A graduate from MA Fashion Artefact at London College of Fashion, Melisanthi Spei studied Fashion Design for Industry at the School of Textiles and Design of Heriot Watt University and Art, Media and Design at University of Wales, Newport.
Born and bred in Athens, she currently lives and works in London.
The young designer juxtaposes her endless creativity with her Greek heritage, creating contemporary and sculptural garments with the use of industrial materials.
Spei explores the traditional arts and crafts by projecting their development through history and introducing them to modern aesthetics.
“Materials used are a combination of handcrafted religious trims and industrially-made rayon fringing,” Spei explains.
“Different manufacturing processes all come together with handmade techniques.”
Her latest collection, titled ‘A Long Farewell To All My Greatness’, embodies her love for ancient Greece and Byzantium, combined with her current home, Britain.
This project, consisting of five regal neckpieces and three headpieces in black and gold shades, also expresses her sustainability concerns, as it has been created with a lot of recycled and leftover materials, with only a few key materials sourced from scratch.
“The main reason for this was that I had absolutely no budget for this, only the need to create and evolve,” Spei says.
“This for me was also proof that artists can be resourceful with the smallest amount of materials, equipment and space as possible while still producing a very successful outcome. Everything was made by hand, stitch after hand stitch, loop after loop, with lots of patience and lots of love and belief in the purpose.”
From the beginning this project was an exploration of her cultural roots. The idea, however, came long before her previous collection ‘Beautiful Is Just Another Degree of Terrible’, but it was only in 2016 that it gestated in her subconscious enough to be materialised.
“I am from Greece, and grew up there, but it was only after I left that I came to appreciate these roots.
“Now comes the time, after living in the United Kingdom for almost a decade, to acknowledge the fact that my roots have been blended with others, and now I am becoming a hybrid between cultures that overlap and try to overrule one another.”
The title, being a quotation from William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, is in fact a hint that this mixture of cultures gives hope for something new while never forgetting the past.
See more at www.melissanthispei.com