How I came to find myself in a little Greek restaurant sipping on red wine, eating stuffed tomatoes and hearing the stories of a grandmother who in her earlier days had created bias-cut lingerie for the likes of Princess Diana and the Princess of Monaco, will always take my breath away. One hot evening, Natalie and I found ourselves watching mountain goats, crystal blue waters and ashen hilltops travel backwards past us while we sat, feeling mildly carsick, in the boot of a tiny 4x4. We had decided to join our friends, Alison and Lilah, and Lilah's family and friends, in the town of Stavros for dinner, about 30 minutes away from the town of Vathi, Ithaki where we had been staying all week. When we joined the rest of the party in a little taverna in town, we ordered jugs of wine and sat chatting and sipping while our elbows and forearms became glued to the plastic table cloths in the sticky heat.
Amongst Lilah's family friends, we met a beautiful, British grandmother who seemed very quiet and reserved at first. That was until Lilah's dad told her that Natalie and I were fashion designers. She became instantly vibrant and animated when talking about our common passion. One of her first jobs in the fashion industry, was working in a beautiful, five-storey, Georgian House in London for two brothers. On each floor, a different department was covered - ladies' ready-to-wear, menswear, kidswear, swimwear and evening wear. Each week, a new range was developed for which she was responsible for co-ordinating, managing and making sure that each department's range fit together into a common theme specific to the company's aesthetic. As interesting as this was, my favourite story was how she came to find herself creating silk lingerie for the rich and famous.
After working for these brothers for a few years, she decided to go out on her own and start a silk lingerie company with her husband. We asked her why she chose silk lingerie and her response was: "Because I knew nothing about it, and I wanted a challenge." Is there anything more admirable and inspiring? Every night she would go for bias-cutting lessons at the home of an old Austrian woman, who had created lingerie for female spies during the Second World War. She learnt from the best - this Austrian woman was a master in it, because she had to create lingerie that looked identical to that which was made in Germany, so that spies couldn't get sussed out during searches.
When she had learnt the art of silk bias-cutting, she went on to teach her own assistants and begin her company. At the time, there were only two designers specialising in silk lingerie - herself, and a Milan based designer known as Lily Anna Rubitchini (how great is that name?). Lily Anna's husband was the spokesperson for all the Milan fashion shows, and banned his wife's competitor from featuring in any of the couture fashion shows. That didn't stop our heroine, she went on to create for the likes of movie stars and royals.
About the art of bias-cutting she said: "It needs to have enough stretch to slip on the body without zips or buttons, but still cling in all the right places"
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