Stefanos Chrysafis
How did you realize that you wanted to become a designer?
I did not! I sketched from my early years. I always remember myself interested in art. In high school I started with photography, painting and interior design, but in fashion I found myself and I think I’ve taken the right decision. In fashion, we can mix every kind of art and create something about everyone.
Where do you look to for inspiration?
In humans. Everywhere. Thoughts. Different thoughts. Contrasts like earth and air, insanity and sanity. Inspiration for me is everywhere. We live in a world where limits are so close but far at the same time. It also has to do with your own mood. I can find inspiration in movements. In words. In acts. In art and design. In friendships. In agreements. Everywhere.
With your collections you’re flirting with contrasts, demolishing taboos and stereotypes. What does this mean for you?
It means that we have to be better people. We need more kindness. There is so much vice and wickedness and we are not worth it. We, as human beings, are so creative, and what we do is turning that against us in bad way. Within my collections, I’m trying to connect people with my thoughts and make them understand that our choices, in every meaning, make us who we are.
The name of your last collection was “Delire”. Can you tell us a little more about the inspiration behind this collection?
“Délire” (nm. (=fièvre) delirium. (fig) (=frénésie) frenzy. un délire créatif, a creative frenzy (=fantaisie) wild idea.) This collection presents utopian scenarios of a poisoned reality. A wild game with illogical or logical contents. The incoherence. Inspiration comes from the dialysis, the relaxation and the confusion of a fake life that in vigil is imprisoned in the power of logic. The dreams. The thymic life. The transportation to reality. The experiences. The passivity and the virtual reality. The paradox and the evasion. The freedom of ourselves. A strong allegory of suffocating life and the war for emotional survival. The fighting of normality, regularity and the trite. The liberated recreation of imagination leading to the smashing of contrasts. This collection mixes sadness with happiness, hate with love, fear with courage and mollifies traumas of our emotional world.
It’s your 2nd time in AXDW. Last year you contested among several new designers and received 2 awards. What was the impact of your participation on your career?
During my participation in Athens Fashion Week, I’ve learned more about me. I’ve seen how hard it is to make a collection and create a brand on your own, and how many things you have to manage. I have acquired customers, sponsors and people that they believe in my dream.
What’s unique about you?
For me, everyone is unique, but differences between you and everyone else are more visible on other people's eyes.
Does art help you understand parts of yourself?
Of course. For me, fashion design means art and commerce together. When you are the artist, you find ways to communicate what you have in your silly brain. It’s a different kind of psychoanalysis, an internal search, a way to externalize your inner world. It feels like a scream. The same applies when you are trying to understand someone’s art; you are trying to understand parts of someone’s self.
Interview by Vasia Fragkou.
