A Greek passport with an Italian address—this season Angelos Bratis joined the coterie of newcomers selected by Giorgio Armani to show in his Teatro Armani venue. Coming after Stella Jean and Au Jour Le Jour, both of whom were fairly flamboyant, Bratis set a different tone: His models seemed both fierce and solemn. The designer studied at the Netherlands' Fashion Institute Arnhem before moving to Italy and winning the first prize at the Who Is On Next contest in 2011. He seemed like a natural choice for Armani: The two share a minimalist sensibility and a taste for pared-down purity, not to mention a proclivity for muted, dusty colors. Comparisons stop there, however—Bratis is not interested in the interplay between the masculine and the feminine, nor is he dressing the working woman. Having been in the spotlight for a while, he focused his Spring collection on what he does best: dresses.
Bratis is a technician. He doesn't work on themes, instead relying solely on the possibilities of ingenious draping and a bias cut to build his creations. Many of the dresses he showed for Spring were cut from a rectangle of fabric, molded around the body with a single seam. Rather than monotony, there was strength in the repetition: The show was an engaging progression of forms, one more complicated than the other. Cuts were accented by color blocks, and angular intarsia inspired by the paintings of the late Greek artist Yannis Moralis. There were a few clumsy numbers, but as a whole the collection gave off a sense of effortless ease, with a slight erotic charge.
Surprisingly, the overwhelming vastness of the Teatro didn't clash with the subtlety of the show. "This theater is monumental," Bratis said backstage. "But my women are monumental, too. They need to be—wearing my little nothings requires a strong personality."
