Eftychia Karamolegkou’s eight-season begins with a play on words. Eftychia being the Greek translation for happiness, the season’s title Happiness Gone Wrong is both a description of its theme and a witty inside joke.
Karamolegkou’s previous collection began the move away from office wear, which was once foundational to the brand. This season marks a clean break. While the identity of the Eftychia woman remains the same, setting no longer dictates what she chooses to wear. The pieces are fun and playful; casual silhouettes made of luxury fabrics are worn in eclectic and unexpected combinations. With tailoring remaining at the core of the brand, a new form is ushered in.
This recent period has blasted away inconsequential matters, and qualms and restrictions about how we dress have disappeared with them. Punk eighties hair and makeup, styled with bandanas, Vanessa Schindler’s Bioresin and chain jewellery pieces, and Simona Vanth’s sculptural clogs and loafers all illustrate this mood in the show. The collection critiques “post-pandemic” positivity, which is obsessively encouraged in the media as though we are not still processing the last 18 months. Familiar objects are made to feel surreal on screens around the room as shadow, light and mirrors develop an atmosphere of otherness or simulation.
Thought-provoking elements continue throughout the collection. Tailored summer jackets are unlined and given a curvier sleeve and high-seated pockets to create a bomber-like feel. Stripes are used to distort proportions, with a wool and linen mix striped jacket contrasting with wide-panelled two-tone trousers. Embroidery is used on the front and sleeves of tops and dresses, resembling clubbing t-shirts. Playing on the title, on some tops Eftychia is embroidered down on sleeve, Gone Wrong, down another.
This season Karamolegkou also works with ECCO Leather, a premium quality leather manufacturer with an innovative and contemporary approach. In tones of brown blue and orange, and ranging in texture from soft to firm, leather is used to make dresses, trousers, shorts and vests. Details in the collection continue as the cocoon-legged ‘Grampa’ trousers, a staple of the Eftychia wardrobe, is replaced by a ‘Grampa’ bermuda short. To enhance the season’s casual and summery feel, decorated fraying, sometimes using brightly coloured threads, appears on trouser seams, while fringing is used on leather trousers.
As evening wear pieces and casual garments are mixed, so too are luxury fabrics. A silver silk draped skirt imitating the effortless wrap of a paleo is toned down with an underskirt of beige and orange striped cotton. Trousers made of lightweight wool from British mills are worn alongside a semi-sheer lurex tank top. Knitwear in lurex and holographic yarns of burnt orange, brown and silvers continue this theme. Smart tailoring, relaxed cuts and a nonchalance in dressing all inform the new approach of Eftychia.
CREDITS
Thank you to The British Fashion Council, the Newton panel, Maria Lemos and the whole RainbowWave team, Panos Myrtatos at Ecco Leather, Tito Ferreira, Millie Cockton, Apostolos Koukidis, Katie Westwood at London Embroidery Studio, Elektra Sadotti, Jack Howden and A Common Purpose Studio, Kleanthis Kyriakou.
Creative Director: Eftychia Karamolegkou
Styling with Sofia Lai
Casting Director: Henry Thomas at Bryant Artists
Production Designer: Derek Hardie Martin at The Wall Group
Visual Artist: Nikolaos Sampaziotis
Music by Bill Kouligas
Show Production: Blonstein
MUA: Rebecca Wordingham at LGA Management using 19/99 Beauty and Pfeffer Sal Skincare
Hair: Shunsuke Meguro at Future Rep using L’Oreal Professional Paris
Nail Artist: Emily Rose Lansley
Photographer: Jessica Mahaffey
Casting Assistant: Marina Fairfax
Styling Assistant: Lauren Meeuwen
Press Release: Elizabeth Gregory
Jewellery: Vanessa Schindler
Shoes: Simona Vanth
Interns: Mitchell Halsema, Izzy McCormac