Stalo Markides

Walking in the old narrow streets of Nicosia Stalo Markides' glamorous shop stands out. It is a vintage style shop with exquisite show case which Stalo was working on at that moment. When she noticed me standing outside the window door, she immediately left her efforts of creating her summer windows for later and hurried in good spirits to open the door for me. She greeted me with a friendly smile and then offered me a drink. While she went to get some water for me I wandered in the shop looking at her unique and stylish bags and accessories.

Stalo Markide’s bag’s trademark is the special way and technique she uses to bring out the beauty of the leather. The amazing thing about her incredibly stylish and qualitative bags is that she has developed the craft of making them entirely on her own. “I’ve always been excited with the idea of leather and bag and have always been interested in bags” Stalo says “I’ve always observed closely expensive and good quality bags, because I knew that if I wanted to do something, I wanted it to be of great quality.”   Leather is her favourite fabric and material for both bags and accessories and tries to use it as much differently than what we have seen before as possible. “The last time I’ve been to Paris I took with me not only bags but accessories as well, something I hadn’t done before.” She told me. “I was very pleased to notice that my accessories were much more different from all the others and from what there is in the market now and I believe it is a start for something new.” 

“I’ve always been designing bags and accessories on my own from a small age.” She added in our conversation when I had pestered her with a bunch of questions about how she had started, as something that was for granted. Stalo has studied jewelry design at the Middlesex University for four years. At her third year she had the opportunity to work with Steven Jones, an amazing talent as she said and then worked at Erickson Beamon jewelry house. “You didn’t expect to do anything there, maybe a coffee or some tiding up” she said “but one day the manager called me in her office and said she wanted to try me as a designer.” A lot of people worked there for years and never had the chance to actually design and Stalo was just a student but keen and eager to work, always impressing people with her self-created style. So her first time to design accessories was for Justine Timberlake and Katie Moss in a photo shoot for Vogue magazine.

This year, as every other year Stalo Markides attended the Paris Fashion Week from which she gets to find her customers and shops that are interested in buying her bags. You can find Stalo Markide’s bags in selected shops, such us Harrods, Me Me Me, Luisavia Roma, Etoile and others. She also attended the Celebrity Gift Lounge where she met and gave some of her bags and accessories as gifts to celebrities like Eva Herzigova, Erin O’Connor, Yasmin Le Bon and actors from the films Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and others.

She is having her new Summer Collection for 2011 this October but has no other plans for this year yet. “I would like to have a family” she giggled shyly when I asked her for what she sees herself doing in the future. “I want everything to get into a flow and be more relaxed, because now I get to do everything on my own and this stresses me a lot. I want my company to be more organized and known.” She added. “I want something different for the future and I want to open my own shop in London or Paris.” 

Stalo Markides is a new talented designer that has impressed everyone that has worked with her, dares to step into new things and is a pioneer into the fashion world. “I want to get ahead of myself, exceed my expectations and always be a step forward.” She stated passionately. Her uniqueness and love for what she does after all is what brought her career into flourish and success.