Paris Fashion Week S/S2010 - Hussein Chalayan

PARIS FASHION WEEK S/S2010 – HUSSEIN CHALAYAN

If last season encompassed the sober cuts of the forties and the exaggerated halcyon days of the eighties, is Paris now signalling a return to the fifties? First came the film noir sirens at Dior, then checkerboard patterns at Junya, and now Hussein Chalayan - purveyor of sharp futurism - turns his own deft hand to the post-war years.

Possibly a purposeful rejection of either the dark sensuality or frilly femininity abounding elsewhere, Chalayan's homage to the demure fifties didn't stray too far from the ascribed path with wide brimmed hats and round sunglasses crowning looks of high waisted pencil skirts and capri pants, simple boat-necked blouses and simple cocktail gowns in black and white.

Sheening organic protrusions on evening dresses though, possibly rendered in leather, hinted at Chalayan's penchant for the future. At first snaking almost threateningly around busts and necks, and advancing to encompass whole evening looks with a glistening bombast, this subversion of traditional shapes and notions also manifested itself in a wide-necked draped white shirt, and long-length blazers. Curving exaggeratedly at the hips, these hinted at a Deco-Scif-fi collison, epitomising a collection which - concluding with evening gowns topped by hair nets, as though the fifties siren fled prematurely to set, premiere or future - brought another by-gone era bang up to date.

Posted by Luke Raymond