Exhibition Review: Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum

The Design Museum in London, located by the Thames, was founded in 1989. It claims to be the first museum of modern design and has exhibited the work of many important designers including Zaha Hadid, Paul Smith and Jan Kaplicky. Currently they are showing the Brit Insurance Design of the Year awards, which includes the work of Alexander McQueen, Min-Kyu Choi.

2009 saw the showcase of the legendary Turkish designer (preferring to call himself a 'design artist') Hussein Chalayan, renowned for his innovation in use of materials, pattern cutting and technology. Chalayan graduated from Central St Martins in 1993, and has won 'British Designer of the Year award twice. Currently, he works as the creative director for Puma, and lives in London where he works from his East London studio, though preferring to show in Paris.

Exploring fifteen years worth of his work and inspiration, the exhibition is the first of its kind, being that there hasnt previously been a solo exhition of Chalayans work in the UK until now, making this a rather important retrospective. It includes collections such as 'Readings', an impressive display of moving lasers which make up the dress; 'Airborne', garments comprised of LED lights and Swarovzki crystals and the more recent 'Inertia', which is 'clothes inspired by the shape a body might make in the propulsion of a car crash'.
There are several projections, including one of the 'Afterwards' collection, which involved furniture transforming (with the help of the models) into clothing, and a short film, 'Place to Passage'.
What struck me, as I walked around was how different the designs look in person, as opposed to the countless fashion magazine images they are seen in. There is so much detail that is easily missed, such as rich embroidery on the 'Ambimorphous' collection of 2002, and the sculpted, laser cut, 'puffs' of tulle, of the 'Before Minus Now' collection of 2000, It has to be said, seeing some of the garments up close did lend to me being slightly dissapointed, particularly the 'Inertia' pieces, which, I feel, looked more pleasing in the pages of the magazines.

I did think that it was cut slightly short, as I expected to be there alot longer. Considering Chalayans contribution to the design world, I thought perhaps he deserved a little more. That said, I thought it was a visually stimulating overview of his work, and it moved along at a nice pace. It was particlarly nice to see his pieces up close and fully appreciate his work.