Is Greek fashion moving on?Reporting on local style front
The notion of identity became a recurring theme during the fifth edition of the Diners Athens Collections InStyle, Greece’s very own fashion week, which unfolded at Zappeion Hall from March 14 to March 18. What is the purpose of a fashion week? How does a designer develop his or her signature style? Who should a designer house target as a client? The importance of identity spans the creative process and should now become a focal point in the debate regarding the event’s future. «I think it’s great that countries, such as Portugal, Turkey, China, India and Greece, for instance, have their own ambition for a fashion week. Fashion week means gathering the world’s professionals to come and assess the country’s quality and creativity. When this quality is recognized, the entire textile industry of the country is given added value,» said veteran fashion insider Jean-Jacques Picart, a globetrotting consultant who works with companies and designers and is currently collaborating with Greek designer duo Deux Hommes. «Sometimes, however, there is a discrepancy between a country’s intuitive vision and its industrial capacity to express it.» This is a discrepancy that needs to be addressed in this country, not just in terms of supply (the ability of local designers to manufacture) but also as demand (triggering the desire for more local fashion both here and abroad). The fashion week and its organizers, the Hellenic Fashion Designers Association (HFD), need more help from the state, sustained support from the private sector and a more appropriate attitude from the media – in its majority, the latter treats the biannual event as a source of celebrity tracking and gossip. They could also benefit tremendously by collaborating with fashion industry pros. «Professional federations follow the work of the designers, they work on an educational level and they also stimulate the industry,» noted Picart. About 20 foreign buyers came to Athens for the fashion affair, yet business didn’t appear to take off – at the Zappeion showrooms at least. Greek buyers, as usual, were scarce. «The efforts being made are clear every time, but it depends on the designer, on the season, on the fabric,» said the Attica department store buyer Lena Papanikolaou to this paper. «We hope that they will be ready in a couple of seasons to meet the demands of buyers in terms of production and delivery,» said Papanikolaou, who has been attending the local event since its birth and follows fashion weeks around the globe. The central Athens department store collaborates with Greek designers – two HFD members, jewelry designers Maria Mastori and Dimitris Dassios, are already onboard, while Yiorgos Eleftheriades’s diffusion Collage Social, is also expected to join. Meanwhile, a number of HFD members have joined local manufacturing efforts headed by Antonis Kioukas, the fashion week’s producer. The aim here is to manufacture diffusion designer lines to be distributed in Greece and abroad. Fashion may appear fickle, but it is also a source of income, a reflection of the world we live in, a global industry and a way of identifying who we are. If the Hellenic Fashion Designers Association wants to move forward, it will have to make decisions, take initiatives, fight misconceptions and use a generous amount of charm to entice its multifaceted audience. Good luck. On the whole collections appeared more focused, although more styling and editing is still high on the to-do-next-time agenda. Endless parades of wedding gowns are now extinct, leaving plenty of space for ready-to-wear, yet a few designers appeared confused about the kind of message they were trying to send. Full sleeves and fitted waists was one of the major stories, along with cape silhouettes, hoods and a penchant for large buttons. Global warming must be on the mind of a few, given the amount of bare skin on some catwalks. Deux Hommes came up with a sensational collection based on various themes, ranging from «Femmes-Totems» to «Kagemusha» and «Anatomic Engineering.» It all translated into futuristic fabrics, exciting fabric juxtapositions and icy-cold sequins. Erifilli’s gorgeous collection reflected the luxury of knowledge and craft. Paying tribute to masters such as Paul Poiret and Marino Fortuny via Romeo Gigli, the designer mixed day and night, rich fabrics and volumes. For Yiorgos Eleftheriades, the event marked the first time the designer showed two collections: his principal line and his diffusion label, Collage Social (the latter in collaboration with Shop & Trade, a leading Greek apparel distributor). A veteran maverick, Eleftheriades’s fashion language is fluent in asymmetry, fabric mixing, and volume versus a fitted silhouette. In the principal line, Eleftheriades seems to have found a softer approach with wool dresses, glittered ankle boots, cape-like parkas, tuxedo styles for women, and mixing wool with synthetic. In Collage Social, the designer distilled his 20-year fashion experience and reworked signature ideas. The mysteries of La Luna made for a dramatic fairy-tale show at Dimitris Dassios, where tiaras, hairpins, earrings and signature cuff bracelets and neckpieces came out in shimmering icy silver with touches of bright gold. Presenting jewelry on the catwalk is always a challenge and this time Dassios went for black plastic garbage bag couture. Angelos Bratis’s cool elegance has everything to do with desirable clothes from a designer whose mission is to dress real women. In a rather nostalgic mood, Bratis’s garments (trousers, blouses and cocktail numbers, for instance) offered the illusion of simplicity – it all seemed effortless, but was not. Having presented a collection in Tokyo, Loukia offered a hint of the country of the Rising Sun through a collection titled «Urban Poetry» – think balloon shapes without discarding unexpected folds. Christos Costarellos appeared in good shape, with a curvaceous geometry based on mixes of wool, leather and lace, while Pavlos Kyriakides’s well-deserved confidence was obvious in a collection led by futuristic jerseys. Konstantinos showed cute pieces to wear, exploring a vieux rose theme, among others, while Kathy Heyndels’s platinum-haired models came out in signature sexy numbers. Mi-Ro appeared more focused than in past seasons, emphasizing the neckline area or the waist and above-the-knee hemlines, while Liana Camba went back to the 1950s, working on a high waist silhouette with wearable and feminine pieces. The 50s were also an inspiration for Frida Karadima, whose power girl might wear lace every now and then, but is one tough fashion chick in spacious sleeves and corsaged waists. The mood at 2B was set by Panayiotis Hadjistefanou, a St Martins graduate and current cult media persona who stayed on the catwalk while a patchwork of garments and ideas – from jeans to checks, velvet and stripes – turned into a merry-go-round ready-to-wear show. Warm winter white in dresses and separates opened the show at Simeoni, followed by surprising cuts and folds on all black or black revealing a little bit of purple. At Costas Faliakos (a bastion of Greek couture), Christos Petridis worked on ready-to-wear and was strong when mixing checks and stripes for the day and pleats given a balloon twist in the evening. Luxury is found in simple things and Periklis Economopoulos at Christos Maillis knows all about it through printed shirts, trousers, day and later-in-the-day dresses, tailored looks for confident women who enjoy style with their own rules. Michalis Aslanis is a designer, not to mention an a la grecque brand. Among children dressed in Aslanis (think sweet-colored velvets) came Gypsy-goes-to-the-city looks with models carrying Aslanis signature umbrellas. Andria offered a few focused looks, including coats and sculptured red dresses, while Daphne Valente went down her familiar, pleated way. «Mercury» was the title of the show, featuring Valente’s own jewelry as well as pleats embracing the body and as applique. Nikolas’s short show offered disparate ideas in a rather slow show based on an autumn-colored palette with a leaf motif. At Parthenis, Orsalia Parthenis emphasized the waist while alluding to the brand’s 1980s origins, showcasing an assortment of wools, cashmere and jersey in a signature nonchalant spirit, giving the body novel volumes through the use of pleats and folds. Royal blue was one striking color at Chara Lebessi. Hers is a woman who likes her glam with calm, an elongated figure, signature Lebessi column dresses, while moving forward with coat dresses. Vasso Consola’s Zappeion Hall comeback was based on a dynamic, attractive collection of knitwear. Halter tops, jupe-culottes and leggings, in Consola’s hands, are knits turned sexy and sophisticated. Knitwear is also the world of Smaragdi, whose «Birds Parade» offered girlie pieces in bright blues and reds. For Vassilis Zoulias nostalgia – and humor – is an intrinsic part of fashion. The trick, of course, is to make it look fresh. For the shoes and accessories designer, the show marked his first foray into ready-to-wear, in collaboration with hat designer Katerina Karoussos. The collection, pretty and pampering, offered little black dresses as well as taffeta moire and teapot hats. The Veloudakis girl is of the partying kind and she has plenty of choices: iridescent prints, one-shoulder dresses, earthy-metallic colors, watery or giraffe sequins. Yiannos Xenis went Oriental, with heavy embroidery and elaborate crochet. Four catwalk shows presented by guest designers added a creative twist. A sweet show from Romania-born and Cyprus-based Ramona Filip, whose collection spelled Jackie O in A-line numbers, was followed by Avtandil, whose primarily black show left little room for his signature Georgian peasant-blouses. French designers Lefranc-Ferrant and Gaspard Yurkievich presented two well-organized shows. While Beatrice Ferrant and Mario Lefranc came up with serene sophistication, a good fit and occasional twists – a trenchcoat dress combo, for instance – Yurkievich played with a big bow against a slim silhouette. Two no-fuss shows making the point that fashion can be modern, occasionally fresh and always pleasant.
