Chalayan SS 2012 Review

So Hussein Chalayan goes under just Chalayan now. Why did he drop Hussein? More palatable to a Western market? It seems strange that after all these years he's decided to change it. I could probably Google it and find an explanation. Okay I just Googled it. Apparently it's "for the sake of brand identity and consumer ease". Umm okay, whatever. He's also doing a lower priced diffusion line called Grey Label aaaand he's doing pre-collections too so he's really shaping up his brand identity which is sensible.
This collection was in some ways a best-of. There were references to his past collections such as the Turkish embroideries, flight, and as always mind-blowing drape and pattern cutting. So many of his clothes are deceptively simple but once you get up close you'll have an aneurysm just trying to figure out how he made something.
The biggest challenge for avant garde designers is when they want to cross over into fully fledged wearable clothes. Sometimes it's difficult to meld out-there concepts with everyday clothes. Viktor & Rolf are a good example of designers who I think have had less successful results from making that jump but Chalayan is working well because the clothes don't look diluted.

Going To Tokyo

Above: Prada Shrine Tokyo. I mean store.

That's right. I've been stuffing cash in my mattress for the past few months much like a squirrel with a nut hoard.
It's just for a holiday, around 2 weeks. Though I won't have a mountain of cash to spend I'm still gonna go to as many designer stores as possible. I can't buy a Balenciaga dress/jacket/pant/shoe but I may get to touch one which is enough.
My itinerary isn't jam-packed, just 2 weeks of dotting about Tokyo. I'm going to see the Hussein Chalayan Exhibition which will probably give me a heart attack. Totes should've got health insurance.
So I'll take heaps of photos and hopefully get some decent articles done too.

Just quickly thought I'd throw in my 2 cents on this ID Magazine/Daria Werbowy/racist fashion spread.

After reading many other comments and articles crucifying ID I started to wonder just how truly upset people were. A lot of comments came off feeling like faux-indignation. I could be completely wrong but it just felt like the whole thing is being sensationalised. People are referring to the black models as 'blackcessories'. It's like, oh how funny and witty to throw blackcessory into an article about race, it really makes it snappy right?
It's word vomit.
So I've looked over the photos and tried to erase all the comentary I've read about the shoot and ask myself Is it racist?

I thought of a couple of other scenarios like what if all the models were black? Would it still be racist?
What if all the models were white and instead of Daria Werbowy it was Ajak Deng?
The shoot is clearly fantasy like a lot of fashion shoots these days (remember gritty 90's realism? Oh em gee) but what fantasy is being portrayed? The black rape fantasy? The aggressive black person versus the submissive white woman? The car repair shop fantasy where all the staff members are black? Hmm.

Above: Ajak Deng, Givenchy Fall 2010

Sadly it does come off as racist. I say sadly because it's beautifully shot and styled. I would've liked for all of the models to have been black (am I being racist?) because you know as well as I do that black models (and Chinese, Indian etc) don't get enough coverage in the fashion industry.
Or if all the models were a hundred types of ethnicities like a Benetton campaign, that would've been cool.

More ethnic diversity!!!!