Written by Cassell Ferere

As a celebration of the growing sustainability movement in fashion, photographer Olivia Ghalioungui and illustrator Anna Koutelas have joined forces to interpret an editorial fashion photoshoot that conceptualized the physicality of fashion. “Era” is a photo series and their interpretation of a COVID-ridden industry thatis forcing us to find solutions to the traditional elements of fashion and marketing.

They are challenging the reliance on physical fashion when creating editorials. This approach falsifies what we expect, selling an idea based on the development of textiles and how we are attracted to the notion of the prototypes and samples.

Olivia Ghalioungui is Athens-born photography and filmmaker working in Paris and Zurich for fashion magazines, including Elle magazine [Europe]. She has a unique perspective of her photography, raised between Cairo, Egypt, and Antiparos, Greece. 

Olivia’s work is fashion-focused, capturing styled portraits for brands like Marie De La Roche, GUNTHER PARIS that channel the soul of the model or subject to the forefront. Her images are that transcend a voyeuristic experience, frozen in time.

Anna has work in fashion since finishing her graduate studies at the Paris College of Art. The textile designer spent the beginning of her career at Malhia Kent and has since moved into other creative endeavors.

Together these two artists have visual set the industry template of what a COVID-era editorial spread can accomplish. The idea is taking the traditional aspect of photography and turning the style portion into an infinite exposé of textiles and garments. Fashion that is, at best, a physical circus transforming into a visual fantasy of endless possibilities.

Illustrated garments appear over a real model photographed in a city center. The model wears a leotard for the shoot, and in post-production, decorated in the observed piece of clothing, potentially of the vision of a fashion designer.

The geometric design of the garments creates a surreal effect while contrasting with transparent designs within the illustrations. The images provide a sense that the illustrated clothing holds a physical property that is complemented with the perspective and of the captured gestures.

Radiant and geometrically designed illustrations represent real clothing in this series of photos moving with the model and sharing her posture. The transparent portions of the covering design are what takes the mind into creating a subconsciously realistic appearance. Anna’s illustrations are a cubist appreciation of clothing, with acknowledgment for the global design leaving out details more associated with textiles. 

The pandemic has already shifted fashion to similarly adapted. We saw fashion weeks using 3D runway shows and presentations to showcase their latest collections. As this consistently becomes a norm, Olivia and Anna both have given life to a new concept in the era of “phygital” fashion.

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