Angelos Bratis is to get his moment under the spotlight at Beijing Fashion Week, running Oct. 25 to Nov. 2, thanks to help from Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Italy’s national fashion chamber. The initiative is part of efforts — driven by the association’s honorary chairman, Mario Boselli — to encourage exchanges between the two countries’ fashion industries and help young, “Made in Italy” producers break into new markets.
The Greek-born but Milan-based designer will show in the Chinese capital on Oct. 26. “Camera Moda together with Alcantara, our main sponsor, are giving me an enormous opportunity to present my work in a virgin market for our brand that at the same time is one of the fastest growing and most forward-looking luxury markets in the world,” Bratis told WWD. “China represents for me tradition, power, craft and fragility. It is also the mother of silk, the fundamental material of my work as a draper,” he said, adding he hopes the exposure will help attract new retailers that “can carry the Angelos Bratis aesthetics to Asia.”
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In 2011, Bratis won the “Who Is on Next?” talent search and, in September 2014, he was invited by Giorgio Armani to hold his show at the designer’s theater during Milan Fashion Week.
“Bratis’ work is a fine example of a young pret-à-porter, fresh, creative and innovative,” Boselli said. “We feel it is opportune to bring this type of collection to China because it also represents our modern and high-end pret-à-porter concept.”
Asked why the Camera was bringing a non-Italian to China, Boselli responded that the key goal of this type of initiative is to promote “the centrality of Milan and a focus on ‘Made in Italy.’ We are talking about designers who live here. Whether the chromosomes are Greek or French doesn’t interest us.”
As part of a similar initiative backed by the Camera, four Chinese designers gave shows or presentations during last month’s Milan Fashion Week. “The Chinese designers we present in Milan are those that have something original to tell us about creativity, history and culture in their home country,” Boselli explained.
Bratis, who presented his spring 2016 collection last month in Milan, said he hopes that the Beijing initiative will help him find master silk manufacturers with which to collaborate and “transform these refined antique fabrics into modern Western pieces of clothing.”