Print madness

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.