Photography by Chris Moore
CHALAYAN
CHALAYAN BLACK LINE – AUTUMN/WINTER 2013
The Autumn/Winter 2013 Chalayan Collection was developed around the dichotomy between domestically earthbound environments: disembodiment and metamorphosis.
As has long been a part of the design language of the house, the A/W13 Chalayan collection takes details from household items such as sofa covers, upholstery etc., and fuses them with garments that appear to be escaping like the spirit leaving it’s body.
The collection consists of organza fitted dresses and tops with light layers of floating shells. The top layers are like the alter egos of the garments beneath, floating above them as if they are about to leave but never completely going, like a spirit reluctant to escape the body. Dresses in some cases look like they are being dragged up by one shoulder, as to be lifted to the heavens, leaving lace undergarments behind to simultaneously evoke a gap between comfortable domestic settings and a sense of escapism.
Body conscious dresses, jackets and coats appear as if they are about to burst open and produce new incarnations of themselves – representing an anticipation of change but remaining frozen in time.
Prints and Jacquards on dresses and trousers are inspired by the idea of the body becoming an electric current, in come cases they are floating away, at other times they are used in more structured tailoring fabrics which encapsulate the body.
The collection also features peeling wall prints in 3D textures on dresses and trousers to comment on an urban setting where information is beginning to escape, drawing parallels with garments caught in mid exodus as seen in the rest of the collection.
Colours of the collection this season range from oxblood red and pinkberry to airforce blue and olive green.