I was so pleased to hear that Mary Katrantzou was triumphant at the British Fashion Awards last night, taking home the New Establishment Award. I was particularly pleased because not only is Mary one of my favourite designers but I got to meet her last week.
I was very excited (quite overexcited, truth be told) that I was invited, via Alice from RunninginHeels.co.uk, to see Mary in conversation with Libby Banks, Editor of style website MyDaily.co.uk. The event marked the announcement of Katrantzou as the site’s latest contributing editor, following the likes of Christopher Kane and Dannii Minogue. You can read my write up of the interview over on RunninginHeels, but here I thought I’d share with you a few snaps I took on the night.
The first ever ‘MyDaily presents’ evening, the event took place in a room at the top of the very cool Kettners champagne bar in Soho, which was kitted out with images from Mary’s latest collections and a couple of beautiful frocks.
This is the ‘Harp Hazard’ dress, which you can win (minus the train – it’s more versatile that way Mary said, after an audible sigh from the assembled bloggers) if you enter a competition over on MyDaily.
Mary and Libby talked for almost an hour, covering everything from how Mary started out in fashion (she originally wanted to be an architect); what she thinks of celebrities wearing her clothes; to her collaborations with Topshop. Check out my list of choice quotes.
I always imagine that amazingly talented designers will be icy cool and won’t deign to speak to lowly bloggers like me, but speaking to Mary after she was really friendly and chatty. I thought I’d try my luck and pitch for a writing gig by offering to write the blog on her soon-to-be-launched new website when it goes live. Well, you’ve got to take advantage of these ‘networking’ opportunities haven’t you?
