Give Angelos Bratis the plainest piece of fabric and in no time it’ll be transformed into a draped wonder. He is an intuitive dressmaker: He’s adamant about not being called a “designer.” No sketches or mood boards for him—just thoughtful consideration of body shape. “Working on this collection was a sort of therapy for me,” said Bratis during a walk-through held in a light-filled, hypermodern space where models where standing in front of a maze of mirrors that reflected the surrounding forest of skyscrapers, part of a newly built Milanese architectural landscape.
Bratis retreated to his native Greek village in the mountains near Athens to put together a lineup of beautiful dresses with the help of his mother. “She is a great seamstress—she taught me everything!” he said, pointing out liquid bias-cut polka-dot numbers cut from a single piece of silk, with decorative smock motifs hand-sewn with contrasting thread. “I was thinking about the myth of Ariadne; my Greek heritage comes up in the most unexpected ways through memories, images, dreams. I love geometry, arithmetic, the mathematics of dance, the logic game of music and rhythm.” But there is nothing conceptual about Bratis’s creative process: He’s a sensualist, and his dresses reveal love and respect for the female body. Their shapes had a free flow; they were cut in fluid, languid fabrics and built with sophisticated draping effects, their asymmetric hems skimming the body and giving way to a soft, undulating movement. Not surprisingly, Aegean blue was the color of choice, an homage to Bratis’s homeland that was also expressed in the melancholic melodies played by the harpist Vanja Contu, clad in one of Bratis’s elegant kaftans.
