MonNoir  is a luxury avant-garde brand launched by the talented fashion designer Maria Georgiou, after completing her degree in Fashion Design in the United Kingdom and having worked with several established independent designers with shows in London and Paris Fashion Weeks.

This April, we watched your collection “Superstratum” in Athens Xclusive Designers Week. We loved the strong metallics and the mixture of different textures on the runway. What’s the inspiration behind this collection?

The inspiration behind SpringSummer 2018 is the juxtaposition of formalist architectural elements of metallic, inspired by the unconventional architect Frank Gehry, who creates a parallel reality with the fluidity from Georgettes. Using elements of East and West, advancing stratum of a memory trip from past to future. Each garment becomes a shell, establishing a new figure on the duality of androgyny and romance. Colours look like stratums, golden reflections, and metallic silver as if coming from an excavation to light and assuming a hyper-positive symbolism in the female body.

The name of the brand stands for my «noir state» of mind. It's this little gap between reality and imagination while designing a collection or drawing inspiration.

This combination embodies the contrast of the woman of the 21st century; the dynamic qualities of these days, that every woman in this world has. She is a dynamic woman that can struggle at work, manage her home and her kids but at the same time she is very sensitive and romantic.

Inspiration derives from everything that evokes my feelings, puzzles my mind, impresses me in a way.  I can’t say that I have a specific inspiration that sets me off. People, books, quotes, photos, paintings, architecture even a conversation can alarm my noir state thoughts.

I couldn’t say that I have a muse. The MonNoir woman might be a woman that borrows different elements from women around the world. Every minute or every moment, I might have a different muse that I cross paths with or met a few years ago. The mind sometimes runs at the same time in a female movie star or a woman that I met just now. I could say that I get inspiration from the dynamic womanhood.

I don’t have a specific type of woman in mind. When designing I consider many things. As a designer I have to work on creating the human image; every new figure reflects the surrounding of an imaginary environment that I have in mind, but at the same time the social or cultural background we are living in. I could say that I design for the individual contemporary woman.

From a young age, I had a strong opinion of how I should dress and why. Choosing my own outfits for kindergarten made my mum struggling with my wardrobe. I even created garments for my Barbie dolls out of tissue paper just to look at them and take photos of them; I never actually played with dolls, just dressed them up. Fashion is my passion and life. Being in love with fashion made me wonder how the process behind every garment works. So I decided to take the path as a fashion designer.I like to compose and create clothes for the female figure and the personality of women. The garment is both the image and an ego of every woman!

I always imagine that will evolve positively.  

Interview by Vasia Fragkou

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