“On the journey of threads and creativity”
“Smaragdi” is a Greek fashion label of luxury handmade knitwear based in Athens. Smaragdi is also the first name of the famous fashion designer and creator of the company since the end of the 80’s, Smaragdi Chercheletzaki.
Smaragdi is an ambassador for Greek Traditional Knitwear and ecological philosophy in the international world of fashion, exporting Greek handcrafted knitted fashion art, combining both culture and modern fashion. She is dedicated to creativity with enthusiasm and her collections at Haute Couture & Pret a Porter Fashion have been loved by clients over three decades in her ateliers in Athens as well as in boutiques in Greece and abroad. Many celebrities wear her clothes at many special and glamorous moments in their careers and daily lives.
Her love of creativity and knitwear has been going on since childhood. Her first teacher, her mother with creations in knitting, embroidery and dressmaking. Smaragdi’s gift and love of combining yarns has developed over the years in her own unique style. She studied fashion design at a professional school “Pansic Schuola di Moda” in Greece and Techniques for the Development of Knitwear Design and Creativity in Germany where she lived for five years.
In the early 1990s, she collaborated for three seasons with Thierry Mugler presenting her creations in Paris specially designed for his fashion shows.
As an eco-conscious designer, she uses environmentally friendly materials, trying to promote ecology through her career. Therefore, she took part in art exhibitions on recycling in 2002 & 2003, “Trash-Art” presenting household items made of recyclable materials, and “Trash-Fashion” presenting her Trash-Deluxe creations.
In 2010 she participated in the Benaki Museum at the Art & Fashion Exhibition “ENDYESTHAI” with her creations, as well as at other Events for charity.
In 2012 she donated a creation to the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation to enhance the collections of the Museum “B. Papantoniou” in the attempt to create a “Museum of Culture of Clothing”.
She participated in 2014 at “Do it Eco Project” (the first Greek Eco Fashion Show) in Technopolis in Athens with a maxi handmade wedding dress with knitted patterns on the crochet.
As a member of the “Hellenic Association of Fashion Designers”, her unique collections were presented on catwalks in Athens and Thessaloniki at the “Hellenic Fashion Week” for continuous years since 2005. As a member of the Association, amongst other fashion designers, she designed and curated the decoration of one of the 115 rooms of the Classical 2 Fashion House Hotel in Omonia Square.
She designed and implemented part of Elena Paparizou clothes on her Eurovision tour in 2005.
She designed and curated a sweater for Sakis Rouvas in 2014 in the film Chevalier directed by Athena Rachel Tsagaris.
Smaragdi is inspired and expands traditional Greek culture in contemporary fashion. She loves colors and she is inspired by the palette of nature. What makes her collections stand out are the unique yarns she creates herself, choosing colors and compositions of materials, resulting in High-end knitwear, as well as her elegant designs using knitting innovation techniques & crochet. All her creations are sur measure. It uses a wide variety and high quality materials. Her knitwear exudes the joy of life with bright colors, they are perfectly applied, they highlight the femininity of women with a girlish and romantic touch.
She doesn’t have a specific Muse model, but every woman she addresses. Her success story is that all her clients are fanatical, loyal, passionate about her creations. Her designs are valued as timeless and unique. She designs custom-made knitwear for private clients women and men.
Threads can take off from its creative mood and an entire collection can be born!