21 posts tagged "Hussein Chalayan"
Donatella On Riccardo, The New Faces
Of Cacharel, LVMH Opens Up, And More…
Donatella Versace wants to know—along with the rest of the world—will Riccardo Tisci (left) do Dior? She asks the Givenchy designer the burning question in conversation for the new Interview. Alas, Tisci doesn’t give her the scoop, but he does open up about his current music obsession, Nicki Minaj, as well as old favorites like Missy Elliott, Ciara, and Lil’ Kim. [Interview]
Book your reservations now: Luxury giant LVMH is opening its kitchens to the public in October on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have ever wondered how your favorite Dior perfume or Glenmorangie single-malt whiskey is made, now is your chance to take a tour of the European distilleries, vineyards, and couture houses of LVMH. [WWD]
16-year-old Molly Smith is going to have to take a break from playing football and Grand Theft Auto for the time being because she’s the newly announced star of Burberry. The Derbyshire native, who started modeling two years ago after being discovered during a Covent Garden shopping trip, will be appearing in the brand’s upcoming Fall 2011 campaign, shot by Mario Testino. [Vogue U.K.]
There is a new sun rising at Cacharel. Dawei Sun and his Belle Ninon co-designer, Ling Liu, have been tapped as the new artistic directors for the French brand’s women’s, men’s, children’s, and accessories collections. [WWD]
From now on, it’s just Chalayan. In an effort to tighten up his brand identity, designer Hussein Chalayan has shortened his label’s name. His new name might be trimmed down, but he’s expanding, too. He is launching a lower-priced collection of signature pieces, called Grey Label, set to hit stores in September. [Hussein Chalayan]
Alex De Betak, After Hours
In our latest “After Hours” video, filmmaker Alexis Dahan hits the party circuit with the near-legendary show producer and scenographer Alex de Betak. You may be less than familiar with his name—you’ll definitely be familiar with his work.
De Betak is the go-to for the biggest labels, designers, and companies, and has been responsible for some of the biggest productions in recent fashion show history. His client list not only reads like a who’s-who, it’s also a how-long: De Betak has logged over a decade with Christian Dior (whose former designer, John Galliano, had an incurable taste for operatic productions) and Hussein Chalayan, and years with Victoria’s Secret and Rodarte (whose recent MOCA retrospective show he also designed). He’s also got the rare distinction of being the only man to create a larger-than-life crystal chandelier of Gisele.
Music for “After Hours” provided by Io Echo and The Drums.
Hussein Chalayan: The Film
The cerebral designer Hussein Chalayan is one of fashion’s deep thinkers, and his latest collection, Kaikoku—Japanese for “open society,” following up on Spring’s Sakoku, “closed society”—is no exception. So when the time came to present it, Chalayan not only showed the clothes and shot a lookbook, he went ahead and directed a short film to spotlight the collection (though it’s just about feature-length compared to the two-to-four-minute flicks other designers often create). Your full 19 minutes of spooky, smoky, Chalayanism—debuting here exclusively—starts now. Click above to check it out.
Flower Power
There’s been an explosion of florals and flower prints on the runways, and you can trust that if a trend is in the offing, Nick Knight will not be far behind. Case in point: The latest exhibition at SHOWStudio’s Mayfair gallery, Florist, which opens tomorrow. The Web site-cum-gallery project is celebrating its 10th birthday this year, and Knight decided a few bouquets would be a fitting anniversary gift. “Of course there is no better birthday gift than flowers,” he told Style.com. “When you think about it, so many fashion photographers were quite taken by flowers—Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe and Baron Adolph de Meyer all trained their lenses on blossoms as a bit of a hobby. I’m not going to say that it is cleansing or anything, but….”
Vivienne Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, Lady Amanda Harlech, Guy Bourdin, and Sølve Sundsbø (whose work is pictured) are a few of the celebrants to craft a floral gift—in any shape—to contribute. (Those shapes have taken the form of photos, dresses, head pieces and one-off objets d’art.) During the week, designers like Mary Katrantzou and Stephen Jones will also create pieces live, to be broadcast in real time from the Bruton Street studios. Knight has also snared the likes of John Galliano, Gareth Pugh, Hussein Chalayan, and Kate Moss to create their own interpretation of flowers, all to come during the winter-long exhibit.
No doubt a decade in the business is a thing worth celebrating—we’ve just finished doing the same ourselves, in fact. And Knight’s highlight of the past ten years? “Definitely, the SHOWstudio’s work in fashion films, which is still rather uncharted territory,” he said. “It’s an amazing knowing that every day there is something to create, something waiting to be invented. It’s a feeling that makes me want to jump out of bed every morning.”
At London’s Frieze With Raf, Hussein,
And A Few Giant Purple Horses, Too
Why is London cooler than usual? Because it’s Frieze-ing. But, given that Germans seemed to be the dominant nationality on the opening day of the Frieze Art Fair, it made sense that it was Claudia Schiffer’s open-to-buy budget that was giving gallerists chills. Plus, she was appropriately emblematic of the fashion/art nexus that gives Frieze its special flavor. Case in point: The first person I saw as I sailed through security was Raf Simons; the last, as I headed for the exit five hours later, was Hussein Chalayan. And the day began with a press brunch given by COS, Europe’s favorite “masstige” chain, followed by a curators’ tour of Frame, the new art wing of Frieze, which COS is supporting.
Each invitation to the brunch was accompanied by a hand-penned missal from artists Michael Crowe and Lenka Clayton as part of a project called Mysterious Letters, through which they intend to communicate with every single person in the world. (Just two kids with a dream!) Still, the optimistic monumentalism of their scheme felt typical of Frieze 2010, especially after the flatness of last year’s fair. There was lots and lots of really big stuff, taking a cue from the scale of Frieze itself, with more than 170 of the world’s best galleries on display. Sadie Coles was showing a 13-foot-high fireplace cast in bronze by the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone; Emmanuel Perrotin had Xavier Veilhan’s high-octane futurist-style sculpture of a carriage drawn by four horses. It was almost life-size. And purple, to make it even more inescapable. (That’s it, pictured above, at a previous installation in Versailles.)
If 2009 featured a strong handicraft subtext, 2010 resurrected that old standby, photo-based work. Chalayan’s favorite was Marlo Pascual on Casey Kaplan’s stand. The Tennessee native’s dramatically repurposed images also captured the imagination of Francesca Amfitheatrof and Carlo Brandelli—and enough museums and collectors that Pascual was a first-day sellout. That’s the kind of new-name success story that offers an uplifting alternative to all the grandstanding that takes place at the blue-chip booths. Not to say that that isn’t enthralling, too. In fact, I’ve got to get me back there tomorrow for some more.