Daphne Valente

General information

Daphne Valente was born in Athens, Greece. She studied Fashion Design at F.I.T. in N.Y. and at St Martin’s School of Art in London. Her degree collection of printed trompe l'oeil dresses, was launched in Browns.
As a fashion designer she had a long and successful career in Greece and abroad, using as her inspiration the Ancient Greek statues, creating “Fluid Sculptures”; draped, pleated, timeless dresses, impossible to mass produce, therefore unique. In 1999, by introducing handmade jewelry in her collections, she rediscovered a creative passion she cherished since her childhood. She presented her jewelry in Art galleries in Athens and Thessaloniki, producing only a limited amount of repeats in her designs. In 2003 she had her first solo exhibition in “Gallery 3”, in Athens, presenting a collection of one-off, mobile collage pieces, inspired by the art of Leonardo Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Alma Tadema and Gustav Klimt.
She became president of the Hellenic Fashion Designers Association in 2004 and for 4 years she focused on launching and organizing “Athens Collections” -the Greek Fashion Week. Celebrating 25 years in fashion in 2010, she organized an exhibition of her jewelry at I.E.T.T. in Kifissia, inviting along 25 photographers who were asked to photograph her pleated scarves, expressing in their own unique way the show’s “Lightness of being” theme. In order to design her jewelry, her inner child is encouraged to combine, deconstruct, break straight lines and to create movement in a loving and delicate way, bringing balance between past memories and contemporary trends. She lives in Athens and in Cape Sounion with her husband, a dog and two cats.