Looking for some relief from the summer heat? How about escaping to a lovely air-conditioned museum for a few hours? SCAD FASH is one of my favorites in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) bills itself as “The University for Creative Careers”. SCAD FASH is their Museum of Fashion + Film. It’s not that I’m a fashionista… far from it… but I do love refreshing new ideas and the SCAD FASH exhibitions never fall to deliver. The current exhibition, Kaleidoscope Katrantzou: Mary Katrantzou, 10 Years in Fashion is a great example. I’ll admit I didn’t even know who Mary Katrantzou was before attending the exhibit. But the exhibit closed that gap and I’m filled with admiration for her work.
The Kaleidoscope Katrantzou exhibition celebrates Katrantzou’s 10th anniversary and includes 88 outfits from 20 seasonal collections. The outfits are beautifully displayed in the spacious gallery.
Katrantzou designs luxury ready-to-wear womenswear featuring innovative digital prints, sophisticated embellishment and statement pieces. Here’s what the exhibit has to say about the artist “Born in Athens, Greece, and based in London, Katrantzou took the fashion world by storm in 2008 with her now-legendary debut collection of trompe l’oeil prints, quickly becoming an industry favorite. Over the past 10 years, Katrantzou has surprised and stunned critics each season. Tapped for prestigious partnerships with cult brands including Longchamp, Moncler and Adidas Originals, she has also collaborated with artist-provocateur Pablo Bronstein, designed costumes for the New York City Ballet and Paris Opera, and exhibited her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. … Katrantzou’s garments are highly sought after by fashionistas, collectors and celebrities alike, and have been worn by Michelle Obama, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong’o and Naomi Campbell, among many others.”
Perhaps the best place to start is with Katrantzou’s debut collection from Fall/Winter 2009. Called “Woman in a Bottle”, the collection was inspired by perfume bottles and the reflective quality of glass. The first look she presented was this “Black Shalimar” dress. The gorgeous design is the result of a digital print manipulated to form the desired silhouette.
Although digital prints on fabric are quite popular today, the technique was highly innovative at the time. Katrantzou has included digital prints in subsequent collections but always interpreted in a unique new way. Here’s an example from her Spring/Summer 2014 Collection. This unusual collection called “The Shoes”, was… you guessed it… inspired by footwear. Common details, such as the shoelaces shown here on the “Tamale Dress”, were incorporated as decorative elements in the outfits.
Here’s another twist, the digital print for this pantsuit, is printed on metal mesh. This is the “Iris Dress” from the Minoan Collection of Spring/Summer 2017. For this collection, Katrantzou was inspired by the rich history, mythology and culture of Greece.
Many of Katrantzou’s designs feature spectacular embellishments. A variety of materials are used including embroidery, beads, sequins, Swarovski crystals and metal chains. The 3 outfits below, from the Cosmology Collection for Spring/Summer 2016, were inspired by the engravings of medieval cosmology. Shown left to right are the “Prism Dress”, “Azalea Dress” and “Milana Dress”.
Here’s a closer look at some of the embellishment.
Some outfits were embellished with completely unexpected items. This dress, from the Ordinary Objects Collection for Fall/Winter 2012, is embellished with rubber pencils, beads and plastic ruffles. The exhibition guide explains “With this collection, Katrantzou discovers beauty in the everyday, elevating the mundane to the sublime. A simple concept becomes dazzling in execution.”
Another example of using an everyday item in a surprising way is this “Ellsworth Dress” which is made of acrylic puzzle pieces, metal rings and PVC. It is from the 10th Anniversary Show for Spring/Summer 2019.
There are many more lovely and innovative designs in the exhibit. But I’d like to wrap up this gown from the The Youth of the Year Collection for Spring/Summer 2018. This collection celebrates the limitless imagination of children and was inspired by their toys and games. I think the partially completed paint-by-number design is genius! Interestingly, this gown was worn by the award-winning, Austrialian actress, Cate Blanchett, to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. This gown was definitely the star of the Kaleidoscope Katrantzou show! Isn’t it beautiful?
More Info
The Katrantzou Kaleidoscope exhibition is on display at SCAD FASH until Sept 22, 2019. The Exhibit Guide can be accessed online.
You can learn about designer Mary Katrantzou and her latest collections on her website.
Today’s Takeaways
1. Consider checking out the current exhibition at your local museum.
2. Entertain options to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
3. Explore the endless possibilities for embellishment.
Comments are closed.