About Hussein Chalayan
Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and was educated in Cyprus and England.
1993 June
Graduates from Central Saint Martins with a BA (First Class Honours) in Fashion. His graduate collection, The Tangent Flows, is displayed in the luxury boutique Browns.
1997 February – May
Participates in the exhibition The Cutting Edge: Fifty Years of British Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
1998 January
Designs a capsule collection for Topshop UK.
1998 – 2000
Acts as creative director and head designer for the luxury brand TSE New York.
1998 April
His work is exhibited at the French fashion boutique Colette in Paris.
1998 October
He is nominated in the Avant Garde Designer category at the 1998 VH1 Fashion Awards.
1998 October – January
Participates in the exhibition Addressing the Century: 100 Years of Art and Fashion at The Hayward Gallery, London.
1998 November
Designs costumes for current/SEE, performed by the Michael Clark Dance Company.
1999 March
He is named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.
1999 April
Participates in the exhibition Visions of the Body: Fashion or Invisible Corset at the Kyoto Costume Institute.
1999 October
Collaborates with Marks & Spencer on a capsule collection.
1999 December
His collection Airmail Clothing 1999 is shown at the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris.
2000 February
He is named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards for the second consecutive year.
2001 February – May
Participates in the exhibition Century City at Tate Modern, London, with an installation titled After Words.
2001 – 2008
Signs a licensing deal with Italian manufacturer Gibo for seven years.
2001 September – October
Chalayan’s Airmail Dress installation, accompanied by Marcus Tomlinson’s short film Aeroplane Dress, is shown at Egofugal: The 7th International Istanbul Biennial and at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery.
2001 October
His Airmail Dress installation is included in the Design Council’s Great Expectations exhibition, held at Grand Central Station, New York.
2001 October – January
Participates in the London Fashion exhibition, organised by the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
2001 October – January
Participates in the exhibition Radical Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with the installation Ventriloquy.
2001 – 2004
He is appointed Creative Director of Asprey.
2003 May – August
Participates in the exhibition Goddess: The Classical Mode at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2003 July
Temporal Meditations, a film directed by Chalayan to promote his Spring/Summer ’04 collection, is screened at Pitti Uomo, Florence and Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
2003
Place to Passage, a multiscreen film directed by Chalayan, is launched at the Truman Brewery, London.
2004
Directs short film Anaesthetics, shown at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan.
2004 April
The Hussein Chalayan shop opens in Daikanyama, Tokyo.
2004 June
Launches a secondary line, Chalayan by Hussein Chalayan, for Spring/Summer ’05.
2004 August
Hussein Chalayan signs a licence and distribution agreement with the Japanese company Via Bus Stop, a subsidiary of Onward Kashiyama.
2005 April – September
A retrospective spanning ten years is shown at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands.
2005 June
Directs film Absent Presence, featuring Tilda Swinton, for the Turkish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
2005 October
A ten-year retrospective opens at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany.
2006 January
Collaborates with Swarovski on the collection Runway Rocks.
2006 January
Directs short film, titled Compassion Fatigue, for Garanti Gallery, Istanbul.
2006 May – September
Contributes several pieces to the exhibition Anglomania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2006 June
Hussein Chalayan is awarded an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
2006 November
Several of his pieces are exhibited in Skin and Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (November – March 2007), The National Art Center, Tokyo (June – August 2007), and Somerset House, London (April – August 2008).
2007 October
Recognised as a ‘Design Star’ at the Fashion Group International Awards, New York.
2008 January
Hussein Chalayan and Puma become strategic partners, wherein he becomes Puma’s Creative Director for 5 years.
2008
Launches installation The LEVEL Tunnel for Absolut Vodka.
2008 March
His Autumn/Winter ’07 Airborne collection wins the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Award in the Fashion category, and is also nominated for the award in the Interactive category. His LED Dress is shown as part of the nominations exhibition at the Design Museum, London.
2008 September – February
Several pieces are exhibited in the Gothic: Glamour exhibition organised by the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
2009 January – May
Hussein Chalayan: From Fashion and Back, a comprehensive selection of the artist’s fifteen years of work, is exhibited at the Design Museum, London.
2009 February
Chalayan’s Wooden Egg Helmet (SS ’98) and Crash Hat (SS ’09) are shown at the Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
2009 March
Signs a deal with YOOX to design a menswear capsule collection.
2009 April
Signs fragrance licence Airborne with Japanese firm COMME des GARÇONS.
2009 June
Designs a co-branded capsule collection with the American denim company J Brand.
2010 February
Designs costumes for German choreographer Sasha Waltz for the performance Passion, which premieres in Paris.
2010 April – June
Hussein Chalayan: From Fashion and Back is shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
2010 July
Lisson Gallery, London commissions him to produce the installation I Am Sad Leyla.
2010 July – October
A Hussein Chalayan retrospective opens at Istanbul Modern.
2011 September – January
A Hussein Chalayan retrospective opens at the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris.
2011
Rizzoli publishes the first complete monograph on his work, titled Hussein Chalayan.
2011 July
Receives an Honorary Fellowship from UAL (University of the Arts London).
2012 March
Creates a co-branded capsule collection with Mavi Jeans.
2012 May
Time magazine names Hussein Chalayan one of its All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons.
2012 November
Receives the Raymond Loewy Lucky Strike Designer Award in Hamburg.
2013 March
Designs costumes for Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, staged by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra, with sets designed by Zaha Hadid.
2013 November
He is awarded an RDI (Royal Designer for Industry) for sustained excellence and innovation in fashion design, by RSA (the Royal Society of Arts) London.
2014 – 2019
He is appointed head professor of the Fashion Department at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.
2015 March
Gives a TED talk titled ‘My Life as an Outsider’ in Vancouver, Canada.
2015 April
He is declared a Master at DeTao Masters Academy, which pursues activities around innovation, creativity and business opportunities in China.
2015 June
He is appointed as designer to the heritage fashion house Vionnet.
2015 September
Signs a licence with the Korean company Daylight.
2015 September
Chalayan opens its flagship boutique in Mayfair, London.
2015 October
Designs and directs the dance piece Gravity Fatigue at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.
2016 May
Designs costumes for Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, staged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
2016 May – September
Shows several pieces in the Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, including a dress for Vionnet by Chalayan.
2017 April
Designs a co-branded range for the Chinese online fashion company AMII.
2017 April
Speaks at the Center for Arts, Science and Technology at MIT in a symposium discussing wearable technology.
2017 October
Wallpaper* magazine names Chalayan one of the ‘Top Shapers in Fashion in the Last 20 Years.’
2018 April
He is named ‘Best Pop Star’ at the Wallpaper* Design Awards, London.
2018 July
Signs contract with MIT to develop hi-tech accessories with the Self-Assembly Lab in Boston.
2018 July
Designs a co-branded range for Chinese electric car company NIO, shown in Shanghai Fashion Week, along with the Chalayan Spring/Summer ’19 Collection.
2018 September
Chalayan is awarded the London Design Medal – ‘the highest accolade bestowed upon an individual who has distinguished themselves within the industry and demonstrated consistent design excellence over a number of years.’
2018 October
Fashionary declares Chalayan one of its Fifty Fashion Legends.
2019 October
The Chinese online company Alibaba invites him to show his Autumn/Winter ’19 collection in Hangzhou, China at the Gen Z Show.
2019 October
He is guest editor of Wallpaper* magazine’s October issue.
2019 October
Chalayan is named ‘Personality of the Year’ by the CTCA (Council of Turkish Cypriots Association), London.
2021 November
Exhibits first major show in China, titled Archipelago, at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai.