A Study on Deconstructured Space and Visibility in Clothes - Regarding Hussein Chalayan′s Design-

의복에서의 탈구조적 공간과 가시성에 대한 연구 -후세인 칼라얀의 디자인을 중심으로-

  • Published : 2000.07.01

Abstract

Through his geometric design, the Cyprus born fashion designer Hussein Chalayan raises intriguing questions about the very fact of wearing clothes. By purposefully displacing the function of each part of the clothing, such as neck line, hem line, seam, sleeve, etc., Chalayan transforms the meaning of the body that wears clothes. of the human subject as a sovereign possessor of the clothing and the visibility related to fashion. This transformation is achieved by distorting the spaces of his clothing in an unorthodox way. This thesis argues that the significance of such a practice can not be properly understood without relation to the current debate on deconstructionism under way in humanities. Instead of immediately negating the modern frame of Ideas and practices, deconstructionism asks what the assumptions for the modern regime of truth is. In this process, things that lead human beings to sovereign master of knowledge and truth such as reason, subject, body and vision are questioned. In the same context, Chalayan's design not only forces us to rethink the very function of dividing inside and outside by the clothing but also the meaning of boundary operating in numerous sites of modern life. As the human subject is not something pre-given but constructed according to the cultural representation, to which the clothing belongs, fashion can be evaluated to be an active ingredient of constructing the subject. Therefore, Hussein Chalayan's design is at the cross road between the modern and the postmodern regime of fashion.

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