This writing piece wraps up our four-part One Look Series from the Fashion Journalism course. It shares a student’s reaction from the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film‘s current exhibition, “Kaleidoscope Katrantzou: Mary Katrantzou, 10 Years in Fashion.”
By Ruchi Tada
Mary Katrantzou’s professional aesthetics are absolutely different from her personal style. While the Greek-born designer always wears black, her fashions are colorful, abstract and eye-catching. That bold vibrancy is on lively display in “KALEIDOSCOPE KATRANTZOU: Mary Katrantzou, 10 Years in Fashion” at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta.
The exhibition, continuing at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film through Sept. 22, showcases the designer’s journey from 2009 to 2019 for her eponymous label.
Based in London, Katrantzou is a great storyteller, an innovator and artist. She designs garments that spread positivity in the world, by creating prints, relying on unconventional materials, structures, shapes, techniques and evoking different types of feelings through her work. The exhibition is organized so that the viewer can travel with her through her journey of exploration.
You feel the transformation of her designs over the years– how she started to play more with structure, technology and prints, including digital prints on silk with unexpected embellishments. Rubber pencils, beads, plastic ruffles, Swarovski crystals, pearls, diamante, plastic bubbles and patchwork make for fascinating looks. You sense her energy just by looking at the garments. Her creations can even transport one to a place of nostalgia and into a magical wonderland.
The moment you enter the exhibition you feel like you have opened a storybook. The exhibition presents the fashions in chronological order, the first one, Women in Bottle, is from Katrantzou’s graduation show. Then you see Blown Glass, Madame de Pompadour, Rooms and Objects d’Art.
The exhibition is an amalgamation of 88 dresses from 19 collections created by designer. The gown that is the center of attention, from the collection “Youth of the Year,” was worn by actress Cate Blanchett at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
This design was inspired by Katrantzou’s childhood coloring-book memories. In France, the look stood out as a sign of positivity after the dominance of all-black outfits on the 2018 Golden Globe red carpet to protest sexual misconduct in Hollywood.
The Katrantzou exhibition draws the eye from dresses to jackets, from elongated silhouettes to unusual textures, such as mesh and metallic brocade on the mannequins. Her designs take inspirations from postage stamps and bank notes, Disney stories, shoes, and her relationship to classical architecture in her native Athens. Ordinary objects such as a keyboard, spoons and forks are really amazing to see applied to wearable art.
Katrantzou created a magical world of prints, colors and stories for the viewer, which makes the exhibition an experience full of surprises. She shows us that simple objects and subjects can be used to make something so beautiful and meaningful.
No wonder Katrantzou said, dressed in black during a talk with Sally Singer, an editor from Vogue, at SCADStyle 2019: “My work is about narration and storytelling.”