Greece born, London resident and St Martin’s alumni Romina Karamanea’s uniquely futuristic, architectural and sleek womenswear have made her hot property of late. Having worked with the likes of Preen and Clements Ribiero, collaborated with Nick Knight for a SHOWstudio project and being shortlisted for Fashion Fringe ’09 and creating pieces for The Noisettes US tour, she’s been busier than ever.

DD: How would you describe your aesthetic?
Romina Karamanea: Structure and texture are central in our work and we always strive for
innovation within our cutting techniques, inspired through our love of architecture
and human anatomy. We want the garments to be highly seductive through our inspiring mix of sensual fabrics and strict lines, that aim to redefine geometry and shape.  Silhouettes are partly fluid, partly structured with fine detail and it is imperative that the garments aspire to intelligence, versatility and function.   

DD: Who would be the archetypal Romina Karamanea wearer?
Romina Karamanea: Our wearer has an appreciation for balanced proportion, shade and shape, with a naturally sharp eye for style and quality.  Most of the people who wear our pieces like to be in-front and in-control-they and are assertive and direct, they know what they like.  So naturally we have singers, artists, people in media and business who want to wear our pieces as they want to be stand out but not look like fashion victims.  Pieces are worn to look good for a lifetime so have to be classic, timeless but forever fresh which is a difficult to achieve but is something we adhere to from conception to completion. We want our pieces to be loved and worn forever, even getting better with age, just like our wearer.

DD: Which designers/artists/architects/writers do you admire?
Romina Karamanea: Designers: Yamamoto, Margiela, Chalayan, Haider Ackerman,Olivier Theyskens, Rick Owens,Christobal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Vionnet, Coureges. Artists: Lucian Freud, Olafur Eliasson and Banksy.
Architects: Herzog & de Meuron, Tadao Ando and Mies Van De Rough. Writers: Hans Christian Anderson, Emily Bronte and Anton Chekhov.

DD: You’ve lived in London for 15 years now. Do you still find inspiration from the city?
Romina Karamanea: Yes, very much so and was my initial reason for coming here as I was attracted to the historical, cultural, social and the fact that there is always something occurring on a street level.  As London is a series of small towns that have joined together, there is something really organic about it developing around the people and is not synthetic like a lot of modern cities, you can always get lost and you can never get bored!

DD: If time and money weren’t a factor, what would your dream project consist of?
Romina Karamanea: The whole team would travel to far-flung corners of the globe to find specialist craftspeople, engineers in their field to work with our team.  We would visit specialist origami masters, lace-makers, textile artists and sculptures to further expand making clothes of dreams.