Mary Katrantzou

Mary Katrantzou is a fashion designer with a penchant for unique bold and graphic prints. With her label in its third season, this new-kid-on-the-block has already developed a strong identity in the fashion world and judging by the standard of her latest AW10 collection we will not be seeing the last of her yet.

An alumnus of the Central Saint Martins MA Fashion course, Greek-born Mary Katrantzou burst onto the scene at their A/W graduate fashion show in 2008. Through this she managed to gain sponsorship from New Generation for a second season and showed her AW09 collection at London Fashion Week in February 2009. Her innovative designs have included a response to the way in which fashion houses such as Gaultier and Givenchy traditionally create perfume bottles that pay homage to the female body. Katrantzou decided to design a series of dresses in which she placed the perfume bottle on the woman rather than the other way round, therefore creating the illusion of an hourglass silhouette and placing emphasis on the female form.

Her AW10 collection is inspired by eighteenth century society paintings – a move away from the hyperrealism she has explored in previous years. Referencing paintings by artists such as Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Jean-Marc Nattier she focuses on adapting eighteenth century dress to the twenty-first century woman. The opulence of the eighteenth century is adapted through the addition of luxury details such a tulle and lace ruffles, which create a three-dimensional silhouette – a move away from the symmetrical graphic shift dresses of her SS10 collection.

It is clear that Katrantzou is keen to move forward and develop her line with a new emphasis on tailored pieces and different textures. The paring of a Napoleonic jacket with wide-legged trousers depict both feminine romanticism and authority; demonstrative of the conflicted world of the modern woman. The inclusion of extravagant brass statement jewellery made out of furniture parts (custom made in Katrantzou’s mother’s factory in Athens) which are then combined with Swarovski crystals compliment the collection perfectly by creating a microcosm of the relationship between utility and luxury that this collection represents.