Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum

Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum

22 January, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

Tom Jeffreys is seriously impressed by a major retrospective from brilliant designer Hussein Chalayan.

Major. That is the word fashion folk like to bandy around. That is the word that applies to the Hussein Chalayan exhibition at the Design Museum. Hussein is one of the biggest names in British fashion, having been crowned British Designer of the Year in 1999 and 2000 and awarded an MBE in 2006. His work is consistently avant-garde, conceptual and mind-blowingly impressive.  Famous designs include a dress with over 200 moving lasers and another covered in Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LEDs. He's also given the same Swarovski treatment to the wings of an aeroplane. Major.

Unfortunately Hussein has also had well-documented financial difficulties – not surprising considering the levels of technological wizardry involved, and the fact that you can't really imagine Keira Kightley tottering down the red carpet in one of Hussein's high-concept design pieces. All those lasers probably don't come cheap either.

All this means that when I pop down to the Design Museum to the grand opening of Hussein Chalayan: From fashion and back I have three conflicting thoughts. Or maybe four. Anyway we'll get to them in due course, and who's counting? Here goes:

1.    What on earth does 'From fashion and back' mean?
2.    Where's all the champagne gone?
3.    Yeah, wine'll do. I guess.
4.    Where are all the famous people?
5.    Ooh, canapés.
6.    Where are the clothes?
7.    Oh, they're upstairs.
8.    Wow.

Often you (by which I mean I) go to openings to see famous people, drink champagne and schmooze. Well this is different. I have a quick chat with Hussein – what a charming fellow. He looks stressed though. But hey, when I get my retrospective at the Design Museum, spend all day answering questions from the press and all night hoping that it's going well, when that day comes, rest assured, I'll probably be stressed too – and I walk past Erin O'Connor (we're not on speaking terms any more).

But then it's clothes time. Although to be honest it's more art time. Because viewing Hussein's work – particularly in a museum rather than a catwalk context – you get the impression that this isn't really about fashion at all. It's about thinking of the most bizarre and visually astonishing thing that one could possibly create and doing it. A chic grey medieval archer? Hussein's done it. A hat that moves up and down like a jelly fish? Hussein's done it. A dress that turns into a table? Hussein's done it. A frickin' table!

The exhibition is quite small but exquisitely laid out, some obvious pieces are missing but it's cool to see the less famous stuff, and if we're being a tiny bit finickity (which I am) then it might all be a little... um, finickity. But that's Hussein for you. The pieces are bold enough to stand alone without the slightly gimmicky presentation. But hey, the whole show is incredible. It underlines the important body of work that he's produced, the originality of thought in which is most probably unparalleled.

I can't recommend this highly enough. Major? Indeed.

Tom Jeffreys