Hussein Chalayan was born in 1970 in Nicosia, Cyprus, and emigrated to England as a teenager. He graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1993. His graduation collection — titled The Tangent Flows — was buried in a friend's garden for three months with iron filings, then exhumed. Chalayan presented the oxidised, soil-stained, mostly decayed garments as the collection. They were bought, in their entirety, by Browns of South Molton Street within days. He was twenty-three.

The Mechanical Work

Chalayan's subsequent career has included more technically ambitious propositions than any other designer of his generation. His Afterwords collection of 2000 featured furniture that transformed into clothing (the chair covers became dresses; the coffee table became a skirt). His Airmail dress of 1999 could be folded, addressed, and posted. His One Hundred and Eleven collection of 2007 featured five mechanically animated dresses that transformed, live on the runway, through five centuries of silhouette history in ninety seconds.

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I am interested in clothing that changes. Stasis is death. — Hussein Chalayan

The Argument

Chalayan's work articulates, more consistently than almost any designer's, an intellectual position: that clothing is an active, transformable, philosophically expressive medium. His collections have addressed migration, memory, religious identity (particularly Islamic), technology, and geography. He won the British Designer of the Year award in 1999 and 2000.

He has served as design director of Tse (2001–2002), Asprey (2001–2004), Puma (2008–2013), and Vionnet (2015–2016). He continues to operate his eponymous house, which he sold a majority stake in to Cleanrooms in 2016. He received a CBE in 2019.