FOCUS: DI PETSA

Born in ancient Greece and inspired by the ocean that surrounds her hometown, Di Petsa has caused a sensation in the fashion world. 

The Central Saint Martins graduate continues to deconstruct feelings around shame and the female body through a revolutionary approach to design and storytelling.

You may have heard of this revolutionary designer because of one of the most innovative fabrics ever created in the fashion industry. Di Petsa has managed to develop a material that looks like it is wet, transparent.

The genius of Di Petsa's draping is what sets her designs apart. From wet T-shirts to the diaphanous drapes of Greek sculpture, her garments have a wealth of cultural references.

Remember Galliano's wet dress from his 1986 Spring Summer collection? Titled Fallen Angels and inspired by the European flu epidemic of 1803, it's ironic that, in today's coronavirus pandemic, Di Petsa's innovative design parallels Galliano's wet dress. So much so, that the young woman's invention, inspired the master to revisit his draping technique for Margiela's Fall/Winter 2020 couture collection.

Some hard-line feminists might wonder if Di Petsa's dressing Hadid, the Kardashian's and producing bridal commissions negates the fluid idea of gender interpretation that underlies the collections as it sits within traditional ideas of femininity. However, the designer's openness to all expressions reminds us that female identity is broad and far-reaching.

More than a clothing brand, Di Petsa is a statement, a manifesto, an art form, a concept, a philosophy. A reclaim to women's power and sexuality.

For Dimitra Petsa, body fluids are something closely related to the human experience and the female experience. Her latest collection, "Wetness," is a particular take on that long-term research looking at shame and the idea that our bodily fluids should remain covert. The designer manages to rewrite history, giving total prominence to the beauty of our body as a whole and the liberation of it.

Wondering what is the creative process of this brilliant mind? The collection starts with the performance. Dimitra starts writing about the things she's interested in. She finds the concept and it becomes a script for a performance. From these performances, the designer finds the shapes that then inspire the designs. It’s through this process that Dimitra believes those who wear her designs are ‘taking part in performance art.’ 

Dimitra Petsa's consant battle with how the female body is percieved –and now the oceans – is one we should all get behind and support, ASAP.

"Our bodily fluids, water filtered through our bodies, bodily water.

Holy water, Sea water.

If you cry in public you must hide it
If you sweat in public you must hide it
If you breastfeed in public you must hide it.
And our wetness consumes and overwhelms us,
turns into rivers and rain,
darkened oceans."