Paris Haute Couture | VIONNET Fall 2014 Demi-Couture

If Hussein Chalayan has one thing to prove to the world at this point in a career that has helped define fashion's outer limits, it's that he can do glamour. For his new Demi-Couture collection for Vionnet, the models had starlet hair, swept to one side. And they were wearing red-carpet dresses from start to finish. It looked like something new for Chalayan, yet at its heart was his same old fascination with the attraction of opposites.

Discover the VIONNET Fall/Winter '14/15 RTW runway show at the end of this post!

LoL, Andrea

Start with stillness and movement. One dress was a lacy white number with eruptions of red pleating. There were other dresses in which the pleats were exaggerated with fountains of fringing. A simple strapless bias-cut silk sheath toted a swatch of fabric like a wrung-out towel. That was the kind of strangely sensual flourish that distinguishes Chalayan's own collections.

Chalayan is a fiercely technical designer. Here, for instance, there were a handful of gowns with a three-dimensional spine curving down the leg or over the shoulder. It was so weird that it shouldn't have worked. But it did, because everything was in the same fabric. The bias swags of contrasting fabrics were less successful. But at least Chalayan never rests. And, with the best will in the world, you could imagine Madeleine Vionnet recognizing herself in the work he is doing.

Hussein Chalayan and Goga Ashkenazy

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: The House of VIONNET
ANDREA JANKE via Instagram (@andreajankeofficial)

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VIONNET Spring 2014 Demi-Couture

There are two ways to approach the task Hussein Chalayan accepted when he signed on to produce a demi-couture collection for Goga Ashkenazi's Vionnet.

“Chalayan is one of the most creative and provocative designers working in fashion today”, states Ashkenazi. “I have always been intrigued by his conceptual approach and the fearless way his work travels outside the traditional confines of fashion. It is an honor for me to work with someone I admire so much. I know he will bring something special to Vionnet’s Demi-Couture collection”.

“I am thrilled and honored to be designing the Demi-Couture collection for Vionnet. The combined elements of Goga Ashkenazi’s creative energy and entrepreneurial approach together with the unparalleled heritage of the house makes this an exciting collaboration for me”, states Hussein Chalayan.

Observe and reinterpret the house's heritage for today or ignore it. It won't come as much of a surprise to those who've followed Chalayan's boundary-pushing career that he said he had opted for the latter path. "There are so many brands that are old, that are being revived," he explained beforehand. "It shouldn't be about revisiting the archives." Fair enough. To move the fashion dial forward, you have to look forward.

Chalayan chose industrial design as a starting point. Spiral staircases, furniture, electric wires it was all laid out on a mood board at a preview. In the past, his conceptual approach extended his reach. Here, the "melting shelves" idea he used to create sculptural shapes fell a bit flat. Meanwhile, dresses in a print and embroidery motif derived from patternmakers' toiles "a comment on dressmaking itself," he called it looked stiff.

Some ideas adapted better to clothing design. The spiral staircases morphed into five-layer techno organza bias-cut dresses with single seams and laser-cut concentric circles in varying degrees of sheerness. Technically accomplished and lovely, they made a connection between Vionnet past and Vionnet future: The bias cut is credited to Madeleine Vionnet. Plissé was another hallmark of the house. Chalayan modernized it by printing only one side of the pleats and combining different kinds sunray, straight, irregular into halter dresses suspended from harness collars embellished with "electrified" beads. Unlike some other parts of the collection, the vibe here was right.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: The House of VIONNET 

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