Greek fashion.

 Beauty and the Greek crisis: show must go on

Greece is in crisis but it was hard to tell at Athens fashion week, which showcased spring and summer collections for 2012. ''Keep Greek fashion in your hearts'' was the motto, Many Greek designers cater to singers and other local celebrities, unable to generate the kind of mass-produced, ready-to-wear lines that would endow their labels with corporate strength and true staying power. That makes their predicament more dire, as revenue dries up and entertainment becomes more of a luxury than a fixture.'I always thought local Greek fashion was generated by the local music industry and by what's happening abroad, which for a small country is OK,'' says Erotokritos Antoniadis, a Cypriot designer based in France. Konstantinos Mitrovgenis, who has made clothes for many Greek singers and for the theatre, was declared best new designer, an award that allows him to display at a fashion event abroad, possibly in Malta, Bosnian capital Sarajevo or even New York. An industry profile says he has pioneered the use of ''lighted structures and modular clothes'' to create a ''functional avant-garde style''. Another home favourite was the 20-year veteran known as Miltos, who has a studio in the chic Athens district of Kolonaki and picks a theme - Napoleonic, 1960s, horse riding - for each of his collections. ''It's like a fairytale and people like it,

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/beauty-and-the-greek-crisis-show-must-go-on-20111221-1p5f8.html#ixzz24Bv7RSlq