Hussein Chalayan, the Cyprus-born British designer who helped to shape the look of ’90s fashion, has once again become the center of the fashion conversation. A few weeks ago, Olivia Rodrigo revived one of his most experimental runway looks from Spring 2016 for The Unraveled Tour, wearing a dress of water-reactive material that dissolved before the crowd with the onset of a faux rain shower. And just last week, he launched a capsule collection with Acne Studios that reimagines some of his most memorable shows, reinterpreting his highly conceptual approach to fashion.
Acne Studios creative director Johnny Johansson proposed a very particular way of paying homage to three of Chalayan’s collections: Ventriloquy (2001), Medea (2002), and Manifest Destiny (2003). The 12-piece collection builds upon Chalayan’s ideas of transformation, regeneration, and experimental construction, but using Acne’s favored utilitarian materials like denim, jersey, and leather. Highlights include deconstructed and patchworked denim dresses, tops, and trousers piped in white and twisted python-print jeans.
“I have always found Hussein’s work to be incredible—he has had a gigantic impact on fashion, and I wanted to bring that back,” says Johansson. “It’s a very special feeling when you work with someone you look up to—all you can do is to let them be free to do what they do. What unites us is the idea that design and creativity should always be the priority.”
Hussein Chalayan Spring 2001
Spring 2002
Spring 2003
Chalayan first won the attention of the fashion industry with his Central Saint Martins graduate collection in 1993. His era-defining collections throughout the late ’90s and into the early 2000s balanced an experimental exhibitionism with a grounded approach to what women really want to wear. (’90s kids will remember him for the Airmail jacket Bjork wears on the cover of her album Post, which was made of actual Tyvek like the iconic envelopes.)
After a lifetime thoughtfully massaging unique, often quite niche references into his own work, Chalayan has now become the reference. And he’s getting to watch a new generation discover his creativity. Ahead, the designer talks to Bazaar about his Acne Studios collaboration, his take on fashion’s reliance on referencing, and continuing to work cross-generationally.
Did you notice any immediate overlaps or contrasts between your own designs and Acne Studios’s?
In general, I would say that what we have in common is our cross-disciplinary approach to design and how we take an interest in many facets of life. We see fashion as a part of culture rather than as a sort of isolated entity. Also the technical precision. And then, we’ve both worked a lot with denim.
What's interesting to you about denim?
I love a familiar material that you can comment on to create new ideas so that it's not familiar. How can you twist that familiarity?
What was the process like of translating some of these pieces for today?
It was really interesting to see how a younger team of people would be looking at my work from such a long time ago. They proposed some designs, which I then engaged with, but I can see, of course, all the references. I think this was the point: It really had to come from them first because that is what was interesting for me at least. I can then see how people from very different generations look at what I've done in the past.
