I received an email regarding Christos Dovas and his presence at the 2009 Oscars in February this year. As I read through the press release I noticed quite an interesting story and I decided to reach out to him. To my delight, I was able to schedule a phone call and speak with Christos Dovas directly. As he began to tell me his story, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. I love to meet people with such a passion for what they do that they follow their creativity wherever it may take them. I am excited for the opportunity to meet with him when I am in NYC in a couple weeks and can’t wait to share my visit with all of you. For now enjoy learning about a new and unique perspective….

My Story, by Christos Dovas

I was born and raised in Patras on the mainland of Hellas (in English called Greece.)

At an early age I was apprentice to my father, a custom shoe designer. From him, I acquired the foundation for my passion to create innovative and classical designs crafted with a master’s attention to impeccable construction and precise design.

I grew up next to his workbench. He was placing the patterns over the leathers so to cut; I was helping in keeping the leather straight and using my arms as weight.

I remember I was 8 years old when I was so motivated I was designing my own shoes. I had all I needed, a father shoe designer, who always had left over leathers, and lots of inspiration.

I have seen so many fashion styles with my eyes, 70’s 80’s and some old 60’s original samples from my father’s archives. He was working with many leather qualities, lamb, goat, and snakeskin imported from Africa to make evening shoes, even with leather lace. I was wearing the best shoes in the neighborhood and I was always very proud of this.

I was to buy leathers from “tampakika” a factory where the raw material was under process to become appropriate for shoes, after cleaning the fat and blood and nailed onto the wooden frame-tables, stretched, and then placed under the sun to get dry and then painted in every possible color. I was running to buy sole-leathers, glues, wooded nails, wax threads, currying and delivering to my father and then to run to the stitching lady who was putting the pattern together so my father could place it on the wooden form and make it shoe. A shoe by hand, such an exciting life I told myself! So young, a little boy, with professionals.  Such and such I know secrets of the industry as well, I know who made Cinderella’s tiny pair of red velvet, pearl-encrusted, high-heeled mules: My father!
I know because I was next to him all my life. I saw him working hard, executing to detail every little aspect of how to make it perfect.
I am so proud of him and he didn’t even know how great he was. He was only about how to make a living and how to satisfy the customer to come back.
I saw the lady, I saw the little old mirror some of its silver paint on the back was off, this one with the velvet cord, not hanging, as it should but leaning on the floor.
I saw both faces, the lady’s whose anticipation over the new ordered laced evening shoes made her face glowing and my father’s obsession over the new challenge.
I saw him cutting the lace, backing it with the silver lining, forming it together over the wooden form, to make it shoe, all executed by hand, stitch by stitch.
I saw him making the fire for the engraved iron frame when hot to put it over the golden tape and push it down on the leather for his signature to show. 
I was the one to deliver and to get the tip! Some of the tip I used for candies, some of it to save.
And when my father was not making shoes for customers he was making them for my mom! Such simple people they were! Their names are Eleftherios and Georgia Dovas.

I was running from errand to errand and in between errands as a kid liked to spend time next to a painter where I was taught painting and how to make replicas of Byzantine icons. This offered me my first recognition from EOMEX an organization of young artists and of course my first customers while I was a kid trying to “escape” the everyday responsibility to work.  So much hard work so school was always a happy intermission.

===============================================================

During my teenage years I started working in sales in a clothing store doing styling, buying, merchandising duties and taking care of the window-displays. Such I became more involved in fabrics and I found myself being creative on someone’s appeal. Since I was in women’s clothing section this is where the first big question was raised. How the breast dart is created to flatter resulting in a beautiful curve since the pattern is executed on flat table. After the question was asked the solution came by studying Fashion Design in a private school in Athens and working as assistant next to an haute couturier. TV modeling was very helpful to improve my social skills and open up to people. Soon after, I began designing for my own boutique in my hometown, Patras.

==============================================================

Questing for more I was fashion student again in a prestigious college in New York City.  Four years of dedication were awarded with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and additionally a year of theatrical studies, stage and costume, earned me an internship in Metropolitan Opera seeking the poetry of the world stage, and school after school, idea after idea, and sweat after sweat for my obsession became real. And I hold my showroom, fashion designer myself working on skin, metallic leather, lace, silks as my father did, with tears in my eyes as I realize I am “him.”

=============================================================

Christos Dovas New York Co is launched in N.Y.C. where I continue to conceive and create innovative designs with perfect execution. Often compared to sculptures and paintings, “Christos Dovas” designs naturally enhance a woman’s inner beauty. I combine elements of the modern and classical worlds viewed from different angles to reveal new aspects of her beauty. To feel amazing a woman must appear unique and at ease with herself. “Christos Dovas” takes great care to make this happen, never forgetting the importance of comfort and practicality. Inspired by the great philosophers from with my homeland, I respect and embrace that purity of form, function, and composition can harmoniously become one, bringing to life a world of imagination, beauty and luxury. My deeply traditional experience, classical education, and focus on exploring the intimate relationship between the classical and the modern world are the hallmark of my creations.

I am located in the heart of Manhattan 34 street between 5^th and 6^thavenues, surrounded by the fashion district, accessories and fur districts. I work endlessly displaying my creations from Tokyo to Athens, from Soho to Hamptons and LA to celebrities.

A designer is creator. For me is the mingling of many elements, pictures from my childhood, colors, sounds, paintings, statues, books, faces, body contour, movements and details that I love my own eyes to follow and processing in every aspect.

All these elements I compose on a piece of fabric, in a creation that comes to life when worn by an ethereal creature. Source of inspiration life itself, people, their personalities, the way they move their body, the space that surrounds them, their personal story, stories, history, our past, our civilization, the human civilization, the senses, the forms, the touch, the texture, a glance, the whole world.  My philosophy is clarity, beauty, refinement, nobility and poetry. What covers the female figure must be chosen by criteria of simplicity, elegance, craftsmanship, and quality.  Always must have in mind the picture as a whole for a charming presence.  Besides, the relationship women have with fashion is absolutely attractive, intoxicating, exhilarating I could say, challenges my creativity in every design. The uncontrolled female fantasy gives wings to my spontaneity and teaches me the difficulty of an intricate design and how to execute it. The moment of conceiving of a design is divine. Demands discipline in the execution and correct choice of fabric. Natural fibers like silks for the ethereal vision, leathers for the earthy dimension, three-dimensional objects for the theatricality, semiprecious stones for the luxury and for the unique presence of dynamic personalities, all worked by hand, giving attention to detail and uniqueness. My goal is to bring forward the internal female beauty. A woman with personality can show off a design and by wearing it she can be transformed in the creature she (we) wants. Influence, power, character, simplicity, femininity, luxury, could be some words to represent an explosive combination that reveals that men are rather the victims, luckily!!!

-Christos Dovas

You can visit the site for retail and wholesale products of your likeness www.ChristosDovas.com or  e-mail at info@christosdovas.com

Christos Dovas New York Co is member of Association of Image Consultants International and Fashion Group International.