/W 15 show at PFW with great anticipation. The collection, named 'That Night", was all I was hoping for, absolutely stunning and so well crafted. It was set in the beautiful Palais Beaux Arts, a fitting atmosphere for the mixture of evening dresses, deconstructed luxury furs, leather, structured jackets and pleating. The array of different garments made me wonder which trends were going to be big for A/W 15... utilitarian leather dungarees? Fur trimmings? Nude shades? A little bit of everything, it seems. 

Chalayan's collection was based on Agatha Christie's novel 'Murder on the Orient Express', a classic English detective novel and stated that he likes "the idea that the story starts in Istanbul and ends in London and the way in which the West manages to orientalise the East - I enjoyed that cliche weirdly because it gave me a bit of meat to get into. That journey could have started in Prague - why does it start in Istanbul? She associates a mysticism of a darkness with this part of the world." Beginning by manipulating fabrics which aren't usually seen on the catwalk and cause a bit of difficulty when attempting to flow naturally on the body, he managed to extract a couple of elements from the main inspiration - the generally dark palette, the exquisite structured tailoring, the fluid draping and deconstructing and the Alpine knits - without it being too distinct, focusing on the geography rather than the "retelling of the tale through literal allusions to characters."

 This collection also featured heavy-use of mountain scape prints (perhaps referencing the "might of geography" from the carriage window in the novel) and abstract hints of red. Although, constantly bringing out 'ready-to-wear' collections, his collections aren't always 'wearable' but this time round, this may be one of his most commercial collections to date. Like with almost all of his collections, I love all the ensembles but the evening dresses stand out the most to me, whether they are glittery or stark colours, the pleats and cut outs, resembling slashes and reformed using metal hooks. The beautiful detail and delicate craftsmanship always shines through in Chalayan's collections and this season was no different. 

Did you like this collection? Which is your favourite Chalayan collection? 

3 comments:

  1. Really love looks 4 and 5 and love the 20's influence in all of these. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Me too! Stunning aren't they, it's that incredible pleating! Thank you for reading! X

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  2. Looks 1-3 are perfect and I had never heard of this designer, so thanks for sharing! Def looking into other collections very soon.

    xxMel
    goldrusssh.blogspot.com

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