SNP’s word of the day: Ambimorphous

Word: Ambimorphous

Meaning: Well, Hussein Chalayan made it up, but he took inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, in which Alice grows and changes rapidly in one of two opposing directions.

Usage: “The clothes represent forms that are, so to speak, ‘ambimorphous,’ where all forms can morph in two different directions…” ― Hussein Chalayan

You should know it because: Hussein Chalayan said it, that’s why! His expo, spanning 17 years of experimental, rarely salable work, is at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. I went the other day, and wow. Many of the sections were titled with his invented words, like this one; I could write for weeks. “Ambimorphous” is the title of his 2003 exhibit at the MoMu in Antwerp, in which models stood against pillars of varying sizes so they appeared to grow and shrink from one end of the runway to the other. Their clothes morphed, too, from intricately coloured and embroidered in a Turkish style to black and loosely asymmetrical in a Parisian way and then back to the ethnic “costume.” Most designers make use of―and talk about―contrast, but Chalayan understands extremes and the similarities they share like few others.

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