Mary Katrantzou is one of those designers, whose name you say and immediately her garments come to mind. Origami dresses emblazoned with graphic digital typewriters printed on the bust, artfully-cut gowns adorned with architechtural motifs to give a trompe l'oeil effect.
Mary is, simply put, the master of prints. She burst onto the scene back in 2008 after completing a BA in Textile design and an MA in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. Since then numerous accolades have followed including the prestigious New Establishment award at the Fashion Awards, International Designer of the Decade by Vogue, and Mary's work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum to name just a few.
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Mary Katrantzou x Lipsy features some of the designers most recognisable prints
Her most notable and visible project was her star-studded haute couture show, which was a spectacle held at the Temple of Poseidon in Greece pre-pandemic, “It was a show that was initially designed as a love letter to Greece that drew a whole new audience of clients that came to us after the show, even though the show wasn't designed to be sold,” Mary explained to us at the upscale Louis restaurant in Covent Garden, where she is showing her latest collection for Lipsy.
It’s a project she was approached for and which she became very sentimental about after finding out she was expecting, “At the time we were so busy with the Bulgari collection we were doing and of course I was pregnant… but then I started thinking, you know, it'd be wonderful if we could do children's. And I said, you know, we'll do it if they're open to children. And they said, You know, that's so interesting that you say that because Lipsy has just launched kidswear really recently. So on one of my trips to London, I went into Lipsy and I met Jeremy, the CEO, and Marcel the creative director, and I just loved their energy.”
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The collection also features children's wear, a first for the designer
The 30-piece collection is a bouquet of bold bloom prints plus some exclusive, one-of-a-kind patterns that haven’t been seen before from the Mary Katrantzou archive. All of these have been printed onLipsy’s most popular silhouettes including skater dresses and maxis, "They showed me a lot of the silhouettes they do well. It was so surprising to me that most of the silhouettes in our bestselling silhouettes for Lipsy are the same shapes that we sell," added Mary. The collection for Lipsy is a collective of Mary’s key prints throughout her career, "If you know my work well and if you see a print that's distinctive, you'll know it's mine… They knew from our archives the prints that they were most drawn to. I felt they were so strong in knowing what they wanted for the Lipsy girl. It made the conversations happen a lot easier."
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The floral prints were handpicked from Mary's archive
The collection is perfect for summer getaways and jaunts, with flowing tea dresses and stunning swimwear and separates which boast some of Mary’s most colourful and nostaglic prints, so you’ll look great and the little ones will too.
'Mary Katrantzou × Lipsy' launches 31 May 2022, the collection is exclusively available online at Next.co.uk and on all Next international websites.
