A Feel For Fashion: Chris Kyvetos

Born in Melbourne, Chris Kyvetos is the menswear buying director for Mytheresa, the leading global luxury e-commerce platform, where he also develops capsule collections, exclusive products and special collaborations. He has been a key player in the Australian luxury fashion market as the creative director of Australian department store, Harrolds, and founder of the retail platform Sneakerboy. In 2019, he also launched Athletic Footwear, an active lifestyle brand based in  London.

What creates an emotional response for you in fashion today?
These days, what creates emotion for me are personal moments. Last summer, after Mike Amiri’s show in Paris, his young son Ryan saw his dad happy after the show and jumped out of his seat to hug him. Knowing Mike before Amiri, I will never forget this truly emotional moment between father and son.

In what ways are you seeing progress in fashion mirroring progress in the wider world?
Fashion tends to mimic progress in the wider world. If the wider world pursues progress on any issue, we generally see the fashion industry flock to this until the next issue arises. That said, the industry, being more diverse, has [shown] stable progress, which is great; and I hope it continues long after the current generation.

If you could change one aspect of how we experience fashion today, what would it be?
Transparency. The industry celebrates and rewards very few. It overlooks a lot of the ‘less popular’ artisans and workers. The fact that media and consumers don’t recognise many of the artisans and workers means there’s a staggeringly wage gap in the fashion industry. A little more transparency could help hundreds of thousands of hard-working, passionate people to be more fairly rewarded for the success they generate.

This interview has been lightly edited.