Vassilious Kostetsos, Greek Fashion Designer

0:00Vassilios Kostetsos: I went to say bye to my friends. There was a guy, he has an air gun and he's shooting a cat. But the bullet coming to my eye. The doctor said that he has to be careful from now. My mother said, okay, Vassilios coming to the boutique to stay because he's not dangerous, has no dangerous games. There I found the Vogue magazines. I sew the clothes to try, the colours, the fabrics. And something inside happened to me. And I love all this. Welcome to the Business of Modelling. I'm Tessa Dewing, Managing Director of Sandra Reynolds, a commercial model agency established in 1975. In this podcast, I sit down with models, agents, brands, creatives and industry experts to talk about their careers, their experiences and the future of our industry.

1:02Today we're recording in Athens with Greek fashion designer Vasilios Kostetsos. Vasilios is one of Greece's most recognised designers with a career that connects Greek fashion, international runway, celebrity culture and the golden age of the supermodels. His work has been worn and presented by some of the most iconic models in the world, including Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. Welcome to the podcast, Vasilios.

1:35Vassilios Kostetsos: Thank you very much. Can you tell us where you grew up and what your childhood was like? Of course. I believe in the universe. I believe that everything happens for a reason. My grandfather was from Fanari, from Istanbul, from Constantinopolis. And my grandmother was from Prussia. And after they went to Thessaloniki, when I was young, they loved each other. And they came to Athens to starting the new life, my grandmother and grandfather. and was the first Greek chef that he opened in 1957 a French restaurant. Before that, he designed the petroleum to carry in the cars. So he has this idea and he sells it for a lot of money, this design.

2:32Okay.

2:33Vassilios Kostetsos: And all this money that he takes from this idea, he opens his... And this is your grandfather? Yes, yes, yes. Oh, wow. Okay. So I have in my blood, you know, in my DNA. Entrepreneurship. Yes, yes. Yes. So when I was a small boy, I was eight years old, and it was August, the holidays, I went to say bye to my friends, to my school friends, you know, till September. And when I speak with them, it was a guy about 20 meters, 30 meters, that he has an air gun and he's shooting a cat, but the bullet coming to my eye. The damage was small, but I needed to go to the hospital and stay. And you still have a little scar there.

3:22Yes, a little bit.

3:23Vassilios Kostetsos: Yeah. Stay for a month with my eyes closed. When I was ready to go back to my home, I remember to try to wear my jean and it was about 20 kilos more because I was for two months, you know. Laying still. Yes. And I wear black glasses. So my family, they decide to send me in a private school to don't disturb me, you know, other childs because I was nine years old and everybody looking, you know, the black big glasses and said, oh, what's that? Teasing you and making fun. He's an alien. What is this? You know, where was the child? Yeah. Small kids. Yeah. The doctors say that he has to be careful from now and after.

4:18Vassilios Kostetsos: It's okay. It's okay, his eye. But for a couple months, a year, has to be careful. Don't play football. don't play dangerous games with other kids. My mother already accepts her job in my grandfather's restaurant, the French Riviera, called Riviera. She has the idea to open a boutique to import clothes from London in Athens. Your grandfather is a very clever man. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And my mother too. So my mother opened in 1978 near to my grandfather's restaurant a boutique. It was a place like a cocoon, her boutique. And she said, OK, Vassilio's coming to the boutique to stay because it's not dangerous, has no dangerous games.

5:14Vassilios Kostetsos: So there I found the Vogue magazines. I sew the clothes to try, the colours, the fabrics and something inside happened to me and I love all this. And you were still very young at this point then. Yeah. And I started to sketches from the contest Miss Universe Girls in Sketches and I dress the sketches in my own designs. My sister was younger than me, so I took her dolls and every Saturday I took fabrics from my mother's boutique and I dress the dolls with my designs. I put some light they have in the office, you know. So you made little mini dresses and mini designs for dolls. Yes, and I make fashion shows.

6:14Yeah.

6:14Vassilios Kostetsos: I have my cousins to seat everybody. I close the lights. I open the only one focus, you know, light. And I have the dolls to make runway with the clothes. That was the very beginning. You know, I travelled with my mother all over the world. In London, Paris, Milan, Rome. Did she go on buying trips? Yes, yes, yes. So you were seeing all the shows. Yes, she went, my mother, to the big fairs to order clothes for her boutique. Wow, amazing. So she took it with me. And I started to make in my house, in a family house, my first fashion shows. I brought all the clients of my mother. I already started to design clothes and I have the retailers of my mother to make my clothes, my collections.

7:11Vassilios Kostetsos: And in between her import clothes, I have my name with my clothes. Wow. So your family were very supportive. You know, they let you do that and they helped you and they helped you to get them made. And yeah. Yes. She never said to me, no. That's incredible. I found because she's died and I found some letters that she's wrote that time. And she's wrote, I'm very proud for my son because he was so young. He's a small boy. And I think that I have a big guy in my trips in London with all his ideas. Sure. Yeah. So you came across a lot older than you actually were. That's before, you know, starting the big, big career.

7:57Vassilios Kostetsos: And starting in my home, I wanted the best models. Yeah. Even in my family house, I remember in my very first fashion show, when I was 14 years old, I have Valeria Golino. She's a Greek-Italian actress. She's very famous. And she was modeling that time in Greece. She was 16 years old, 17 years old. She was very young, yes. And I said, I want her to do the show in my family house. And I have the best until 18 years old that I open my first atelier officially, like Vasilios Kostetios in Kolonaki. Amazing.

8:47Were there designers or artists or films that influenced you when you were young?

8:52Vassilios Kostetsos: I loved Gianni Versace. I loved Azzedine Alaia. He's architectural, you know. He loves that because I love the woman. I love, this is my mind, the sculpture, because I think that when I design, I see like a sculpture, like a statue, a woman, and I felt like a Greek, Fidias, to sculpture her body. So I loved Alaia Gianni Versace, Giofranco Ferre. He was a very important designer because he was so two-hour times now because he was architectural, all these clothes. And were there many designers in Greece trying to build international careers or did you feel like you were one of the first? I was one of the first.

9:47What was the Greek fashion scene like at that time? strange, you know, because the fault of the Greeks that they copy.

9:59Vassilios Kostetsos: And I introduced to Greeks the runways. I opened their eyes, you know, to have new roads to the fashion shows. And I did my own line. This, they shocked them. What were the first challenges that you came up against when you were building your brand to start with? Because 18 is very young to have your own. business your own but I have a crowd a client crowd that was very rich and they love me they follow me and they hold me big names like the family of Ardino Giannis the family of Latsis so Mrs Angelopoulos also they're coming to my first shows and they give me a big hug you know so this everybody saw that these clients buy for me and starting, you know, to everybody, see who is Vasilios, who is Costetos, who is Costetos.

11:00Vassilios Kostetsos: He's very hot, very hot, very hot. So 19 years old, 20 years old, I was already a big name between other designers that they are 40, 45. Sometimes I went to the airport and I give my passport and they look at me, the policeman, they look at my passport and say, are you Vasileos Costetzo? I say, yes. You're very young because you did so many things. You expect to see somebody older. And it's 1990, starting the big, big boom of me with all the supermodels.

11:44So who were the women that you were designing for in the beginning? Elena Kudura, he's in the politic now.

11:52Vassilios Kostetsos: He was the first, until now, the only big Greek supermodel. She was a friend of me from the same time that I opened my first boutique 1987. 1987. The same time, Elena, she did a big career like a supermodel in Paris and in Milan. So she had it with me in every fashion show of Gianni Versace, Ferrer, because she did all these shows, introduced me to the designers, to Valentino, to Giorgio Armani. And I follow her when I have time. So I think things, I see I met Monica Bellucci, all the supermodels and actually my name, Vassilios, came from the supermodels there because in Athens they call me Vassilis.

12:52Vassilios Kostetsos: Elena and all her friends, they call me Vassilios. Vassilios, Vassilios, where is Vassilios? So I took the Vassilios and my brand was Vasilios Kostetios. Oh, okay, okay. And 1990, he helped me to bring the first supermodels, Linda Evangelista, in Athens. I called the fashion show Millennium, the new decade, because you go close to 2000. and something finds that time that changed the fashion. There are coming the supermodels. Something happened in the universe of the supermodels, of the models. And I saw in Linda Evangelista that something happened to her. Wasn't so big, Linda. in 1990 starting, you know, and I feeling that I have the feeling that something coming very big in fashion and change everything the next years in fashion.

14:11Vassilios Kostetsos: I'm lucky and very lucky. And at the same time, I'm blessed. I feel blessed because I'm a Greek guy that the same time I worked like international designers with all the supermodels. And that was a Greek guy, was not a Bulgarian guy, not a Roman guy, not a Norway from Norway, not from Sweden. because everybody has money to bring supermodels, but the universe was a choice to me.

14:56What do you want a woman to feel when they wear your designs? Feel woman.

15:06Vassilios Kostetsos: Feel woman, feel sexy, not vulgar. sexy woman, but not to cover, you know, her personality. When she sees somebody, this woman, say, oh, nice dress, but it's going fantastic to you. But both, not to see the dress and not her face and not her personality. Yeah, I understand. Also, I give very, very much attention to the cutting, the cut of the dress or for the design, you know. I want to be perfect on the body. I see, you know, I don't want nothing to go wrong because a lot of designers they make clothes but they are not the same. It's bad. It's not fit. Herboustier, waist, or down. I think I see something wrong.

16:14Vassilios Kostetsos: This I know very well. Has your style changed over the years? Do you look back and you see those sketches that you did? Different collections, you know. Always has Greece and ancient Greece in my mind. but not traditional. I hate... So you bring like a modern twist. Yes. And in all my fashion show, I took it, things, ideas, from the Greek frescoes, from the Greek vases, from the culture of ancient Greece, but I changed to be in our time, you know, in time, and not in front of the future, not in the past. And when you're designing for a runway, do you think about how the clothes will move on the model when you're designing?

17:12Vassilios Kostetsos: Yes. It depends on the place that I do the show. Is it different designing for a show than it is for a private client, for example? Not exactly. Not exactly. but always the collection has a type, has a style, has a different way. I don't want to have every collection the same style. I change and this is the designer. He has to change from collection to collection, not to be basic, you know, to every collection, the same theme, the same theme, the same theme. No. How did you begin to create attention internationally? Was there a particular collection or a show or a press moment that changed things for you?

18:07Vassilios Kostetsos: The international collections I saw in London. I did a big fashion show in Covent Garden. Yeah. I was lucky because they gave me Covent Garden because it was a fantastic place, Covent Garden. and I did a fantastic collection there. It was 1998 and I took it plastic and I put in the plastic inside flowers and I composed it with satin in colors and all the cut it was from Greek vases, you know, has like a sculpture and I make this composite that was a fantastic collection in Düsseldorf Fashion Week I had also a fantastic collection I inspired from Krita, from the Mino and from Knossos and I put to the clothes the dolphins from the frescoes the pellickeys the octopus the top models there they carry vases with all these details and all these details to the clothes in India when I saw in New Jelly I have the collection called cycles from the Greek cycle and the cycle of the life because everything is cycle in the life coming the good after the bad after the bad, the good.

19:50Vassilios Kostetsos: You are happy after you are not happy, but you are again happy. It's the cycle. I believe in cycle. And the Greeks, the ancient Greeks, believe in cycle. So I baptized the collection cycles that I saw in New Delhi. One of the best times of my life that I felt like international designers. I read it. The best things about me that they wrote was in New York. when I saw in New York Fashion Week that I have the one collection called Fidias because I inspired from Fidias' statue in Acropolis and I called the collection Kalos, Paterkes. Kalos is the ancient word and means the eternal beauty, Kalos, the total beauty.

20:43Vassilios Kostetsos: Paterkes Forever and Fidias wrote inside to the statue this the Kalos Paterkes and after I inspired from Antigoni from Eros Anikatemahan he's again ancient Greeks from Eros love it was a fantastic collection was like warriors, the models. The guys have like a Greek mask, has gold here and silver, painting to their faces. And I saw for first time this draped cloths that after 15 years, I saw that they copy all that. It's amazing. Amazing. I like that you obviously bringing Greece into your collections and the Greek history and sculpture and things is obviously very important to you and to represent Greece on the international stage.

21:54Vassilios Kostetsos: I love Greece and I wanted always, you know, to show my love for Greece, but always in a modern way. So I wanted to show that. Yeah. And do you think Greek designers today have more opportunities internationally?

22:14Vassilios Kostetsos: Look, the fashion internationally changed a lot. It's not the same. If I started now, I didn't start in the same way. Okay, you're right. Okay. They are not designers. They are stylists. They're mixed. Right. Clothes. They are not designed a new collection, you know, something... Completely unique. Unique and new. Something 10 years front that is going to be in fashion 1935, 1940. No. They took things from old times. We can see even two big brands, Chanel, Dior, they took ideas from Dior and Chanel before 20, 30 years and they bring it today, but nothing new. They mixed all these things and we have not big names, big designers.

23:23I guess it's very difficult. I don't know. How do the Greek government support the creative industries and designers?

23:30Vassilios Kostetsos: No, they don't give a value to the designers, to the Greek designers. We have no value here. They said, okay, designer. It's very difficult. I want now to make a big exhibition because it's a very big archive. I have pictures and photos with all the supermodels in Greece, the clothes that they're wearing, and I want to make an exhibition. And the government said, and the museum, they don't cooperate with me, with us, you know. In Paris, Louvre, they give it to the designer. The Arbel Tour in London, they give to the designers, or the supermodel, Claire Naomi. me and here they know they don't give a value to the designers designer here is something yeah not interesting you know for them

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25:07So let's talk about the supermodels and the supermodel era. How did that begin? Who was What's the first international model you worked with?

25:15Vassilios Kostetsos: The first was Linda. Yeah. And Linda, this word that she said that I never wake up from my bed for less than$10 ,000 was me. Because until 1990, the top model wasn't supermodel, because all happened the same time. Me, the cover of Peter Lynchburg with Linda, Christy, Cindy, Naomi, Tatiana. I was 1990, you know, and I was a part of this story. Actually, the top models that time, Jerry Hall and Iman, Gia Garangi, she died from AIDS, all the top models that time, they don't pay more than$2 ,000 to$500, you know, was the biggest amount that they gave to them. So Linda was difficult because when she cut her hair short, everybody interesting for her in the Fashion Week 1990.

26:27Vassilios Kostetsos: Call me from the agency from Elite was Gerard, the owner of Elite in Paris, her husband at that time of Linda. Yeah. It's very difficult because suddenly everybody wants Linda. In every show, at that time, you know, it wasn't the show like now. The fashion shows now in Paris, in Milan, in New York are 20, 25 for a week, you know, the fashion week. 1990 was 80 designers 80 fashion shows was a lot of fashion shows and the models do it from 80 do it to 70 so I said okay if you give 10 ,000 maybe she can she can cancel Linda want to shows to come in Athens to do your shows okay I give 10 ,000 dollars and it was the first time so something happens to the elite and they think that, okay, the designers give money to have them.

27:44Vassilios Kostetsos: So we have to make it more. So their prices went up. The prices come up. And from the$10 ,000 go to$20 ,000. And it wasn't only me that, okay, I gave it only me. All the designers, if they want them, Gianni Versace, everybody give, you know, a big amount. After it was Cindy Crawford. After Cindy Crawford was Elena Christensen, Eva Herjikova, Karen Mulder, Carrie Otis, Greta Cavazzoni, Bretta Sod, Claire Atkinson, that was a runway model that I loved her, and Nadia Ahriman, Kate Moss. Who was your favourite? Marcus Eikenberg. My favourite was all of them. Okay, I have Naomi Campbell, Christy Chellington.

28:45Vassilios Kostetsos: We did the three. That's a big, big, big, big historical fashion show that I did in 1991, October, and came the same time, Christy, Naomi and Linda, the Trinity. And it was in the same time in my runway. And this was in Athens? In Athens, yes. Yes, in Athens. And it was a huge, huge success. And what did that, yeah, so what did that give you? Did that give you the press and, you know... I have a fight. I have a fight. I have a fight from the press, you know. They didn't believe that happened that, you know, to bring all the supermodels, a boy that he was 22, 23. I was 22. I said, come on. I did this.

29:36Vassilios Kostetsos: I brought these names when I was 21, 22, 23. And the Greek press didn't really understand the value of that. No, they didn't get me, no, no. They didn't understand. The significance. They look at the supermodels and they didn't give attention to my job, to my work, to my collections, you know. When I was in New York and in Düsseldorf also, you know, I read things for me and about my clothes, my collections. Then, you know, they stop it. How, what eat Linda for breakfast? What Naomi did in Buzhouk tonight? but nobody interesting, you know, this boy, he designed something that's new. And was it worth it?

30:28Because they must have cost you a fortune using supermodels.

30:31Vassilios Kostetsos: Look, because of the whole story that happened for that, you know. Yeah. Because presumably it got your brand more attention. Yes, because of the big fashion shows, you know, I did shows to a stadium, you know, it was about 50 ,000 people. And that was the first time that I was singing the Passion for Fashion song, that this logo, Passion for Fashion, after everybody take it for Passion for Fashion. I wanted Claudia to be the star of my singer in my video for this song, but she can't because she has something to Spain. So I brought Carla Bruni to make this video. And in this video is the first video that I'm singing.

31:35Vassilios Kostetsos: And we sing together The Passion of Fashion. It's an incredible time. And I love Carla also. She's a major supermodel. She's a fantastic personality. I'm very proud because when she was the first lady in France, she wore clothes of mine with Mr. Sarkozy, with the president. And she sent me letters to thank me about the clothes that I sent her to wear.

32:18Vassilios Kostetsos: all the girls all the supermodels wasn't from an accident that called them supermodels they are very clever because I remember Cindy when she was here she was 22 years old girl and she knows exactly what she has to do what she wants to do. Yeah, I think it was the first time that models became brands. They were there. We stopped at the airport, you know, I called to the airport and I remember Linda, she forgets something in the plane and the plane came back. Yeah, that wouldn't happen now. No, never. We have not any more supermodels, you know, actually. There are supermodels, but nobody knows, you know, not a lot of people.

33:11Okay, it's Gigi and Bella but they are not like Cindy, Kate. The supermodels must have been incredible to work with them. What were they like to work with?

33:25Vassilios Kostetsos: We have a lot of funny stories with them. With Kate we have very funny times because the fashion show was out of Athens in a marathon So when she's coming, she came, Kate, we have to go out of Athens to do the show. It was July. 2nd of July was the fashion show. It was too hot. So I said to Kate, do you want to go with the helicopter or do you want to go with the limo to marathon? She said, no, no, no, you're going with the limo. She didn't understand that it was an hour from Athens, but in this hot, and with all the cars, because everybody goes for swimming, the traffic was something incredible.

34:14Vassilios Kostetsos: So it was in the car, and beside was the cars, and they say, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, how are you? They stop it, you know, to take autograph on her. So your shows are very theatrical. Yes. Like a big, big theatre, big drama. Yes, yes, yes. Do you miss that era? No, nothing I missed. I think that I've done. Yeah. I'm very proud to see pictures and video that I don't believe that happen, these things. But no, I don't stay in memory. I'm not the guy that I stay in his old memories and he's remembering and he's saying, oh. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Going on. But I think they had a different kind of energy back then, like backstage at the shows.

35:14Vassilios Kostetsos: No, they're not this energy. No. Now we're flat. But I'm not connected anymore like I was before with the models. And you did a show as part of the Olympics, didn't you? The French embassy. The French embassy, yes, it was fantastic. Yeah. The French ambassador, Laurence Aurier, was a great woman. And what was the idea behind that collection for that? Again, something from the universe. Before three years, 2024 was the Olympics, I did the show. So, in 2023, came in my shop one lady and she said, okay, I want to buy something. I have to go to a Greek island. Okay, she liked one dress. I want this dress.

36:03Vassilios Kostetsos: She said, are you Vasilios? Yes, I am. I'm looking for you. You're looking for me? I bought before 10 years in Paris a dress from you from a boutique and I saw the label that is Vasilios Kostetso's so I just came in Athens and I looked in where is this boutique Vasilios Kostetjos and I said how you find this dress of me in Paris and we find that a supermodel that I brought again I forget to tell you before it was Tassa de Vasconcelos she's British she's Portugal, British she's living London I made a fantastic long dress for her that she's wearing in London in a big gala that Prince Charles gave it to the to London and after she didn't want she didn't wear she can't wear it for second time because everybody saw with this dress so I gave it to a Paris boutique and in this boutique was the French ambassador and she bought my cloth so when she said to me I have to tell you that I'm the new ambassador from France in Greece I said oh yes fantastic because I have a collection that I read it's called Maria Callas it's dedicated for the hundred years we celebrate 2024 the hundred years of Maria Callas And I did a collection to dedicate to Maria Callas.

38:11Vassilios Kostetsos: And already I designed a collection to dedicate to Olympics for 2024. She said to me that for Maria Callas is a little bit difficult because there are some reasons between Greece and France for Maria Callas, so it cannot do it. But for Olympic, because it happened to Paris, we can do it. And I give you the embassy to make the clothes, to make the fashion show dedicated to the Olympics of 2024 for Paris. So that's the idea. And I did the show that was incredible. That's incredible because also, you know, going back to your roots and, you know, the Olympics are so important to Greece as well. That must have been a really nice moment.

39:06Vassilios Kostetsos: Yes, all the models, the gorgeous, the cycles, everything. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. Now, Greece always used to have this incredible pull for kind of artists and creatives. In the 1960s, Idra was known as a real bohemian island. Leonard Cohen sort of was here. And Mykonos was a big, big place for the rich and famous who kind of came. Tell us about that era and the Greek islands. all the islands have something different to give you it's like the supermodel every supermodel is different from the other but all their importance so and the Greek islands you know Paros is different Mykonos is different Hydra Speches Rhodes Corfu Kefalonia is fantastic Lefkada is incredible but even Crete and amazing, amazing foodie, Rita.

40:09Do you shoot your fashion campaigns on the islands? Yes. Do you use the islands as a backdrop for locations?

40:16Vassilios Kostetsos: Yes. How easy is it to shoot there? It's okay, it's okay, but this, now it's going to be, it's disappeared slowly, slowly with AI. AI disappears a lot of these things, a lot of the production. Disappear the makeup artists, disappear, you know, the photographers, disappears the models, disappear the places, because now you want this blouse in Roma to wear a model. You put in AI and then you have ready. So it's a big, big, I think that in our time now, have big changes. Do you think we have had the best generation? Yes. We are a generation that they have imagination, discovered new things, the music, fashion, the food.

41:16Vassilios Kostetsos: And you can see how much people they are starring. You think it will kill our industry? Yes. It's a robot era coming. So this is connected to the robot era. And the big brands, they are starting, as I heard Gucci, he did something, I think, but starting to use it. And it's not so artistic. Do you think people use grease enough for their campaigns? Do you think a lot of international brands coming in now to shoot? Yes, yes, yes. And still they are coming. Yeah. Okay, the AI don't help this, but okay, they're still. Always, you know, I think that always Greece is inspiration. Because it's not only the islands and the Greece, you know, the central Greece has so many places.

42:23Vassilios Kostetsos: Peloponnesos has so many places that they don't know, you know. They know only the more fancy, you know, islands, the more popular islands. They know Mykonos, but they don't know Kimolos. They don't know Anafi. And always has something. Now the last years make a lot of movies in Greece because it's much easier. The only thing they have to be, you know, the government more... Supporting. Supporting. Yes, yes. And now I'd like to talk about models from a designer's perspective. What makes a great runway model? The personality and, of course, how she moves. You can understand when you can feeling that when you see the model.

43:18Vassilios Kostetsos: Even she doesn't start, you know, to working, but when you see her, you see to her something strong. That's something that their clients, the press, they're interesting for her. After how she's moved with the dress, how she keeps... Yeah. She understands the clothes. Yes. It's very important because she has to study the dress. It's not... Okay. There are models that they're wearing the dress a fluffing dress and they don't know how to to show it to show this, you know, they are like this yeah I also miss from that era they used to walk and turn and now they don't no, it's a robot, it's more robot now I don't like this I don't like this robot style, you know how do you stay creative after so many years?

44:21What inspires you now? When I see a fabric, it doesn't stop that.

44:28Vassilios Kostetsos: You know, always, you know, I can find things in my Italian, in my fabrics. If I want, you know, to design one new collection, I will do it. But I'm very, now I have to see the reason to do that. If I don't find the reason to do, I don't do it. You won't, no. What has been the proudest moment in your career? Not the supermodels. The supermodels, okay. They make me proud because I feel blessed to work with her and I learned so many things from them to my personality, to how to work my personality and all this. It was my designs. All this collection that I designed, all this, every skirt, every blouse, every coat, but make me proud because it was front of his era, front of his time.

45:42Vassilios Kostetsos: Now I scan my photos from my very first collections that I designed. I was 14, 15 years old in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986. And I am very proud. I say, look, I designed these things 40 years before and 40 years after I see designers or people, influencers or designers that they pretend they're designers. and they have one or two of this catch, you know, that I did 40 years. And I have in one collection 80 of these catch, 80 of these designs. So I feel proud of my mind to imagine these clothes. What advice would you give a young designer today? Ah, to discover things for the future, not to composite and stylish old things and now.

46:56Vassilios Kostetsos: To be front of the era, to see what, to imagine what's going to be the fashion in 20 years, 30 years after. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share and leave us a review. Until next time, I'm Tessa Dewing and thank you for joining me on The Business of Modeling.