Stavros Karelis

Stavros Karelis is the Founder & Creative Director of the concept store MACHINE-A. Stavros is also a member of the NEWGEN womenswear and menswear committee, a member of the jury panel for the British Fashion Awards Nominations, a member of the British Fashion Council Scholarships Panel, and recently became a member of the jury for the Berlin Fashion Week Contemporary Competition and the Official Show committee. Karelis has also served as a guest judge for the prestigious L’Oréal Professionnel Award for the CSM MA 2019. Voted by GQ in the list of 35 most successful men, Highsnobiety’s list of 15 biggest stylish influencers and most recently in BOF 500 list from 2016 until now, Stavros’ dedication to emerging talent has been such, that he constantly discovers, promotes, and consults for a great number of emerging designers and helps them to get established with successful careers in the fashion industry.

Stavros is also the curator of several projects, including Copenhagen’s International Fashion Fair Special Projects Area for 2018/19/20 editions, working with a number of high-profile individuals such as Virgil Abloh, Naomi Campbell, Peter Saville, Olafur Eliasson, LVMH PRIZE, Maison Margiela, Matthew Williams, and others, as well as working as a consultant for the Onassis Foundation.

In November 2020, MACHINE-A became a partner of the Tomorrow Group, a multi-service business development platform. Karelis, while remaining the Creative Director of MACHINE-A, his role included overseeing a portfolio of creative and strategic projects of the Group and their invested brands in the UK and internationally, which lead for Karelis to finally become the Creative Director of the Tomorrow Group with focus on the invested brands such as Martine Rose, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Coperni, as well as building the visual language across all operations of the Group on a global level.

In 2022, Stavros Karelis worked alongside Raf Simons to co-curate the final show of his eponymous brand, which took place during the Frieze Art Fair in London. In 2023, Karelis partnered with NIKE as the curator for the rm72 Fashion Programme, a yearly initiative whose central aim is to offer business support to selected emerging talent through workshops and seminars with leading figures in the industry, and which also focuses on well-being and stress management. In the same year, Stavros worked with Reebok to create a project focused on LGBTQIA++ rights that featured renowned artists, top models, and activists such as Kai Isaiah Jamal and Alibabie for the UK and China launches. In 2024, Stavros Karelis was named an LVMH PRIZE Expert, the most recognizable international showcase for emerging global talent, founded by the LVMH Group.