Ioannis Guia vente privée

Ioannis Guia is a Greek designer residing in Paris, whose quite provocative AW 2010/11 collection, which was inspired by the Greek-Orthodox Easter, I was lucky enough to attend in AXDW last March.

I very much admire his skills and his whole career path, as well as the road-least-traveled approach he chose to follow, while drawing inspiration from his own cultural background. Last season it was all about the neo-greek tsolias uniforms and now, the Greek-Orthodox clergy's ceremonial clothing. As Alecca Rox herself very successfully noted in her blog, there are no cliché ancient pleats and drapes to be found here.

So imagine my joy when a couple of weeks ago, I opened my inbox to find a lovely e-mail by Monsieur Guia himself, inviting us to his vente privée in Athens. What an amazing opportunity to meet him, talk throughout all his ideas and inspiration behind his collections and see the actual clothes in real life.

Good thing I had Elena as my partner in crime!

As you'll see from this post, she's one of my favourite models!

Monsieur Guia welcomed us wholeheartedly and dedicated a lot of his valuable time to talk about his inspiration as well as the actual clothes and the methods he uses for their construction.

For example, did you know he had the fabrics he used in his last collection custom woven especially for him in one of those famous maisons in Paris? Yes, the ones Chanel uses too...

And he insisted on us trying on the clothes!

Well, that was a no-brainer, actually. Fashion is not art, clothes are meant to be worn.

And don't let yourselves get intimidated by the extravagant shows Ioannis Guia throws every season at fashion week. Our personal experience now confirms that they were indeed totally wearable.

Weather it was silver and champagne-coloured sequins embroidered on silk for evening wear or a linen/cotton mix blouse and its matching multi-tiered skirt, I could easily fit most of the clothes I saw in my everyday style.

Bonus happy moment was meeting new fabulous people! Like the lovely Nopi you can see modeling that beige Guia dress in the pic above. With her raven hair and flat bejeweled sandals, she totally embodied sexy-yet-cool summer chic.

Overall, it was an amazing experience, and a really educative one as well. When a designer pays such attention to detail, it's a pity not to enjoy it up close.

So thank you Monsieur Guia, for the hospitality and the lovely evening full of fashion.

And readers, don't forget to read Elena's post as well!