Turkish Cypriots. Embargoed! since 1964.

Hussein Chalayan was born in Nicosia (Lefkosa in Turkish) in 1970 and graduated from the Turkish College (Turk Maarif Kolej) of his hometown. His roots are a regular inspiration for his work.

Chalayan moved to England with his family in 1978. Obtaining British citizenship, he proceeded to study design in London and his graduate collection in 1993, titled “The Tangent Flows”, contained clothes which he had buried in his back yard and dug up again. An instant sensation, the whole collection was purchased and displayed in luxury designer store Browns in London.

In 1995, Chalayan beat 100 competitors to clinch a top London fashion design award. The contest, organised by the company “Absolut”, resulted in Chalayan, aged 25, winning financial backing to the tune of £28,000 to develop creations for the British capital’s Fashion Week in October 1995.

Also in 1995, Chalayan worked with Icelandic avant-garde pop diva Björk. The jacket that Björk wears on the iconic cover of her album *Post* was designed by Hussein Chalayan. The Björk’s *Post* music tour also featured several creations by Chalayan, with Björk modelling for Chalayan in October 1995 for his London Fashion Week show. Björk on Chalayan: “He raises daily life to a level of something magical, he was born with these powers and it is a question of whether 50,000 business people are willing to go there with him.”

In the fall of 1998, while still designing his signature line, he was appointed as a design consultant for New York knitwear label TSE. His collaboration with them lasted till 2001, when British jeweler Asprey appointed Chalayan as their fashion director in 2001. He has also worked with well-known high-street brands including Marks and Spencer and Top Shop.

He was crowned ‘British Designer of the Year’ in 1999 and 2000, and was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 17 June 2006. International recognition also followed, where he was awarded the Design Star Honoree by The Fashion Group International at their annual Night of Stars Gala, New York in 2007.

In 2002, Chalayan expanded his design portfolio by adding menswear, the exclusive rights of which were sold to internet retailer Yoox.com in 2007. During this time, he also announced plans to relocate his fashion shows to Paris. And in 2004, he added another line ‘Chalayan’ to his expanding list of design duties. In 2003, Hussein Chalayan portrayed his wabi-sabi inspiration through amorphous layered drapings.

Collaborations do not stop with art and fashion for the designer, who is also a philanthropist. In 2005, he became Embargoed!’s patron, designing the Rotten Lemons t-shirt, which was displayed in his Paris fashion show in October 2005. In 2007, Chalayan donated a showpiece to the ‘Fashion is Art’ exhibition in aid of radio station Capital 95.8’s Help a London Child charity, which was sold at an exclusive auction in London.

In February 2008, Chalayan was appointed as the creative director for German sportswear label Puma, with the company announcing that they have purchased a majority stake in his label.

Born in Cyprus in 1960, Danis moved to the East End of London when he was just two. He started playing football at school, and by the age of 11, he was first spotted by a QPR scout who invited him to train with the club. This was quickly followed by many of the top London clubs – Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham – pursuing the young talent. In his school holidays, he trained further afield from Ipswich to Manchester, and by the age of 15, he was offered a contract by Arsenal FC.

With young Danis’ dad moving back to Cyprus, the player turned his back on the super club and instead signed for Brentford in 1975, much to the surprise of Arsenal. The Bees manager John Doherty had first coached Danis at QPR when he was 11 and again took the youngster under his wing.

By the age of 18, Danis had already played 100 professional games for the club. A commanding figure at the back, whether as Centre Half or Full Back, his talents were picked up by the England team, and Danis was selected to play for his adopted country at the World Youth Cup in Poland in 1978. He turned down a big money move to QPR in 1980 and instead moved to Millwall in 1986.

Danis was integral in helping the club get promoted to the top flight – the first time in its history. That season, the club’s supporters voted him their Player of the Year. He remained at the club until 1990 when he moved down to Plymouth and a quiet life by the sea. He undertook a short spell at Peterborough in 1993, where he again helped the club gain promotion, before Danis hung up his professional boots.

A fully qualified professional coach, Danis is still fully involved in football, working with local communities and schools in Plymouth and the surrounding region. He has trained amateur youth teams and now runs his own Soccer Academies, where youngsters from the age of 5 can come to train. Open to kids of all abilities and social backgrounds, Danis takes great pleasure in helping them develop not only their footballing skills, but also their teamwork, personal confidence, and general health.

He is keen to help his native country and feels strongly about the international isolation of his fellow Turkish Cypriots, who are denied the right to play even friendly football matches. A staunch believer that politics should never interfere with sports unless it is for positive reasons, Danis is happy to help spearhead the campaign to end the football embargoes. He is also working on a project to extend his Soccer Academies to North Cyprus to help youngsters prepare for the day when they too can play the ‘Beautiful Game’ freely with others around the world.