The Tamesis
It’s mid-January in New York, and with temperatures just reaching double digits, it’s hard to remember the feeling of warm sunsets and summer al fresco dinners. It’s dark before 5pm in this city, and we’re walking against the wind on the streets around the World Trade Center after get off work. Yet, half a year later, those long July nights are approaching, and Mary Katrantzou has designed her latest collection for them, finding inspiration for new prints and embroideries on delicate tablecloths, napkins and colorful tableware.
Katrantzou, a former Londoner, has called her native Greece home since the start of the pandemic, but divides her time between Athens and Florence, where she is based at Bulgari as creative director of leather goods and accessories. The range therefore has a unique Mediterranean flavour. The embroidered scalloped edge on the halter neckline of a sundress looked like the kind of napkins you’d find neatly stacked in the linen closet of a scenic mansion, and the plaid plaid on a stretch-knit number looked like it had been lifted from a picnic blanket, only this one was decorated with jacquard flowers. Elsewhere, other dresses’ colorful swirling patterns were inspired by Murano glass – a fitting reference given all the Venice Biennale dinners coming up this summer.
