SS22 Happiness Gone Wrong
Eftychia Karamolegkou’s eighth 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. The happiness projected is forced and artificial, as if a lobotomy procedure has taken place. Live. Laugh. Lobotomy. and Ice Pick flash at intervals throughout the space to underline this point. 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 one 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, decorative 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 pareo 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.
Thank you: The British Fashion Council, the NewGen 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.
All images Courtesy of Eftychia
Credits: 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 PR- Show Management We Are Village Make Up Artist Rebecca Wordingham at LGA Management using 19/99 Beauty & Pfeffer Sal Skincare Hair Shushuke Meguro at Future Rep using L’Oreal Professionnel 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
PR Agency Wearevillage