Feature Interview
The Magical Mind of Mary
Fashion designer Mary Katrantzou recently visited Manchester, to talk about her SS13 collection in front of some specially selected guests at Selfridges Exchange Square. Gemma Latham sat down with Mary ahead of the presentation, eager to hear first-hand from the storyteller of an extraordinary fashion fairytale...
..It started with jewellery, magnified gemstones and gold chains; then perfume bottles with their cut glass shapes and jewelled shades. Next, adorned in ruffles and sashes, Mary led us through the looking glass to a world of palaces, boudoirs and verandas. Chiffon and chandeliers beckoned to balcony views of swimming pools and flower fields. From Elizabethan England to the 1920’s French Riviera, onto the orient and across oceans to the tropics, like birds of paradise flitting through a dreamscape of dizzy wonderment.
Through her innovative talent for “filtering the beauty in design”, Mary Katrantzou has taken us on a kaleidoscopic journey since she burst onto the fashion scene in 2008. Taking inspiration from iconic imagery, historic and cultural references are transformed into prints, woven into a tapestry and wrapped around the female form in a prizm of colours and silhouettes that flow from her ingenious imagination.
“I thought it would be interesting to tell the story of the world, but I didn’t know how. Then I thought. . STAMPS! It’s such a good way to show different cultural references. I love travelling with the stamp collection because people pick out different things. They relate to some of the colours, or the political figures, or the flowers. I mean they are so recognizable sometimes of certain countries, so I thought about what else does the same thing, and I thought MONEY! Again, you know, you never look at it for its designs, but some of the motifs are beautiful.
There is something nice about collecting. I think I was one of the last generations to collect stamps. There is something beautiful in the way the stamps and old bank notes have a value, but now it’s only in collector’s albums. It’s very interesting to use as my inspiration because it allows me to put more of my own signature into the work, and show what’s modern about the designs and how people can wear them.
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I get very analytical when we decide on the topic of the season. Apart from the obvious thing that is print, a lot of my work is looking at imagery. I start with research and because it’s so thematic and there is no end, I know everything about the postage stamps and bank notes by the end of the season. I like that because designers have an inquisitive nature, so you feel really fulfilled at the end of the season.
When I travel I take thousands and thousands of images, I am obsessive with it! It’s because of the way I work - that found imagery becomes a collage, then becomes part of the body, then I paint over it and start to see patterns in certain things. I use instagram so much! When you are travelling it’s a perfect way of capturing the things you see.
My print is not a kind of signature font, it’s a thematic print I build each season. It’s important for me to take it a step at a time and place the right print in the right medium. That’s the power with print, you can apply it!
I wear a lot of black. Print and colour exist so avidly in my imagination that I feel the need to detach myself from my work. I want to be creative and use my colour sensibility in my work and sometimes that means cleansing my palette. Black is a uniform for me and my escape is my work. I love Azzedine Alaïa. He knows to design for a woman’s body and I always feel very feminine wearing his dresses.
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