EXTENDED POST: Meet Hussein, a Creator Who Turns Art Into Fashion
An extended cut of our recent post.
The second Hussein’s video came up on my FYP, it stopped me dead in my tracks, which is quite hard to do on hour two of speed-scrolling.
Hussein (@ztxlz) exists at the intersection of art and fashion, demonstrating the undeniable connection between the two, while symbolising their individuality. The outfits Hussein puts together are inspired by paintings, but are not copies of them; they are creatively styled manifestations.
Sometimes, a post isn’t enough. In creating a cool design, we have to sacrifice certain parts of the substance. Sentences are cut down, and honestly, do you really read a lot of long-form text on IG posts?
Anywayyy, to match the pictures and the vibes, answers and quotes have to be clear and to the point. Sometimes, the little in-between moments of the story get lost.
Thank god for this Substack. Here, we can share the full versions of texts intended for our carefully crafted IG posts. You can dive deeper into the story while still looking at some cool pics. We got u.
Art has always been interchangeable; pages of a book morph into lyrics of a song, a melody inspires a pattern, and strokes on a canvas become layers of an elaborate outfit.
As you swipe through countless videos of trend predictions and style edits, it feels refreshing to see art take on a form of pure cross-sectional expression. That is what Hussein’s new series “Turning Art into Fashion” embodies.
Hussein, known in the digital space as @ztxlz, is racking up views with videos that both encourage viewers to draw inspiration from sources beyond a Pinterest board and provide educational commentary on the artworks he features and the artists behind them.
You come for style inspo, and you leave with a more well-rounded, multi-generational knowledge of art. It’s a win-win.
We reached out to Hussein to discuss his inspirations, styling approach, and all the thoughts that go into his digital series.
As his videos gained more and more attention, we knew we had to move fast to secure an exclusive interview with the creative.
We posted the answers on our socials, but we felt his interview deserves more attention. So here it is, for your reading pleasure, the full unedited version: MKH in conversation with Hussein.
Full Q&A:
MKH: What inspired you to start your “turning art into fashion” series?
Hussein: My general inspirations for turning one of my hobbies into fashion were twofold. Firstly, the “Turning runway to food” series by Brianna Hollingsworth and, of course, the talented Wisdom Kaye.
As for the direct inspiration behind turning art specifically into fashion, I was actually in the waiting room at the dentist, and there was a book called Bloom: Art, Flowers and Emotion by Rachel Gileson on the table. A lot of the flowers and paintings in that book reminded me of pieces I had in my wardrobe, so when I went home, I started experimenting with the idea of turning art into fashion.
MKH: How do you usually choose the paintings for your videos?
Hussein: I think it works in 3 ways.
The first way is that my wardrobe sometimes inspires the art I choose. For example, I have a polka dot jacket that immediately reminds me of Yayoi Kusama, or since I collect a lot of Issey Miyake, the pleats remind me of the wavy lines in a lot of Edvard Munch‘s work.
Secondly, for outfits that are inspired by art, I have to save a lot of art. So I often go through tons of art online. Almost all the major museums and galleries have online collections, so I’ve sifted through almost every one for inspiration. I also go through Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest in order to find smaller artists that I could feature (Shoutout Judy Bowman, my favourite artist I’ve discovered so far).
Lastly, I try my best to take suggestions from folks who engage with my content. I often get comments or DMs asking me to cover a specific artist or artwork they love, so I try and incorporate some of those into my videos too. When I initially started the series, I tried my best to steer away from art that had figures of people in them because I would feel tempted to mimic their outfit, so I actually scrapped a lot of episodes I felt went in that direction. I first started off with more abstract pieces, but as time went on, I definitely did include some figures of people, only if the outfit was interesting enough.
MKH: Could you share a bit about your thought process when putting together an outfit based on a painting?
Hussein: I approach this slightly differently for artwork that contains people in it versus artwork that doesn’t.
For artwork that contains a person, I try to see if I can match their outfit in an interesting way. I try to see if I can create something that still resembles the figure in the painting, but with some sort of “twist”. For example, “Woman with a. Parasol“ was one of my favourite episodes, and I tried to see how Monet captured the movement of the veil and dress via the sculptural hat and Comme Des Garçons blazer that I chose.
For more abstract art, the first hurdle to overcome is almost always colour. The outfit could be as thematically close to the artwork as possible, but that wouldn’t matter if they don’t look the same. So I try my best to initially match the overall colour and sometimes shapes of the artwork. I also spend a lot of time researching the artist and their artwork, and I try my best to only choose outfits that match the “vibe” of the artist or the artwork. Beef Ribs Longhorn by Basquiat was a good example of this. I knew for sure I wanted to specifically wear a Comme Des Garçons statement piece for any artwork of Basquiat that I covered, given his ties to the house.
Shared artistic vision is something I also consider, e.g. Rei Kawakubo for Basquiat and Walter Van Beirendonck for Keith Haring. I also try my best to stay away from outfits that might “match” the painting but are diametrically opposed in terms of ethos. For example, I really didn’t want to only do a pure high fashion look for Blue Monday by Annie Lee, given the artwork’s central theme is struggle. So I instead went with 3 outfits, each slightly more abstract, but the main one being something thrifted and denim-based.
MKH: Art and fashion always go hand in hand. What does the relationship between the two mean to you?
Hussein: Although I’m interested in both art and fashion, I don’t know if I’d be able to articulate the relationship between them well, because I don’t know enough about fashion history or art history to talk about them with enough conviction.
I can, however, talk a bit about overlapping themes I personally enjoy in both. Not to go on too much of a tangent, but I went to Morocco just over a year ago, and I was completely captivated by some of the shades of blue they used in their textiles. They had this beautiful, deep blue that was used everywhere, from rugs to walls to turbans, and anytime I look at that specific shade of blue, I stop in my tracks. I felt similar when I first saw the IKB 79 painting by Yves Klein in the Tate Modern (now thinking about it, maybe I just like blue).
Outside of colour, I absolutely love texture and textiles, so I’m often drawn to fashion with interesting textures and also art that does the same.
Other people might enjoy more of the storytelling aspects of both fashion and art, or they might enjoy how fashion and art can respond to cultural events and critique culture, but if I’m honest, I don’t have that relationship with fashion.
Fashion, to me, is usually either about adornment or utility. Either I want to look cool by wearing an outfit that visually looks interesting to me, or I need it to fulfil some sort of function.
MKH: What inspires/informs your personal style?
Hussein: I get a lot of my inspiration from just being exposed to different things online, and if it piques my interest, I usually just try to incorporate it into my wardrobe somehow.
I was once scrolling through Pinterest for these Shakespearean bloomers I thought looked interesting, and I randomly found this beautiful, handmade, woven Fugu top from Etsy, which I ended up purchasing. After some trial and error, I think I was able to somewhat recreate the same silhouette as the bloomer by pairing the fugu top with what I had in my wardrobe already [Bloomer][My outfit].
If we’re talking direct inspirations, though, I think I take a lot of my inspiration from Japanese houses I love, e.g. Comme Des Garçons, Issey Miyake, etc.
MKH: What do you want the people watching to take away from your videos?
Hussein: I try to cover a bit of the artist’s and the artwork’s background in each video.
For more famous artwork, I would love for people to learn something new about artwork that they might already be familiar with, and for smaller artists, I would love for the general public to honestly just discover their work.
As for the outfits, I think it’d be cool for people to get a sense that inspiration is anywhere.
Go follow @ztxlz on IG and TT. Enjoy some fashion and art, and get to know this amazing creative!
Stay tuned for more extended MKH posts.