The 34th Athens Fashion Week: Greek Glamour Across the Capital

The thirty fourth Athens Vogue Week (April 20-24) had us falling in love with the capital another time. 

A inventive crowd gathered on the Zappeion and some different well-chosen venues all through town for 5 evenings of exhibits filled with vitality and artwork. We noticed the newest collections from over 20 Greek designers – some internationally-known, some rising artists – together with the work of some present college students.

Vogue week isn’t an industry-only occasion. Like a music pageant, it’s a group celebration. Tickets for particular person exhibits can be found to anybody, and plenty of have been followers of the homes. It was an excellent crowd to be round. Athenians look good – half Mediterranean sprezzatura, half world-city city cool. One other good factor about the way in which Athenians costume is a way of id; they fairly often costume native. There are numerous Greek designers working within the capital, responding to town’s avenue type and life-style with a spread of distinctive seems. One other plus is that the majority items are made in Greece, some proper right here within the metropolis. 

Highlights included:

Parthenis at Omonia Sq.

Parthenis has been on town’s sartorial panorama since 1970, when Dimitris Parthenis opened his first retailer in Athens (Mykonos adopted in 1978). Their very likable philosophy –high quality pure materials; lengthy, lean silhouettes; fluidity of movement; and a recent, pure palette –stays unchanged. Orsalia Parthenis, Dimitris’ daughter, is staying true to the identical bohemian magnificence. With a flattering unisex aesthetic that loosely branches into traces for ladies and men, the model has a broad and lasting attain. You can see this on the present; many followers have been carrying items from seasons previous.

However what made this present probably the most talked-about occasions was the venue: surrounded by visitors in Omonia Sq.. We’ve bought numerous squares in Athens, and just about all of them are extra picturesque; Omonia was a significant selection, embracing the grittiness of town that each the home and its followers love and name residence. The light neoclassical façades of what have been as soon as two grand accommodations designed by the Nineteenth-century architect Ernst Ziller, the multi-story Hondos Middle with its large banner of the Karyatids, and the just lately restored mega-sculpture “5 Circles” by Zongolopoulos made the proper backdrop. To everybody’s delight, a big percussion band bought a strong, relaxed beat going and stored it up because the fashions, representing a variety of ages, ethnicities, physique sorts, and orientations/identities, confirmed off the Spring/Summer season ’24 assortment “Earthbound”. On their toes have been Converse sneakers – good with the totally different seems and furthermore good for maintaining a brisk, city tempo as they made the spherical of the entire plaza. For the finale, two lengthy traces of fashions crossed paths – a couple of breaking into spontaneous dance – to satisfy up below the Zongolopoulos sculpture. The violet and saffron items – this season’s signature colours amid the flattering neutrals – lent the scene a heat glow. Underneath skies quickly turning an apocalyptic orange (it was throughout that sandstorm of the 23th of April), the entire temper was considered one of inclusive, city confidence. 

All items are accomplished by small workshops in Athens.

Vassilis Zoulias on the Iris Cinema

Simply as distinctly Athenian, Vassilis Zoulias’ aesthetic takes us to a different Athens altogether. The store window of his boutique – Vassilis Zoulias Outdated Athens – on Academias affords a glimpse of an Athens previous, with a retro glamour everyone knows from black-and-white Finos Movies. Zoulias’ works are resolutely female, channeling an period that emphasised a voluptuous kind, an outlined waist and, above all, a female grace: “My reminiscences of my mom have actually outlined me. I keep in mind her within the ’60s, getting collectively together with her impeccably dressed girlfriends for a recreation of Gin Rummy within the afternoons. I used to be positively haunted by twinsets, black pencil skirts and pearl necklaces. Their type was burned into my reminiscence.” It’s a lucky factor that it was; these basic seems have by no means seemed extra related than they do in his fingers. The expertise of shopping for his works is an occasion: all items are created to order, imparting a deeper sense of engagement with the piece and reference to the native artisans employed by the atelier.

The Iris is a historic now disused cinema from the heyday of close by Omonia Sq.. Zoulias used the venue “as is (nonetheless stunning, it’s additionally in disrepair – some chairs have been blocked off for security, including an extra be aware of authenticity). The present’s Movie Noir theme – it started with clips from Casablanca and different movies – was an ideal match for the FW ’24-’25 assortment. A dressmaker’s atelier was arrange beneath the display. The home lights have been even and excessive – no spots, no coloured lighting – splendid for appreciating the restrained palette of camel, some bordeaux, and black that seemed higher than ever. Jewellery by Pericles Kondylatos was the proper complement to the outfits. The silhouettes, from pencil clothes to belted coats filled with swing, have been magnificent. The final two seems introduced the viewers to their toes in spontaneous applause; they have been modeled by the internationally well-known mannequin Marpessa Hennick and by the actress and mannequin Vicky Koulianou. 

(The worldwide crowd will know Zoulias by a number of seems which have featured within the TV present “Emily in Paris”.)

A Few Extra Exhibits of Word

Ioanna Kourbela shared her Spring/Summer season ’25 assortment in strong colours at Metaphor Athens – not with a present, however with a dance efficiency, choreographed by Andi Xhuma. An set up of her white assortment featured bridal clothes from totally different intervals in a spread of delicate shades and wealthy contrasting textures of pure supplies. The Dassios assortment was a celebration of Greek type, sleek and lean, with typically asymmetrical, superbly textural items that recommended an historic antecedent whereas remaining present and interesting. 

Lake Vouliagmeni by evening, the cliffs lit from beneath, made a super setting for the Paris Valtadoros assortment “Mystique.” There have been shimmering materials and body-contouring clothes with a sleek fluidity of movement, sleeves of implausible flounce, and clothes of elaborate building with an virtually sculptural presence. Daphne Valente’s body-affirming assortment “Misplaced My Marbles” featured her magnificent signature pleating, and the neoclassical Zappeion was a pleasant setting for the seems. These have been amongst a number of extra wonderful exhibits.

New Designers to Watch

The Wednesday night exhibits of latest designers on the Zappeion have been a selected spotlight. This was a really feel-good evening – a little bit loud, with a younger, enthusiastic crowd. There was a large spectrum of partaking seems over the four-plus hours, and a few modern standouts. Of those, Atelier L’amour et L’âme (Lamprini Mourouti) appeared to channel a little bit Bouguereau, maybe the Pre-Rafaelites for dreamy and diaphanous Georgian line seems, and breathtaking simplicity. The temper was pastoral – like what Marie Antoinette might need worn at her Petit Hameau – and the flowery floral headwear actually labored. Mourouti obtained this 12 months’s Finest Catwalk award for the dreamy spectacle.

Afterward, Blue (Pavlos Kyrkos) took us someplace utterly totally different, virtually past creativeness. Futuristic and fantastical, this assortment seemed like clothes for some parallel world. Maybe, nevertheless, he’s introducing an efficient strategy to costume for our personal; a quote from Camus on his website suggests as a lot: “The one strategy to cope with an unfree world is to turn out to be so completely free that your very existence is an act of rebel.” These are rebellious garments. Emotionally daring, his collections are autobiographical, reflections of his interior emotional states. Actually that’s true on a philosophical stage; on the aesthetic stage, they’re empowering, and furthermore typically actually enjoyable. A purple go well with of sculptural building – superb shoulders and sleeves – set off a spherical of audible pleasure. A purple cape was a surprise of advanced geometry, a fantasy piece of origami appropriate for carrying in an enchanted forest. Blue received the very best new designer award, and – judging from the response – the group was very joyful about it. So was I, after which much more so after I seemed him up and noticed that he been born in 2000 in Ioannina, and raised there as properly, and that he’d studied each Italian Literature and Vogue Design.

Different new collections included P. Anchor, which defines itself as a “Life-style Sustainable model impressed by the dominion of the ocean.” The seems backed it up, profitable the designer the Finest Trendsetter award. Christina Manelidi’s work was trendy in shade – gray, purple and pink – and sculptural, with a typically folkloric really feel within the cape component and in a smock-like costume, each of considerable material. One other piece, with its draped component making a two-toned geometric sample, put me in thoughts of a contemporary Sarakatsani (nomadic herders of northern Greece) garment. Ioannis Koulouris confirmed a colourful assortment of seems combining avenue type with an occasional stand-out element (an infinite bow across the neck of 1 mannequin reached the ground and drew some consideration from the group). Sifis Stathaikis’ assortment was all about straight-up glamour – primarily night seems – in an typically playful palette. 

The present “Gavalas and the New Technology IEK ALFA” featured Lakis Gavalas and works of rising designers, together with Eva Crannel, Papadopoulou Maria, Hers, Evlyn Angel, Irene Dalla, Maria Kariofili, Dex, Chaing, Doykisa Haska, Charis Symeonof, La Femme Bleu, and Infiny.

What Makes Greek Vogue… Greek

An set up on the Zappeion linked to the Olympic Video games featured among the magnificent unique costumes by Sophia Kokosalaki for the Athens 2004 opening ceremony, in addition to one of many Mary Katranzou items – the wearable Ionic column – for the priestesses at this 12 months’s flame ceremony. It was the perfect presentation of what makes Greek fashions distinctive. It appears that evidently being raised so close to the marvelous marble Karyatids has given Greek designers an intuitive sense of material and pleating, in addition to a way of the physique and proportions. We actually see it, in a contemporary sense, within the works of Ioanna Kourbela – whose items can have an elemental, virtually Cycladic presence – and within the stunning pleating of Daphne Valente. 

That sense of the physique and the flowing line can be superbly expressed by Angelos Bratis. You see it within the pure traces in Parthenis, too, within the easy geometries of conventional folks clothes. Of issues folkloric, nevertheless, nobody captures the wealthy heritage of Greek embroidery fairly like Dimitris Dassios. His background is within the theater – he had a profession on the Greek Nationwide Opera and in addition as a designer of costume jewellery and ultimately stage costumes –which provides him an outline of Greece’s sartorial historical past.

The heritage of historic Greek drama (to say nothing of philosophy) can even show liberating for designers partaking with very daring seems. We see it in a few of Valtadoros’ extra sculptural works, and we see it within the work of Blue, whose items appear to create their very own universe. 

The designers’ selection of supplies and palettes additionally typically expresses a Greek id. Greece has a protracted historical past of excellence within the textile {industry}, and plenty of designers use sustainable native materials. Greek cotton specifically is a standout for high quality. The serenity of the pure Greek palette – clear Cycladic blues and whites, the numerous cool and heat whites of pebbles on the seaside, the wealthy royal pink of porphyry harking back to roof tiles – is a frequent inspiration, making the garments slot in effortlessly with their pure environment. 

Above all, whether or not it’s in Zoulias’ basic seems of Outdated Athens, or in Kourbela’s pure items for a contemporary city goddess, or the items of any of the designers we’re so lucky to have working right here within the metropolis, the sense of Greek id all the time goes hand in hand with a way of up to date relevance.