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British fashion designer Hussein Chalayan was born in Turkey in 1970 to a British father and Turkish-Cypriot mother. He studied fashion at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London with Alexander McQueen and Antonio Berardi. His senior collection, the Tangent Flows, which featured silk clothes that had been buried and exhumed, was displayed in hip boutique Browns in 1993 (following in the footsteps of John Galliano).
Chalayan launched his label in 1994. His clothing is known for being intellectual and futuristic, inspired by technology, architecture, politics and culture.
His experiments with form and fabrics have lead to innovations over the years, including paper clothes, sharply tailored suits with flight-path patterns and pixilated print dresses.
He was named Designer of the Year in Britain in 1999 and 2000.
His work has been included in various exhibitions, most recently in Anglomania at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which featured his wooden skirt and nylon topiary dress.
The look?
