Every time we’re in our car driving through Paris, the scenery of ivory colored renaissance buildings and perfectly maintained parks is such a pleasure to enjoy. Sometimes however, Paris traffic can be a nightmare. Especially when you get stuck in traffic when you’re on your way to something very important. Imagine our frustration when we had moved no more than what seemed like a few inches within half an hour on rue de Rivoli, waving the invites to Celia Kritharioti’s Fall Winter 2018-2019 couture collection in our faces like a fan to keep cool in the summer heat. Normally when we’re invited to the fashion show of a designer we’re not familiar with, we don’t really do much research and just like to be surprised. But in the case of Paris fashion week with the way the schedule often clashes, we ended up with invites to shows occurring at exactly the same time or too close after each other at locations too far apart. Thus, we had to make choices after checking all of the designers out.
Thinking Greek fashion designer Celia Kritharioti is a newcomer, we were quite surprised to learn that her family’s fashion house was founded way back in 1906, which means they have been around even longer than Chanel. This is just her second show in Paris however, which may explain why she is relatively unknown among bloggers. Going through her body of work which includes super feminine and sophisticated gowns and quite modern and unusual bridal dresses, we knew this would be the show we absolutely didn’t want to miss! We were a block away when we could already see the show starting in the live story of her Instagram account, hearing the beautiful and uplifting live opera singing in the distance as we entered the building way too late. Of course, due to our lateness we could not be seated anymore, but even just from peeking past all the standing attendees we could catch a glimpse of how magical the show was.
We had missed the entrée of supermodel Natalia Vodianova opening the show, but were treated to a parade of elegant looks in mostly black, white and nude showcasing her trademark use of frills, sequins and lace. Some of the pieces looked like long gowns from afar, only to realize they were short dresses with sheer elegant trousers when the model came closer. The very classic and authentic black and white creations such as the long black skirt with ruffled white top and the black midi dress with off-shoulder collar were superb as more suited to the more mature woman, whereas the revealing and elegantly embellished gowns such as the long copious black lace dress and the nude number that Natalia Vodianova closed the show with were perfect for young women. As glad as we were to have been a part of this event, we also expect this promising collection to achieve much acclaim!
