The One Look Series is a four-part series that highlights writing pieces from the Fashion Journalism course. Students were asked to write a piece based off of one selected look from SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film‘s current exhibition, “Kaleidoscope Katrantzou: Mary Katrantzou, 10 Years in Fashion.”
Give Us ShalaMORE: Mary Katrantzou’s 10-Year Victory Lap
by Jadelynn Douville
Known as the “Queen of Prints,” London-based and Greek-born fashion designer Mary Katrantzou stormed onto the fashion scene in 2008 with her bold print designs and techniques. Currently at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, the fruition of her career is on display in “KALEIDOSCOPE KATRANTZOU: Mary Katrantzou, 10 Years in Fashion.”
The exhibition is a visual awakening from the first glance in the room full of sparkling gowns with brightly colored accents. Complemented by understated white walls and mirrors in nearly every inch of the space, it seem almost endless.
This exhibition is chock-full of beautiful, glimmering garments in its 80-plus looks, but perhaps the one that truly manifests the idea behind this entire celebration of design is at the tail end of the display — the Shalamore D
The gorgeous, handcrafted gown is notable for the use of Katrantzou’s now-classic digital printing, along with embellishments of glimmering Swarovski crystal mesh in black, gold, silver, and dazzling shades of pink.
The Shalamore Dress serves as an homage and foil for the Shalimar Dress, which is from her very first collection and which also happens to be the first dress on display in the exhibition.
The placement of these two gowns makes the exhibition feel like a victory lap for Katrantzou as her 10 years of work come full circle. The two dresses use the exact same print of the perfume bottle, but the more recent one truly shows the level of professionalism and execution expertise Katrantzou gained through it all.
“In fact, she chose the name of the dress to be Shalamore because it’s simply more, added onto the original dress you see in the front,” according to one of the museum’s docents. “You can really see how she became more experienced through this 10-year collection.”
Like much of her early work, the Shalimar Dress is in a simple knee-length shift silhouette complemented by digital printing conveys a sort of trompe l’oeil effect. However, the dress displays her technical advancement at an upgraded skill level.
Like much of her early work, the dress is in a simple knee-length shift silhouette complemented by digital printing conveys a sort of trompe l’oeil effect. However, it also displays her technical advancement at an upgraded skill level.
Instead of the traditional shift dress, the Shalamore is a full-length gown that shines like a disco ball with its entirety being swallowed by lustrous crystals. It also utilizes contour lines that accentuate the actual figure of the body, which elevates the optical illusion of the perfume bottle. The amount of depth and color captured nearly makes the original gown seem amateurish with its flat digital print.
