Sophia Chantal Zarifopoulos is a Greek American designer from New York now based in Athens. She recently showcased her first collection “The Reigning Balkan Princess” at Athens Fashion Week where she won the Best New Designer Award. She thrifts vintage lace and table cloths known as “Semedakia” and “mandilakia” in Greek. She then upcycles them and infuses them with her love and with her whimsy. She gifts them a new life full of fun, movement, and Balkan maximalism. Her second collection debuting at Vancouver Fashion Week is called “The Jungle Feveress”. It highlights theoretical main female protagonists that could be found in the jungle with a fashion fever. It’s messy, almost unfinished, torn, beautifully ruthless. It is fiercely female, showing how to take the fear out of being female, because once you do, the jungle is yours. Your scars, your flaws, your unfinished story, are all waiting to be claimed beautifully by you. Don’t hide them, strut IN them.