Memory and Materiality in Hussein Chalayan’s Techno-Fashion

Abstract

This chapter explores how cultural memory—in this case, the recent history of Western fashion—is performed and mediated by techno-fashion. Drawing on cultural studies and sociological and anthropological approaches, this chapter aims at unraveling the innovative connection between clothing, memory, and technology instigated by techno-fashion. We first focus on fashion’s relation to time and history, then explore techno-fashion as a particular performance and technology of memory, and finish by discussing the particular force of technology’s as well as fashion’s materialism. We advance the concept of ‘softness’ as a material and aesthetic category at the intersection of technology, materiality, and memory.