Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Awesome Blossom

Today in my design appreciation class, my professor showed us a video clip of Hussein Chalayan's 2000 Fall collection to help illustrate the fact that a viewer's past experience contributes to aesthetic response.

The collection blurred the line between interior design and apparel design in that while models sauntered the runway, they would lift up seat covers and wear them. The little tables even transformed into suitcases. The collection apparently alluded to fleeing (of people from the Bosnian ethnic conflict in the 90s) which explains the minimalism of the clothes. Interesting juxtaposition with the morphing furniture.

The finale- which of course, I found mesmerizing- was that of a round coffee table that metamorphosed into a skirt. A wooden skirt!

While I unfortunately sought out the same video, my efforts were fruitless. Instead, here's a photo:



Anyway, I was so impressed by Mr. Chalayan's designs, that as I was learning more about him, I made the connection that he was the one who did this iconic robotic dress from Spring 2007:



See the Spring 2007 collection in motion:


It reminds me of flowers in bloom...



Photos from style.com.

4 comments:

Kseniya said...

this is a really cool collection! you have a nice teacher:)
x

Grace said...

i'm glad you enjoyed it- it's quite mesmerizing isn't it?

my prof is awesome. she knows how to make things interesting. :)

Wendy said...

The wooden skirt is unbelievable! I wonder if its really heavy and hard to stay on.

Ali said...

heh. we got shown the wooden skirt in a lecture too! last year