* uN NOUvEAU iDEAL by fILEP mOTWARY

Dear iDEALS, "Persephone Kessanidis was born in Paris from a Greek father and a French mother in 1981. She studied fine arts and photography before meeting Charles Anastase and started working with him on various projects including the recent CK Choice campaign for Calvin Klein, a book for APC and exhibitions in France, Mexico or Japan.They also worked on a cover project for singer Beck.. The pair met in the Hyeres fashion festival in 2001and since then has never parted, strengthening their ever-growing collaborations. She is also developing her personal photography work for magazines such as Purple Journal, Celeste, Nylon Japan , Made05, Jalouse or Selfservice". FilepMotwary: How do you feel as a half born Greek living in Paris ? Do you have the drama inside your soul, the main characteristic of the Greeks? PersephoneKessanides: Well yes, I believe my name and my origins have strongly influenced my life and personality, I’ve always felt destiny was stronger than my will...FilepMotwary: Festival D’Hyeres is a place where many talented people come together. In your case, a friendship started with designer Charles Anastase. He has even drawn your portrait, which is something he does on only special occasions…PersephoneKessanides: Yes he did, few months after we met... I had done a series of auto portraits and he used one of them for his drawing. I think it is one of the most precious gifts I’ve been offered. We then started working together on the drawings, and we did a story with all our close friends for a French magazine FilepMotwary: In your photographs, the models always look sort of “: being on a personal cloud”. Are you like that yourself? PersephoneKessanides: I work a lot on the idea of loneliness, these particular moments were your feelings come stronger to you. You’re not sad, your not happy, you’re just in front of yourself, facing your thoughts and dreams...I’m quite like that myself, I love when all is quite, around, or when I’m walking in the city alone, I like being out of the rush of our society, everyone is so demanding, friends, clients, family... you need to focus on yourself sometimes. FilepMotwary: How much time did it take for people to start recognizing your work and which was your big “break” in fashion? How did it all happen? PersephoneKessanides: It’s quite funny, because I don’t really feel I had a big “Break” in fashion, I never did it for recognition... I think all happened thanks to Charles Anastase, he was the one who trusted me most. I’ve never been really confident into my work... When stylists or magazine started contacting me 1 or 2 years ago I was like “Ok, Why not!” And now that I started working on other projects and opened my own art gallery, people seem to show a growing interest into the works I did few years ago...FilepmOTWARY:At a point you worked on a project for Calvin Klein. Are you happy for it? pERSEphoneKessanides: Well, it’s hard to say, it was really weird to be there in this huge studio, with 3 art directors, the bests make up artists and hair dressers...Charles Anastase and I just did it like we always do... we were quite happy with the result, I think people started paying a bit more attention to us then...FILEPmoTWARY:What makes Paris so important compared to the other major fashion capitals? Persephone Kessanides:I think Paris has always been the most glamorous and inspiring city, Fashion was born here! FilepMOtwary:What would be iDEAL for you and your work in the future? PersephoneKessanides:I hope I’ll get married in Greece with my fiancé Sébastien, hope I’ll still be working with Charles Anastase, that his brand will have a huge success. Developing my gallery is really important to me now, and I hope I’ll still have some time to do photography...FilepMotwary: How much are you into fashion as a person? PersephoneKessanides:Well I never considered myself as a fashion person, it’s just something that happened, I just like having beautiful clothes! I Believe fashion can be real way to express ones feelings and personality, but I don’t give it a too big importance! FilepMotwary: Did you actually follow your dream becoming a photographer? How did you end up being interested in Fashion. PersephoneKessanides: When I was finishing High school, I new I wanted to work as a photographer. In the beginning I wanted to work in news papers, be like Robert Frank and publish books...But as always, life had chosen something different for me, I met Charles Anastase and I started working in a different direction. I’m not the kind of person that is only doing one thing, I can adapt myself very easily to any situation, and I really like that!

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