ELIS KISS

A visibly overjoyed and emotionally moved Marios Schwab picked up a glass cube filled with fabrics in Zurich, last week, as he became the recipient of the Swiss Textile Award for 2007.

The event took place during Stella Fashion Night on November 9.

“This has been a very good and positive year, so far,” said the 30-year-old Greek-Austrian designer, in a phone interview from London yesterday.

Indeed, the award is accompanied by 100,000 euros, aiding winners to make major progress in developing their labels in the global fashion industry.

“Things are always unpredictable in fashion,” said Schwab. “You might pay 25,000 pounds sterling for one show and then for the next, of the same quality and same quantity, go up to 35,000. There is always a place to put the money.”

Fresh from last week’s distinction, Schwab is contemplating putting the funding into expanding his business in terms of public relations and the choice in fabrics (the award is not given in cash).

Developed by the Swiss Textile Federation, this was the eighth award bestowed, by a jury that included prominent fashion players led by Dolly Jones, the editor of Vogue.com. The finalists were chosen from a list of 100 nominees by professionals, including Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune.

Born and raised in Athens, the 30-year-old designer graduated from the Esmod Fashion Design School in Berlin before attending Central Saint Martins College in London. In Greece, his collection is available at Enny di Monano.

“I am very happy that I won the award, that I made contact with people,” said Schwab. “But if you have too much, you lose your creativity and I like spontaneous creativity.”