![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Marios-Schwab.jpg\")
Marios Schwab photographed in London by Georgia Kuhn<\/p>\n Marios Schwab photographed in London by Georgia Kuhn<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like to regard my garments as \u2018sexy-sexy dresses\u2019, I see them as seductive, you know? They are a window into the body but it\u2019s not necessarily about skin\u201d. Marios Schwab photographed in London by Georgia Kuhn \u201cI don\u2019t like to regard my garments as \u2018sexy-sexy dresses\u2019, I see them as seductive, you know? They are a window into the body but it\u2019s not necessarily about skin\u201d. The interplay between surface and depth was cited often during Sleek\u2019s conversation with Marios Schwab, the Greco-Austrian…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[685,21,13,141,1502],"class_list":["post-14222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","tag-ella-plevin","tag-fashion","tag-interview","tag-london","tag-marios-schwab"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe interplay between surface and depth was cited often during Sleek\u2019s conversation with Marios Schwab, the Greco-Austrian designer who has been called a \u201ctopographer of the body\u201d, thanks to his tender mapping of the curves and spills of feminine forms. Tracing contours like an expert surgeon, Schwab taken up some of the world\u2019s most beautiful figures and patched them up in cr\u00eapes and silks. A nip here, a tuck there, dash of baroque embroidery or evanescent beadwork and voila! A modern goddess, ready to sail through a storm of flashbulbs.
\nBut Schwab is also keen to talk about the woman beneath his breathtaking dresses: personality is key to the Schwab customer, he says. \u201cI\u2019m not interested in the surface or the face only. I admire women who are opinionated, who take a different perspective\u201d. Certainly, his work\u2019s potency lies is in the dialogue between power and delicacy. He first seduced the industry in 2005, drumming up attention with collections notable for both their elegance and strength.\u00a0 His sensitivity to depth and charisma has provided him the challenges of collaborating with larger names, from luxury brand Halston in 2009 to capsules at ASOS and Debenhams today. \u201cThe Debenhams customer is such a different one, she engages with fashion in a completely different way,\u201d he notes. \u201cOf course there are limitations to consider with each brand, but it\u2019s so interesting to supply the characteristics of your work under these restraints\u201d.
\nThe breadth of Schwab\u2019s fanbase, from high street shopper to red carpet starlet, is testament to his broad insight into the needs of women, but most impressive is his ability to retain the creative DNA of his own label within new contexts. He describes his process as \u201csomething quite technical but also poetic. I like to challenge the inside layers with the outside layers of the garment. You create a depth within the piece and for me that\u2019s the game, I love that\u201d. He also thinks designers \u201cneed to have a vision of things to come, even if you\u2019re more into the conceptual side it\u2019s still interesting to challenge the material\u201d and is often experimenting with crafts foreign to fashion \u2013\u00a0laser-cutting or automobile painting technology, for example.
\nThat curiosity has led Schwab across the world. He grew up in Athens before stretches studying design in Salzburg, Berlin and finally London where he works from a two-floor studio in Dalston. Schwab\u2019s mild Greek accent is inflected with the subtle East End drawl of his adopted home; his mother is \u201cMum\u201d rather than \u201cMom\u201d and the phrase \u201cnot everyone\u2019s cup of tea\u201d surfaces at least once during our conversation.
\nEscapes closer to home include regular trips to the cinema (Pedro Almod\u00f3var is a favourite) from which he draws plenty of inspiration. On being asked about a foray into costume design his voice lifts: \u201cI would love to do that! A project like that takes time but\u2026 oh, I\u2019d love it.\u201d As an accustomed collaborator, perhaps his seductive fusion of power and femininity and this concept of \u201cwindows into the body\u201d would indeed make an exciting transition to the silver screen \u2013\u00a0maybe Mr Almod\u00f3var might think of giving Mr Schwab a call.
\nText by Ella Plevin<\/b> \nTaken from Sleek 38 – The One and The Many.\u00a0Read more from the issue by\u00a0ordering a copy<\/a>\u00a0oder\u00a0subscribing<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"