Designers in Greece are slowly feeling their motherland in hopes of finding work abroad. Designers and models are moving in countries such as Germany, Turkey and other parts of Europe to find work in the Fashion industry. Reasons are that work mainly in the fashion world abroad is more likely than in Greece.
Earlier this month in Athens, Greece, Athens Fashion Week took place. Maybe it was hard to tell that Greece is currently struggling these days with all the glam and glitter going around but designers as well as models are having a hard time finding work in Greece nowadays. The motto for this year’s Fashion Week was “Keep Greek Fashion in Your Hearts” but some designers are having a hard time keeping Greek fashion in their hearts and are looking for work abroad. The most popular country these days that people in the fashion industry are going to is Turkey as well as Germany and other countries in Europe.
Celia Dragouni, 32, who was part if this year’s fashion week in Athens and who describes herself as a “hippie and bohemian” says, “I’m sending mails and fixing my portfolio. I’m trying to get to know the buyers. I’m aiming abroad.” When it comes to weddings as we all know, Greeks go all out. Dragouni who also has made the finest wedding gowns with silk and lace know just how much money Greeks spent on wedding dresses at first hand. Dragouni this past summer sold about 30 weddings gowns and says that in the past customers were willing to pay up 10,000 euro’s but now it has gone down as much as two-thirds.
Models are having an even more hard time these days finding work. Young girls ranging from ages 18 to 25 are leaving Greece in hopes of making their dreams comes true. Katerina, 23, who is studying Graphic Design, says that getting work in the modeling business has gotten harder. Katerina started modeling as a hobby at 19 years old and continued up until she was 22. She says that modeling has gotten more and more competitive because designers and casting agencies are accepting models from other countries than models from Greece reason being because the cost is a lot less. Friends of Katerina’s who are still involved in modeling have started to go abroad. Most of the reasons are that casting agents in Greece are not as professional as they are in other countries. In the past it took models the latest as six months to get paid. Now it takes them up to one year to receive their money and some are yet to get paid still.
Katerina has stopped working in the modeling field for about a year. Her main reasons were for the payment conditions and the fact that modeling jobs are becoming scarce. Katerina didn’t follow her friends footsteps to traveling abroad mainly because she didn’t want to leave her home, family and friends and really never had any intentions of going overseas for modeling in the first place. Many famous Greek models such as Vaso Kollida, who was part of Greek talk show last year, decided to take a trip overseas to Turkey. “The situations in Turkey are good, the money is better because Turkey is a country that is developing and is investing a lot in the modeling business. They do a lot of work and most of the people that I have worked with have been very professional. I have gotten lots of positive results and I’m very happy, so why not do it?” she said in an interview taken by a Greek talk show host.
Recently a very well known designer in Greece, Laki Gavala, was taken into custody for owing about 1.5 million euro’s that he borrowed from the city of Athens. The reason for his non-payment to the loan is because jobs for designers are very limited these days. Situations like these are making designers and models desert their homeland and moving their businesses overseas. Fashion is and will be a very essential part of our everyday lives, especially amongst women. The fashion industry won’t completely be wiped out but some changes will defiantly be made.
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