Sophia Kokosalaki
Sophia Kokosalaki
Sophie Kokosalaki was born in Athens, Greece, in 1974. She started sketching dresses in childhood, because her mother put her into such bad clothes. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother a journalist.
She studied at the University of Athens. Athens was the setting for Kokosalaki's first fashion experiments. After graduating, she set about making a small line of dresses, by hand, which she managed to sell to a boutique. She couldn't even operate a sewing machine at that time. Then in 1997 she came to London and did her Masters degree in fashion design at Central St. Martins College of Fashion. Her fellow student was designer Maria Chen. Her graduation collection was polished enough for Pellicano in South Molton Street, London, to display it in their windows. She started her own company in 1999 and in the same year also started designing for the luxe Italian leather house Ruffo Research. She has completed 6 collections for them to great acclaim but has now decided not to continue designing for Ruffo. For her collections, she chooses classic Grecian draping and adds handcrafted elements, giving her clothes a hip, young and relaxed look. Her speciality is soft flowing dresses and she has also shown promise in her knitwear. She treats leather like fabric, twisting, pleating and knotting it into unexpectedly feminine designs, or wrapping studiously elegant tailoring with harnesses made from twists of leather and tulle. Sophia Kokosalaki has not yet decided on her future, although she has struck a deal with a manufacturing concern in Italy. 
Spring/Summer 2003 Sophia participated in London Fashion Week in September 2002, showing her Spring/Summer 2003 collection. Here on the left, is a dress from the Spring/Summer 2003 show. 
Autumn/Winter 2003 During London Fashion Week in February 2003, Sophie showed a collection of stunningly constructed intricately imaginative clothes. Her talent is in her detailing, so that a beautifully cut keyhole neckline on a sinmple dress, or a wave of ripples down the side of a sleeve give a distinctive look and a timeless elegance. Her clothes are elegantly sexy. Leather and jersey garments were inspired by the anatomy of a women. Raised seams, tucks and cut-outs revealed and traced the curves of the body. Her dresses were a knockout, especially a black jersey long-sleeved tube with tulle showing off areas of skin. 
Spring/Summer 2004 During London Fashion Week in September 2003, Sophia Kokosalaki showed her collection for next Spring. An outfit from the show is shown on the left. She worked her chic magic on new multi-pleat jersey which wrapped around the body with superb skill. Little corset tops came with micro shorts and stunning strapless dresses with a peep of skin at the navel. Evening wear saw a scattering of crystal on vest tops and chiffon dresses. She has been selected to do the costumes for the Athens Olympics so she is celebrating the beauty of classical Greek sculpture.
Autumn/Winter 2004 Sophie showed her Autumn/Winter collection was shown in London during Fashion Week in February 2004 to an appreciative audience that included her friend and supporter Alexander McQueen. She always tries to use elements of her Greek heritage and make her clothes elegant and wearable. It was excellently executed using fine knits and a translucent synthetic fabric she called "jelly nylon". The effect of brief skirts with tucks at the front and gently draped jersey dresses was of a Grecian tunic. Her perfectly tailored woollen cropped jackets were both darkly edgy and delicately feminine. 
Olympics 2004 Greek-born Sophia was asked to design more than 7,000 ceremonial costumes for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. She spent two years researching the traditional dress such as shown on the left, of different parts of Greece before taking up the design work. As you will have seen, when watching the Olympics, she did a brilliant job and the people taking part in the ceremonies of award presentations, and leading the athletes around the venues looked really spectacular. 
Spring/Summer 2005 Sophia Kokosalaki presented her collection for the Spring season during Paris Fashion Week in October 2004. This was Sophia's debut in Paris after showing in London for many seasons. A dress from this collection is shown on the right. Her theme was the sea, shells, sea creatures, and sand. Blue-painted wave dresses, bodices textured like the insides of shells, anemone fronds on shoulders and silk jersey seawood in watery blue and palest pink were all part of her collection. The exposure in Paris will capture the attention this designer deserves for her beautiful garments and good technical execution. 
Autumn/Winter 2005 Sophia's Autumn/Winter collection was shown during Paris Fashion Week in March 2005. Her fresh ideas and wonderful tailoring, along with a colour palette of lilac, sienna, grey, brown and black ensured a lovely collection. Her full woollen coats in bright colours, as shown on the left, were embossed at the edges with her signature curls, and she created smartly tailored pants and loose jersey tops. As always her draping of jersey dresses, with soft ripples flattered every curve of a woman's body.
Spring/Summer 2006Paris Fashion Week Sophia Kokosalaki presented her Spring/Summer 2006 collection during Paris Fashion Week in October 2005. Shown on the right is a pink pleated mini dress from the colletion. It is worn with a white micro mini skirt over the top, and a matching pink leather jacket. The model is wearing strappy Greek sandals to accessorize. Sophia presented beautiuful draped dresses with a modern look using flesh-coloured tulle and off-white lace. She has been very successful into expressing subtleties of structure and embellishment and made a feather-light collection. Her colours were pale neutrals, optic white and tints of mauve, plus her favourite dusty pink. In Autumn 2006 it has been announed that Sophia Kokosalaki will be taking over the creative design for the classic house of Vionnet. She is thrilled to death and is deep in the archives to absorb everything she can of the spirit of the great designer.
2006
Sursa
2011-06-29 22:35:00