Persephone

Drawing vision from the duality of seasons, the complexities of love and the beauty of Greek mythology, Paolo Sebastian presents its 2021 Spring / Summer collection, Persephone.

As Persephone gathered flowers in the Vale of Nysa she reached down to pluck a wildflower and saw the ground below her feet begin to crack open. Emerging from the Earth in a four-horse golden chariot, Hades seized Persephone and drew her into the Underworld, where he would make her his wife and queen.

Upon learning of her daughter’s abduction, Demeter wandered the world in despair searching for her daughter. In her misery, Demeter became unconcerned with the harvest of the Earth, refusing to let the ground blossom or fruit bloom until she was returned. As widespread famine ensued Zeus intervened, commanding Hades to release their daughter. However, as Persephone had tasted the food of the Underworld – six pomegranate seeds – she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband. Her annual return to the Earth was marked by the flowering of the meadows, an abundance of growth, light and new grain. While her time spent in the Underworld saw the dying of plants, the halting of growth, colder temperatures and darkness.