Among the world’s fashion capitals, London has had the reputation for edginess ever since Mary Quant made the miniskirt a defining fashion of the 1960s. Effie Fotaki discovers the Greek connection of two of the city’s edgiest boutiques.

There’s still quite a few things in London’s Soho district prompting passersby to do a double take, but Machine-A is famous for windows that stop most in their tracks–like an almost naked female mannequin with three neon rings circling its head as it kneels in an otherwise empty window case bathed in red light.
Located in a former tailor’s shop, the boutique is owned by Stavros Karellis, who opened his first shop soon after moving to London in 2008 to pursue graduate studies at Goldsmiths’ College. But Machine-A isn’t just a shop. It’s a gallery that showcases the brightest and boldest of London’s creative movement. And this is a statement the boutique boldly makes even before you enter. Enormous floor to ceiling glass windows flank the entrance like massive museum cases that house bizarre installations by the likes of Celia Arias, Dominic Jones, Sorcha O’ Raghallaigh, Tomihiro Kono, Gemma Slack, and Katherine Cannon. Inside, Machine-A is a space that stocks clothes by young designers who won’t compromise and who aren’t afraid to go against the current fashion trend. Here you’ll find the unique, beautiful pieces featured in avant-garde fashion magazines. The stock ranges from the downright weird to the clothes that aren’t just utterly wearable but also cool as hell. Machine-A certainly stands out from the crowd of boutiques, but it’s clothes are equally for those who want to and those who don’t.
Karellis highlights the link between fashion and culture by using the basement to host previews of new collections, art exhibitions, and film screenings; Charlie Le Mindu, whose clients include Lady Gaga and Diamanda Galas, also does a monthly pop-up salon at Machine-A.

Spitalfields, the east London district where Keep Zero Gravity is located, has gradually moved from the edge of the city’s culture towards the mainstream–and in some ways the same is true for Ioanna Kourbela, the Greek designer whose ethereal creations are featured at this independent boutique. She is the only designer sold at Keep Zero Gravity whose owners wanted to introduce her to the British market. Indeed, Keep Zero Gravity has exclusive rights to wholesale her creations.
Kourbela draws inspiration from a childhood watching one-of-a-kind knitwear produced in her father’s workshop. Her interest in tailoring developed and she went on to study fashion, costume and theater design. She was an early pioneer of using state-of-the-art textiles made of natural fibers. Her clothes have been described as a mix of artfully elaborated sculptures and ethereal forms. Indeed, Kourbela’s delicate, refined garments have as few seams and stitches as possible so that the fabrics follow the body’s curves and fit it perfectly. To celebrate the link between fashion and art, every month the boutique invites a local artist to create an installation in the window and runs design competitions in tandem with Kourbela’s collection.
But it’s not just Kourbela’s clothes that have a touch of the theatric. Keep Zero Gravity owes its simple yet chic design to the talents of Ersi Giannoulatou, a Greek theater designer, who worked on the interiors–a soothing change from the colorful madness of Brick Lane.