Constantinos Zamanis was fascinated by the fantastic worlds he saw in the theater, paintings and cinema from a young age, until he realized that he wanted to work in costume design / scenography.

Since then, and during these thirty years, he has made enviable collaborations, while this year he takes on a big challenge: to “dress”, for the first time, a series and especially the new, big production of SKAI “The Pantheons”.

Konstantinos Zamanis reveals to skai.gr what made him answer positively and explains the study it took to achieve the best result.

Who is Konstantinos Zamanis?

I was born in Ioannina in 1975 and grew up in Athens where I live. I studied theatre, costume and scenography in Athens, and continued my studies in London. I have been working as a scenographer and costume designer since 2000. My main field of activity until recently was the live show (theatre, opera, dance) and occasionally some films.
With the recent “spring” of fiction on television I felt it was time to try my hand at this arena as well. And I’m glad about that.

What motivated you to deal with this particular subject (costume design, scenography)?

I grew up in a home open to the arts. From a young age I was enchanted by the fantastic worlds I saw in the theater, in the paintings, in the cinema. I wanted to be an architect, then a painter, then a clothing designer. When I was 18 years old, a close friend gave me the book by Dionysis Fotopoulos “Sets – Costumes”. That’s it. I had in my hands what condensed everything I wanted to do – and thirty years later I don’t regret it.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time you’ve taken on the task of “dressing” a TV series. What made you accept the invitation-challenge?

It is indeed the first time. There are two main parameters that determine my choices: the project and the people. Here was the happy coincidence that these two were combined in an ideal perspective. It came much sooner than I imagined, it’s true.
On the one hand the collaborators, obviously including our actors, on the other hand an iconic work set in a historical period that I love very much, made me accept this challenge almost immediately and with great joy, but also anxiety.

You have collaborated as a costume designer / stage designer with the National Theatre, the Hellenic Festival, etc. Are there similarities / differences in the process with television?

There are differences as well as similarities. In the theater one uses different tools that have to do mainly with abstraction and condensation. Time flows differently on stage, spaces don’t usually have distinct boundaries, and characters more and more often wear a costume in which we try to condense all of its features. The spectator in the theater accepts the convention of real and live action time and does not have the requirement of absolutely realistic representation and consistency. On the contrary, on television one needs to create many different images. I could say that what in the theater one tries to condense, in television one tries to develop and expand it. The image here has another power, every detail counts, every “image” of the hero is part of a large portrait of him. The common axis, of course, is the drama, the characters. One does not “dress” the actors, one “dresses” the characters.

Need some study on the costumes that each hero / heroine will wear in SKAI’s new period drama series, “The Pantheons”?

A lot of study. In relation to the era, the novel, the script, the characters. We started from the era, the transition boundary from the 30s to the 40s. Usually clothing history books standardize each decade according to its main characteristics and forget the transitions from one to the other. Also, where the story unfolds matters. One is Paris, another is Athens. To create the world of the Pantheons, we searched for photographic material and documents of the time in Greece, archives, wardrobes and personal collections. However, we retained the right to fiction. We are representing an era, we are not making a documentary. Our main concern is to serve the story and highlight the characters within the specific historical context.

How easy is it to find period costumes and quantity?

It is definitely worth looking for… In the Greek market there are wonderful wardrobes that hide real treasures. For the series we have made a combination of costumes from wardrobes, tailoring, modern clothes that suddenly transform when seen from another perspective, repurposed clothes from decades past, all of which together reconstruct an era in an approach that tries to maintain a sense of historicity, but also aims to creating beautiful yet dramatically consistent images.
Where things get a bit trickier is with military uniforms, when one wants to be precise. Especially in the accessories part.

Have you had to design costumes?

Of course. Costumes for our heroes have been designed, shoes, hats, accessories have been ordered and are waiting their turn to be used in our shooting. Besides, we have a long way to go…

What is the biggest challenge you face?

The time.

There is a prevailing opinion that men’s clothing is easier than women’s. Apply;
I would say the opposite! Especially in works that refer to earlier time periods. The basic male “clothing” is the suit. In men’s suits, one needs to see details and elements that will differentiate one image from another, so that the viewer does not have the feeling that the hero wears the same outfit all the time. Fabrics, textures and, of course, the right tailoring matter. You “steal” a woman’s outfit much more easily with a belt, a piece of jewelry, a flower.

How would you describe “Pantheus” in three words of “costume jargon”?

Handmade, embroidered, silk.

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