TURNING POINT
A recurring series of conversations with residents or visitors to Athens, and the very moment that changed their lives.
By Alexia Amvrazi
Her characteristic golden bob, luxurious, draped clothes, slender, petite frame, soft, sweet voice and gentle manner give Chara Lebessi the air of an ethereal creature, perhaps of a delicate Nordic goddess who lives in a magnificent fashion fairytale land. A born and bred Athenian, her great passion for design was fueled in earnest when she won the First Hellenic Wedding Dress Competition in 2001, after which she left the country to study at Central Saint Martins in London.
The accomplished designer has been a member of the Hellenic Fashion Designers Association since 2005 and as of 2007 when she presented her collection at the Vendome Luxury Trade Show in Paris she has been participating in several international shows, while her work has also been featured in al Jazeera International’s colorful tribute to the Greek capital, 48 Athens.
Lebessi has gained great respect and highbrow recognition for her immaculate, glamorous and luxuriant designs but especially for her trademark personal take on classical Greek beauty – giving one-shoulder and beautifully draped gowns a whole new meaning. Her dresses have been worn by glitterati at film premieres, on stage and at cocktail parties and exhibited at museums; most recently her “Seaweed Dress” was the central exhibit of the Museum of the History of Greek Costume.
We meet at a favorite haunt, Cafe Boheme bar/restaurant in Kolonaki and as we chat over a crisp garden salad, I ask her about one of the key moments that changed her life.
“In 2002 I was studying womenswear at Central Saint Martins in London,” she says. “I was able to attend lots of great fashion-related exhibitions which deeply inspired me, such as one called ‘The Radical Fashion’ at Victoria & Albert Museum. I also got to meet many very inspiring people in the industry and I spent long, leisurely afternoons visiting the amazing variety of stores selling extraordinary fabrics, silk laces, buttons, and so on.
“The whole environment was so exciting for me that I got down to work and created my own collection! I was happy with it so I decided to present it to small boutiques and see if I could find someone interested in buying it. I had some Greek fashion magazines with me that were like a portfolio as they featured some of my designs in their editorials. I visited a few shops, and when I showed my work to the “London Designers Shop” a boutique on Fulham Road that mainly showcased new British designers, the boutique’s owner liked it very much, so we began a collaboration. As you can imagine, I was thrilled!
“My collection was displayed at the boutique that August, and soon customers began buying my designs. The owner even began taking orders from brides who wanted me to design their wedding dresses, and I had the joy of meeting a whole new clientele – women living in different corners of the world, from America to Asia, who were visiting London and shopped at the boutique.
“The experience of seeing dresses from my collection displayed in the windows of the boutique was pure joy for me, and changed my life from there on – it gave me such confidence, and enough hope to believe that anything can happen if you remain focused on your work and vision, keep working hard, instill confidence in yourself and never, ever give up!”
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