One of the reasons I really wish I lived in London sometimes…

I was down there at the beginning of February so took the opportunity to visit the Design Museum again. I love this place! And not only for the amazing gift shop and beautiful building, the exhibitions are always particularly inspiring.

The featured exhibition, Hussein Chalayan – From Fashion and Back, was the first presentation of Chalayan’s work in the UK.

The twice named British Designer of the Year is renowned for his innovative use of materials and progressive attitudes to new technology.

Some of his designs featured in the exhibition include “Airborne’ – a dress created with Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED lights, and ‘Readings’ – a dress designed with over 200 moving lasers, creating an extraordinary spectacle of light.

My highlight was the videos of his catwalk shows, which I spent at least an hour watching.

At the end of his Spring 2007 show the models came out wearing outfits that transformed into a completely different garment on the catwalk, his homage to ‘wearable, portable architecture’. The way the clothes moved was actually quite eerie, like there’s invisible hands re-arranging the material.

I had also been hoping to catch the British Insurance Designer of the Year 2009 at the Design Museum, but I missed it by a week. It’s running now though, until mid-May, but if you can’t make it to London there is a photographic record of everything on their blog.

Another London exhibition to look out for has just opened at the Tate Modern is Rodchenko and Popova – Defining Constructivism. I’m really drawn to the constructivist style of graphic design with its abstract collages and striking typography. Looks like I’ll need to find an excuse for another visit before the end of May.