Pepi's painted dresses debut in the USA

In 1964 the painted dresses Pepi's, which were created by painters Pepi Svoronou (1934-2011) and Dimosthenis Kokkinidis (1929-2020), were promoted in major stores in New York, Boston, and other large American cities. Svoronou remembered: "I started by myself, with two suitcases filled with samples of dresses and ties. I am enthusiastic about my work. We do not copy anyone, and we have a personal style. It is an original kind and it excites people." Two years later, in 1966, a Pepi's evening dress received an award at the 25th Semaine de la Boutique at the Parisian Grand Hotel, solidifying the success of their groundbreaking effort abroad. That was the starting point for their commercial success and the distribution of their dresses in Europe as well. The two painters started to work on the idea of hand-made and hand-painted dresses in 1961, and they dominated international markets for almost two decades. In 1976 Kokkinidis joined the faculty at the School of Fine Arts, and Svoronou faced a dilemma; the transition to mass production or not. Consequently, they both quit designing clothes and focused on painting. Pepi Svoronou exhibited her expressionist paintings in her first solo exhibition in Athens in 1989.