Nicolas Petrou is a Cypriot-American fashion designer and

couturier ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Early life and education

Nicolas Petrou was born in

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

to Spyridon Petrou and Eleftheria Efthimiou. After graduating from high school, he moved to London where he completed his foundations studies in art and design at

Harrow College Harrow College is a further education college in the London Borough of Harrow, England, with two campuses in Harrow and Harrow Weald.http://www.educationuk.org/pls/hot_bc/bc_profile.page_pls_profile_details?x=133784075207&y=0&a=0&z=869&p_prof_i ...

. He then attended the Regent's American College in London before enrolling in the fashion design graduate program at

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

. He graduated from Saint Martins with a Master of Arts degree in 1992.

Career

Petrou moved to New York in 1993 where he began designing for several fashion houses, receiving rave reviews for his collections. In 1995, the ''New York Times'' applauded Nicolas Petrou and his then design partner, Michael Lund as fresh, new talents. His collections have been featured in fashion and other prestigious publications, including the cover of ''WWD'', ''T'' Magazine of ''The New York Times'', ''Dazed and Confused'', ''Seventh Man'', ''V- MAN'', ''Vogue'', ''Elle'', ''Bazaar'', ''Numero'', ''W'', ''Interview'', ''Metal'' and ''The New York Times''. Additionally, Petrou has dressed many celebrities, such as

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

and

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

. In 2011, Petrou was featured in the fashion book, ''Not A Toy: Radical Character Design in Fashion and Costume'' by Atopos and Vassilis Zidianakis.

PETROU

Petrou launched his private label, PETROU with a store on Madison Avenue in 2006. The store featured a high-end

womenswear Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion ind ...

line.

PETROU\MAN

In 2009, he launched a high end menswear collection under the name PETROU\MAN that sells in the US and Hong Kong. The high-end menswear collection offers a "fresh twist in men's wardrobe". The debut collection, which ''Dazed Digital'' described as a deconstruction of sportswear, featured masked skins with colorful patterns, including star-spangled motifs. His second collection "was inspired by the lives of nomads and applied their travels to his signature mix of sportswear...creating a rich, unusual texture achieved through his combination of fabrics and prints". For his Spring 2011 collection, he mainly used beige and navy, mixed with tribal and ethnic prints and elaborate headpieces of colorful birds, butterflies, and tin toys. In an interview with ''Dazed Digital'', Petrou said that the collection was a mélange of Western style with Pacific Islander and African influences.

audience by PETROU\MAN

In March 2013, Petrou launched his spinoff label, a diffusion line called audience by PETROU\MAN. The debut collection received rave reviews and one of the pieces was included in "The Top 10 Items from Fall/Winter 2014" list of ''The New York Times T Magazine''. Inspired by abstract painting, Petrou experimented with tie-dye and acid-wash techniques on mixed textures of cotton and wool to create unique silhouettes.

Collaborations

Nicolas Petrou has collaborated with various artists, such as Stephen Shanabrook and Veronika Georgieva, as well as

Henrik Vibskov Henrik Vibskov (born 1972) is a Danish fashion designer, artist, curator and musician. Commonly associated with the fashion brand carrying the same name, his work is known for its enticing universes and crossover into other art forms. Working in ...

for the cover of '' Dazed & Confused'', which was photographed by Kacper Kasprzyk and styled by Robbie Spencer. He also designed costumes for New York-based dance company, Chamecki Lerner. He is also one of the founders and creative director of The Market NYC.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrou, Nicolas American fashion businesspeople American fashion designers 1967 births Living people American LGBT businesspeople LGBT fashion designers American people of Greek Cypriot descent Cypriot emigrants to the United States Artists from New York City People from Nicosia