Hussein Chalayan is a designer whose relationship with geography and ethnicity is vital and clearly evident in the many projects, collections and exhibitions that he has built over the past sixteen years. Before living in London, Hussein grew up in Cyprus as a Turkish-Cypriot, and the tension of his homeland ingrained a strong sense of national identity within him.

When making NºC magazine, Hussein travelled to Greece with his partner at the time, the stylist Andreas Kokkino, and photographed a series of portraits on the island of Kythira. For the shoot, three young locals posed in bright daylight against a painted sun-baked wall, wearing ceremonial masks designed by Nikki Theoka (pictured mask-less in a blue top below). The hand-made headpieces echo Islamic headdresses, but in bright homespun florals and rough lacework, with one rendered as a bearded man’s face in papier mâché.

The photos hold a very innocent realism through the direct sunlight, young tanned limbs and delicate bamboo pattern creeping behind the subjects, that is contrasted with the rather subversive use of the masks and their own conceit of cheerful fabrics and floral motifs. The final shots of Nikki and Andreas conclude the shoot with a behind-the-scenes aspect, laying bare the players in the project and revealing Hussein’s friends and collaborators through their own work.

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