MK SS13 |
Seeing Mary
Katrantzou’s work is like dying and going to prints heaven. She officially
is the queen of digital textile printing and with me she has scored herself a
new fan.
Yesterday I
attended the Fashion Festival organized at the beautiful and impressive V&A
museum. It was all about fashion in every possible way. You could attend some
workshops and go to some talks that were highly interesting. Of course I could
not let the chance of listening to Mary being interviewed by Sarah Mower,
ambassador for Emerging Talent for the British Fashion Council, go by. And I’m
super glad I didn’t.
Miss
Katrantzou – no idea on pronunciation of this – was born in Athens in Greece
and always wanted to be an architect. But aren’t we glad she changed her mind! This
29-year-old girl came to Central Saint Martins in London through an exchange
program and after falling in love with the City and her school, she transferred
from her old university to CSM to join their Textile program. When she started
out she was making all kinds of drapes, curtains and everything related to
interiors – her mother was an interior designer. But she felt like her prints
would even make more sense on garments. And that is kind of how it all got
started. She was the rebel in school, experimenting with digital printing,
which was completely taboo at the time she studies at CSM. But she felt like
the traditional printing methods were holding her back and creating prints with
Photoshop gives you infinite options. She likes to call it ‘Painting with
pixels’ which makes her work even more poetic.
After
graduating in 2008 she decided to dive into the fashion sea and create her own
label. She joined the British Fashion Council, which made it possible for her
to show her work in Paris. Completely overwhelmed by it all, she took of to the
City of Lights with nothing more than a rack of clothes with no price tags or
order sheets. Not expecting much at first has definitely changed now. With
260 stockists and a growing amount of famous clients all over the world, she
has gone from another designer to fashion’s newest wunderkind in only a couple
of years. A simple advice she would give to all aspiring designers? “Just take
it step-by-step and don’t rush your way in. Make sure you have a team you can
trust and love what you do.” And we love you, Mary!
Mary Katrantzou |
Keira Knightly in MK |
xoxo
Krazy K.