A Growing Obsession.

For Professional Practice we were required to postition ourselves in a particular market, in terms of design aesthetics. I have grown an overwhelming interest in the designer/ visualist Rad Hourani, who I have previously blogged about this is some information I gathered for our Case Study Report:

Rad Hourani was born in 1982 in Jordan and moved to Canada at the age of 16. He worked at a model scouting agency from a young age so has always been exposed to the creative industry. He then became a stylist full time and when he was 25 Hourani moved to paris where he debuted his first fashion collection.

Rad Hourani is an artist turned fashion designer who has had no educational background in art, or fashion schooling. His wide range of skills include writing, photography and filmmaking, and although he doesn’t label himself as any one of these professions – it is his understanding of these industries that have brought him to being able to design something as diverse and contemporary as his collections. His design aesthetic is to have ‘no boundaries’ and he believes that human beings shape themselves by their surroundings, and how they choose to represent their ideals. Hourani could be classified as a modular designer; by reinventing fashion by transcending its original meaning, and by also designing garments that have multiple uses, silhouettes, parts and textures. Rad Hourani launched his first collection “Namesake” in 2007, and since then has been designing unisex clothing; garments that can be worn by both men and women of varying shapes and sizes. He claims that gender-agnosticism (disbelieving that gender doesn’t matter when dealing with clothing) is what drives his collections. Additionally, it is thought that Hourani’s travelling lifestyle has contributed to his approach to design – in that there are no rules, no seasons or no conventional use for the garment.

Rad Hourani’s aesthetic is very contemporary and is a modernist approach to designing garments. His garments are not only wearable however they have been used as pieces of art or installations to convey a message or a concept. In 2010 Hourani showcased his “Transclassic” which was a collection to demonstrate transformation and timeless beauty. This was captured through photographs and displayed in Paris in the Joyce Gallery Palais. In addition to his conceptual pieces, Hourani has a Rad by Rad Hourani ready-to-wear label that targets a younger but sophisticated market with similar design values as he.

Hourani focuses on using alternative fabrications throughout his designs that aren’t garment or gender specific. He subverts the original meaning of these fabrications or clothing, and documents their transformations and how they are able to alter. Hourani is a designer who designs with and around the body, understanding movement and diversity in shape, form and silhouette, being his main aspects of his aesthetic. His lack of colour does not falter his designs as the textures and silhouettes communicate the message he is embedding within his designs.

Transclassic Collection