DAPHNE VALENTE PLEATED DESIGNS
My Philosophy
Daphne Valente was born in Athens Greece and shares her birthday with two iconic designers Elsa Schiaparelli and Karl Lagerfeld.
Studied fashion at F.I.T. in N.Y. and St Martin’s in London and has been using pleating in her collections since 1985 inspired by Mariano Fortuny and her Greek roots.
The journey to discover her personal style begun upon a visit to the Brighton Museum, on her first year at St Martin’s, while viewing the exhibition of Mariano Fortuny. A very familiar and unbelievably beautiful world of pleats was opened before her eyes and the incentive to follow this creative path was born.
Starting with a rectangular piece of fabric, like the Chiton of her ancestors, every design is sculpted on the dress form and sketched later. Using the fewer possible seams, no fasteners and no unnecessary ornaments she lets the fabric flow, allowing the body to enjoy freedom of movement and comfort.
Her designs are one size, timeless, season-less, without any age or body shape discrimination. She uses Ancient Greece as a reference, creating minimal, contemporary, sculptural clothes that tend to capture the attention with their understated elegance.
Daphne is a supporter of slow fashion and her collections are crafted by her own team, using a technique that took years to master, involving a lot of fabric manipulation and endless hand sewing resulting to the description of her style as affordable Haute Couture.
She uses synthetic fabrics of highest quality carrying an Oeko-Tex certification, since natural fabrics are unable to withstand pleating and being an animal lover and a vegetarian since childhood, she has never used fur, leather or any other animal products in her collections.
She lives in Athens and Cape Sounion with her husband, their dog and two cats.
Daphne Valente, following a long career as a designer in Greek fashion, opens her first store in the historic center of Athens, on Kornarou St., where she will be presenting all of her designs.