By Neslihan
Chalayan's last collection can be best described as polished sportwear. He pushed the female body into cubistic forms and gave them power by adding pointy shoulders, oversized shirts and straight lines. He played with proportion and tried to find a balance between his rectilinear designs and feminine tayloring, That's why the whole collection felt so natural and humane, even though there were lots of 'stiff' shapes. It never felt artificial. It was poetic, pure and honest instead.
While he was creating geometrical creatures in the first part of the show, the second one was all about classy tennis players. He created waists by using peplums and did some exquisite tayloring. The zippers and horizontal lines contributed to the sporty feel of this collection.
Even his night gowns were sporty due to their simple, straight lines. And since this collection was so pure in terms of colour (predominantly white/black/overexposed pastels and some popping blue and orange), Chalayan was free to use prints to spice things up. And boy, he did! He combined the prints with the clinical whites and created asymmetrical dresses. All the Chalayan keywords were present but what about the futuristic component? It was there but subtlely processed in the lady like hats, which accompanied the sporty deux-pièces. Hence the transparent hatch in the front of the hats. In other words: it was a divine, balanced, breezy and poetic show praising sport's aesthetics and keeping it down to earth. Only like Chalayan does it.
Peplumming your way to the tennis court
Clinique chique
Sporty godesses
A neurotic splash of prints
Pictures: http://www.style.com/
