Mary Katrantzou – 27- is the Greek designer who has been awarded the Swiss Textiles Award in Zurich. She beat designers Jason Wu and Duro Olowu to receive a prize of €100,000 worth of Swiss fabrics. The prize has previously been won by Alexander Wang, Marios Schwab and Raf Simons.
Katrantzou, an MA graduate of Central Saint Martins, won the judges’ approval with her surrealist spring/summer 2011 collection, inspired by Rene Magritte, and the pages of Architectural Digest and World of Interiors, which was called ‘Ceci n’est pas une chambre’.
An international jury comprising some of the most important people from the industry takes part in the event to choose the winner. This year, the jury included Akiko Ichikawa, contributing Fashion Journalist at Vogue Japan; Caroline Issa from Tank Magazine, London; Luke Day from GQ Style, Hannes Hetta from Vogue Homme International, Paris; Lisa Feldmann from Zurich and Joachim Bessing, a renowned journalist.
