Athens Fashion Week

Great things were expected of the Seventh Athens Collections fashion week.

The exhibition began with a stylish show from the Nikos-Takis brand and finished four days later with a screening of the film Lagerfeld: Confidential.

In between, invited guests, journalists and buyers were treated to exhibitions by 30 Greek and four visiting designers displaying their autumn/winter 2008-9 collections.

 Many classic designs were featured, such as the egg-shaped quilted cocoon coats from Christos Costarellos and Konstantinos.

Also highlighted were the feminine curves with tight waisted designs and large belts.

Deep reds, emerald greens and dark sapphire blues abounded. Varied shades of brown, seemingly the new black, were featured in many designs.

Classic coats also took center stage, and capes and chunky knitwear, featured strongly, too.

However, it was with the accessories that the designers let their imaginations run wild with such things as trailing wool earrings, looking like locks of hair, to a powdered pompadour wig.

Fashion week was also the venue for the first leg of a Europe-wide competition for young designers.

Twenty from the fashion schools of Veloudakis and Pan Chic, as well as some independents, showed one design each and three winners – Dimitris Zafiriou, Dimitris Petrou, Evi Retziou – were chosen to represent Greece at the Create Europe competition in Berlin in October.