CIFF and Stavros Karelis of Machine-A join forces

This season, Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) has invited Stavros Karelis of Machine-A to curate the CIFF Raven special projects area for the upcoming January edition taking place in the Bella Center, Copenhagen.

CIFF director and creative director Kristian W. Andersen will be working with Karelis, founder and buying director of Machine-A, to bring a selection of the “most interesting brands from all over the world, unconventionally mixed together” to Copenhagen.

These include Maison Margiela MM6 who will arrange a work in progress diorama to invite visitors to contribute to an ever-changing set during the three days of the exhibition, while Californian brand Oakley by Samuel Ross, will showcase an experimental collection based on Oakley’s history of research and technological innovation for outdoors performance wear.

Other brands taking part in the installation includes: Alyx, a brand that embodies the need for an immersive lifestyle, and it will feature film, sculpture, imagery and music; Do It Yourself, where British designer Max Lamb, Virgil Abloh and curator Sami Janjer will present 'Max Lamb “DIY Chair”; magazine i-D, which will be inviting visitors to create their own photocopied D-i-Y zine; Showstudio will be presenting a fashion illustration pop-up; and Void, will be displaying a selection of photographic stories of young design re-imagined through the eyes of prominent stylists and photographers in the industry.

“CIFF Copenhagen pays great attention to creativity, people, emerging designers and brands,” said Karelis. “In a similar way, through my work with Machine-A, we have always focused on upcoming brands and talented people who are curious and unafraid to experiment, hence defining fashion in the most unexpected way.”

Karelis added: “This careful mix of emerging and directional, established brands brings in a new way of presenting and showcasing fashion, which is not just about products, but is also about the art of curation, the importance of collaboration. This leads to a community celebrating creativity, vision, inclusiveness and diversity. I would like to present some of the brands, designers and creative people that I hugely admire, who are pushing the boundaries between fashion and art.”

CIFF Copenhagen will take place from January 31 for three days and will feature nearly 2,000 brands at the Bella Center.