It all began in 2010, during LUISAVIAROMA's Firenze4Ever Event
. That was my first Mary Katrantzou dress sighting.
A year later, it was these 2 dresses that made me fall in love with Mary's work.
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| Wore Mary to my cover shoot for Spark Magazine |
It was interesting that hardly anyone knew who made the dress then, and a few even assumed it was McQueen :) I said, no, it's by a very talented 28 year old London- based designer who was born in Athens, Greece.
Mary Katrantzou began as an architecture student at the Rhode Island School of Design but later moved to Central Saint Martins to complete her BA in textile design. She later transferred her prints passion for textiles from interiors to womenswear fashion. After her graduation, she worked with Greek designer Sophia Kokosalaki before applying for her Fashion MA. And in 2008, hers was the collection that opened for Central Saint Martins' graduating show. In 2010, she collaborated with Longchamp on prints for their classic pliage bags as well as an open tote in 2 sizes, and also collaborated with TopShop for a capsule collection that included the tulip dress which famously sold out within a few hours. And in 2011, she bagged the British Fashion Awards- Emerging Talent Award.
Things have been moving fast and furious for Mary and when I met her this season in Paris, I was pleasantly amused to find that she remains quite surprised at all the attention she's been getting, of course next to the attention all her work's been receiving. Humble and very level- headed, Mary apologizes for not having been able to meet me sooner during my last trip in London as I had arrived at an inopportune time-- less than 1 week before London Fashion Week began. She gives me a very warm hug and says in a bubbly manner, "finally, we meet!" We talked briefly about her collaboration with Longchamp which she has said "they're great to work with, they gave me a free hand in what I wanted to design and do."
And then to the very sold out Topshop capsule collection, she says laughingly "it's funny because even we couldn't get our hands on them-- we had even considered to check ebay to get some pieces!" (oh believe me, I was tempted too LOL)
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| Boo I never got to get this dress online either :( |
London Fashion Week came and her collection showing was very well- received by the fashion cognoscenti-- rave reviews about her new silhouettes, pushing-the-limit techniques, and her enlisting Lesage for embroidery. FW 2012- 13 collection during London Fashion Week which I saw up close? I don't think there are words that could articulately describe how I felt about them-- I fear my words wouldn't have done them justice. All I know was this-- I was bowled over, and beyond. My jaw literally dropped in awe when I first caught sight of the pieces from the showroom doorway!
Mary was very gracious and even asked me to freely try on some of the samples. I was actually half- willing but half- embarrassed to try because I clearly knew I was not sample size. I ended up wriggling my way into a beautiful, almost- body hugging runway piece-- alas, the dress did not like my hips and boo, I had them! (OMG I hope I didn't ruin the sample dress! *Dies*)
This was one of the best dresses for AW2012- 13
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| Leather, twill, silk. Incredible! |
And here's the commercial version of the "Powdy" print:
Spent a good amount of time with Mary and her team. I am really a huge fan, can you tell? :) Before I left for another show, a token photo with my favorite designer. Ok two photos :)
It would've been so cheesy to ask designers and celebrities for autographs (I am actually very embarrassed to do it), but I was using the Samsung Galaxy Note which allowed for handwritten notes on digital images (the phone was real cool and everyone who saw it was totally intrigued) , so I asked Mary to sign our other photo, to which she happily obliged ;)
Glad I did! Can't wait to see this collection in Net-A-Porter
and LuisaViaRoma
, two of the online retailers that stock Mary's work :)
x
TheBagHag