15 posts tagged "Marios Schwab"
Greeks Unite
For his Spring collection, Marios Schwab focused heavily on the traditions and rituals from bygone Grecian eras. Who better to collaborate with on the shoes this season than Christina Martini of Ancient Greek Sandals (previously a shoe designer at Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga)? “Last July, I had the chance to meet Mario at Rainbowwave showroom at a mid-summer party in London,” she tells Style.com. “The fact that there is a Greek connection gave an extra dimension to it.” There are two styles of the handmade leather sandals, made using the traditional techniques that have been passed down for generations in Greece, featuring painted raffia fringe, lacing, and tinted raw edging. Here, Style.com has the up-close look at the shoes (and we spotted Lisa Marie Fernandez already sporting a pair of them at the Christopher Kane show). Look out for them in stores including Bergdorf Goodman and Kirna Zabête and on Net-a-Porter.com come spring. Martini’s also launched a collection of menswear shoes for Spring and has her first kids line on the way. On whom she would like to collaborate with next, she says: “I love the work of Phoebe Philo at Céline, but this is a total dream. At this moment, I like the idea of working with other fellow Greek fashion designers such as Sophia Kokosalaki and Mary Katrantzou.”
Putting On—And Taking Off—The Best Of British Fashion
London calls, and the world answers. London fashion week is in full swing, and what better time for an English retailer to indulge in a little justified bragging? Matches tapped London’s best designers for a new installation at its Marylebone flagship, which it debuted over the weekend to a crowd that included Giles Deacon, Norton & Sons’ Patrick Grant, Elizabeth Saltzman Walker, Tallulah Harlech, and the British Fashion Council’s Caroline Rush. The store’s mannequins were ingeniously dressed in key looks by U.K. labels including Stella McCartney, Roksanda Ilincic, Alexander McQueen, Burberry, and Christopher Kane.
Matches’ stock is very English; its clientele, says CEO Tom Chapman, more a mix. “Fifty-five percent of our clientele is online, and half is international,” he said. “We send bucket loads to Australia and China—we’ve gotten used to tiny feet sizes. Then again, we get a lot of cool hunters after that very latest thing—and to be honest, much of that is created by our very own homegrown talent. They do us proud.”
The atmosphere last night on the South Bank, on the other hand, was a trifle more French—à la Moulin Rouge. The foxes were out for the launch of Marios Schwab’s new lingerie collection for Kallisti at the Crazy Horse. And not just the dancers who modeled the lingerie. A renegade (yet fashion-savvy) fox broke into one of the venue’s dressing rooms and chewed through dancers’ Louboutins right before show time.
For Schwab, lingerie has long been a part of life. “My dad worked in the lingerie industry for Triumph,” he said, “so I have always been surrounded by the stuff.” But it may be more topical just at present. “My seamstress is reading Fifty Shades of Grey during every break,” he laughed. “I think these days people are thinking, screw it—literally—we want to enjoy life, and our bodies.” A ten-minute show was enough to titillate the likes of Leigh Lezark, Harley Viera-Newton, Eliza Doolittle, and Pixie Geldof. And that, of course, was the point. “Being provocative is back on the menu in fashion,” Schwab said.
Harvey Nichols’ Secret Garden
For its tribute to the Chelsea Garden Show, Harvey Nichols asked some of London’s brightest designers to create floral installations, unveiling the results last night at its Secret Garden cocktail party on the retailer’s fifth floor. Roksanda Ilincic, Marios Schwab, James Long, and Mary Katrantzou all showed off their masterpieces, which included Ilincic’s “wall” of live flowers, Katrantzou’s window treatment, and Schwab’s gazebo made to feel like a confessional booth.
While Katrantzou, Joan Collins, Tali Lennox, and Astrid Muñoz sipped cocktails from tiny watering cans, Bianca Jagger (who had her grandchildren Amba and Assisi Jackson in tow) and Schwab offered up the best moment of the evening. As the two sat in the “confessional” gazebo and stared at its ceiling, Schwab asked, “Can you see it?” He was referring to well-hidden erotic/pornographic scenes crafted in the Perspex tiles. Whereas it took some guests hours to catch it, if they did at all, there was no getting past Jagger—the queen of seventies decadence (pictured). “Of course, darling, but don’t make me say ‘penis’ in front of all these people…”
Central Saint Martins Alums Say Their Goodbyes To Charing Cross Road
“Have a listen. This is educational,” screamed Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker before playing to a rowdy crowd at Friday night’s farewell celebration to Central Saint Martins College’s buildings on Charing Cross Road. A CSM graduate, Cocker, whose song “Common People” was famously written about one of his classmates, was just as nostalgic as the students and faculty dancing in the audience. Next month, after 72 years, the school will move from its crumbling 1939 buildings in the heart of Soho to a $320 million complex in North London’s King’s Cross. The new building will be a high-tech haven to the school’s rebellious student body and unrivaled, unorthodox faculty. But that doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye to Charing Cross, whose paint-chipped halls have been walked by Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, John Galliano, and countless other fashion talents.
Hosted by Love magazine’s Katie Grand (above right), a former CSM student herself, the party welcomed alums like Christopher Kane, Giles Deacon (below left), Marios Schwab, and Ed Meadham and Ben Kirchhoff. But, in true Saint Martins style, the fête wasn’t just for VIPs. A mob of almost 800 graduates and current students, many of whom were clad top to toe in looks from their friends’ or their own graduate collections, ran from techno-lit classroom to techno-lit classroom, fluorescent glasses of vodka cocktails in hand. Partygoers paid homage to their alma mater by signing or doodling in a massive bound book posted at the school’s entrance, while Grand and CSM tutor Julie Verhoeven took their tributes to the next level, graffiti-ing the walls of the upstairs studios-turned-dancehalls. In order to grab a piece of history, a handful of students snuck past security into the off-limits sewing rooms, gathering whatever muslins, patterns, or mementos they could carry.
Before leaving the stage, Cocker offered some words of wisdom, yelling, “This is the last night of Saint Martins. Some people might think that’s a drag. But what we have to move is the spirit that existed within this place. Because it isn’t about this,” he said, gesturing to the building. “It’s about this,” he screamed, pointing to the crowd. “Here’s to the future of Saint Martins. May it survive.”
LFW Preview: Marios Schwab
In a new series, Style.com drops in on a few of London’s hottest young talents to find out what’s in store. Next up: Marios Schwab, who presents his collection tomorrow.
“I’m preoccupied with the topography of the body,” Marios Schwab said at his Dalston studio a few days before his Fall show. “I look at clothes in a much more graphic sense—what you place and where you place it.”
His inspirations for the season range from the Austrian architect Adolf Loos (who famously wrote that ornamentation slows down culture) to the famous inscription at the Temple of Delphi, “Nothing in excess.” That helps to explain the subtle touches, like traditional broguing around the torso of a burgundy leather dress. That’s a detail that brings to mind the tattoos in his Spring ’11 collection. “The hand is always the same, so whatever it draws comes from the same mind,” he says. “And there is something about the things that surround you all your life.” Continue Reading “LFW Preview: Marios Schwab” »