Saia, my Melissa dealer

I've told you about Saia before. It's where I go to get my Melissa shoes fix.

Remember those? Well, meet these:Melissa Patchuli in cream, from this season's collection.

Yes, they came home with me.

Proper shoe porn pics to follow, as usual.

Thumbnail

"Take advantage of anything that's happening to you and make the best out of it."

Thumbnail by George Kouvaras (a.k.a. alboem) won the Gold Award for Best Drama at the Hong Kong International Mobile Film Awards, in a ceremony that took place last Wednesday, March 23rd. The film was shot entirely on iPhone 3G and iPhone 3Gs.

I've actually met George once or twice several years ago, but I'm sure he won't remember. You can see more of his work on his company's UNDO website.

In any case, congratulations Alboem!

[thanks to @Krassakopoulos and his tweet for the heads up]

Sotiris Georgiou in studio

First of all, let me just say that when your trade is clothes, this is simply an ingenious concept for your business cards.


The holder of the cards, Sotiris Georgiou in his studio, shot back in December, wearing one of his AW 2010-11 Perplexity collection sweaters.

And this is a close-up of how that Jackson Pollock - inspired sweaters are made...


...with help from the experienced hands of Vangelis, his assistant.

I'm taking the chance to post these pics now, as a remembrance of how incredible and loved his previous winter collection was, and also, as teaser for his upcoming AW 2011-12 Multidimensional collection that will be presented this Sunday, April 3rd at 18:00 in Technopolis Gazi, on the last day of Athens Fashion Week.

Can't wait to see what he has prepared this time.

Heart on top

Sonia by Sonia Rykiel knit top in purple and black stripes, with crossing wide straps on the back and embroidered red heart in front, bought last spring from Fenastock.

I'm not big on buying big name designers, but when I do, it's usually all about the specific designer's signature piece. Stripes, hearts and brightly coloured knits are all Sonia Rykiel's specialties, so this top seemed ideal to represent her brand in my closet.

Even if it's just her diffusion line.

Almost famous

My friend Larry Gus played at K44 a few hours ago.

I'm a groupie. If you're interested in becoming one too, then don't miss this.

Work much?

Back to work, looking silly in the office bathroom.

Printed t-shirt, Queen Michelle for Borders&Frontiers. Red cardigan, MANGO. Black skirt, ZARA. Grey scarf, H&M. Black belt, grandma's vintage.

Reporting: Social Media Conference

At first, I though I wasn't gonna post about that.

I mean, this is a fashion blog. People expect to see skirts and dresses, not men in costumes talking about ROI and 360° campaigns. But, blogs are social media and some of us fashion ones did get mentioned on stage, so here is my fashion and blogger oriented report on yesterday's Social Media Conference organised by Boussias.


"Demystifying Blogs and Blogger Relations"
Eleni Giannakaki of Hill & Knowlton Digital PR focused on explaining what blogs are, classifying them into categories and explaining how PRs should choose which bloggers to "work" with.

I was rather silly flattered that my blog was mentioned on the slide showing Greek specific theme blogs as the fashion blog example, along with mommy blog Eimai Mama, cooking blog Love Cooking and, well, tech blog TechBlog.

Sorry there's no link for the company, as I usually provide. I tried googling them and I couldn't find anything. After some help from my fellow twitterers, all I found for the Athens branch of Hill & Knowlton Digital PR was their address and phone number, four clicks into the international site. Certainly not good enough if your trade is the internet.


"GOD & Social Media"
Eleni Konstantinidi, CEO of GODigital and founder of myworld.gr kicked off her presentation by showing the rather old, christmas-y viral video The Digital Story of Nativity, a choice that didn't leave nice impressions with an audience that knows how fast-moving the world of internet is, and most importantly, how not forgiving to those who are left behind. Plus, she literally used the phrase "we took the risk of inviting some bloggers to an event" which left us bloggers thinking PR and marketing people must really be considering us as a dangerous and threatening species. Can you hear me roar as I type?


Moving on to the third fashion-related speech of the day:


"Buldoza digs & digs & digs into Social Media: What have we found…"
Panayiotis Gezerlis, CEO and co-founder of buldoza.gr certainly left good impressions with everyone in the room by simply showing a great example of how an e-tail company can successfully use all social media, right from the start and in-house. And I'm not saying that just because he was the one who invited me to the conference.

You see, even before its launch, Buldoza has been active on twitter by replying to mentions right away and getting into conversation with people, keeping a very active page on facebook, uploading pics on flickr from the backstage of its photoshots, keeping a company blog powered by wordpress where they share insights of the way they work as well as fun trivia, and also having a very active presence on youtube with a series of videos titled making of buldoza.gr on how the company started, product reviews and the buldoza x-mas flash mob that went viral.

And that's not all. Panayiotis also gave some great examples on how a fashion e-tail business can crowdsource product suggestions from its clients on-line via twitter or use it to attract them from competition.

Examples?In the photo above you can see the slide showing the twitter suggestions of fashion bloggers @FashAlgorithms, @Athenouka and @skinny_flavored on how @buldoza_gr should start stocking Jeffrey Campbell shoes in Greece.

And here you see a tweet by @_LFoF_ asking @ASOS whether she should be worried that her order is late, and @buldoza_gr grabbing the chance by answering back that she should order from them instead, as they offer next day delivery for 47,6% of all clothes, shoes and accessories they offer.

Simple yet fucking impressive.


And last but not least:

"Being Agile: How Social is transforming Marketing as we know it"

Main conference speaker Leo Rayman of DDB UK easily gets the "most stylish social media speaker" award for his outfit of black jeans, checkered shirt and red belt topped with a great grey jacket for that sharp business feel.

Extra brownie points for the red socks.
And for mentioning that his jacket was by Zara...
...while presenting the Zara business model, where super-quick feedback from the customers in the form of a well-tuned ERP system is crucial for being in front of trends and, oh well, selling as many clothes as possible to us.

That's it.

I know that's only four speakers out of 22 and there's a lot more that could be said on the fails and wins we witnessed yesterday, but as I mentioned in the start, this is a fashion blog. I try to keep things fashion-relevant. If you are still interested to learn more and you can read Greek, then head over to Dimitris Kalogeropoulos' blog and read this amazing report. Seriously, it's exactly what I would write if I wasn't a fashion blog. Or simply lazy.

That's all from let's hope things improve till next time.

[please note that this post was edited from the first draft published, as I had accidentally merged 2 reports in one, hence making one person appear to say things said by another]

Geek chic

Elena at the Social Media Conference yesterday.

This is just a "street" style pic I thought was too nice not to be posted, proper post on the actual geeky stuff coming soon.

Ippolito

Ippolito a.k.a. Pavlina Papailiopoulou was definitely one of my favourite designers over at The Room Service in Semiramis three weeks ago.

I really should have given more attention to her brand before, and now that I have, I'm actually planning on visiting her Plaka showroom really soon to make one of her designs mine. I mean, that straw tote bag will be just perfect for summer!

To remember the day:

Pavlina Papailiopoulou wearing that vintage dress that made us all green with envy, posing with her SS2011 collection.


Joanaddicted with her favourite Ippolito bag.

And as it was also Pavlina's birthday back on that day, she had arranged to offer her guests delicious pastries from Fresh. I surely indulged.

Don't forget that Pavlina is presenting her AW 2011-12 collection today Tuesday, March 22nd at the AXDW.


Unfortunately I won't be there, as I am attending the Social Media Conference all day today, but those of you who will, cheer her some for me.

Good luck Pavlina!

Patron

Patron is a performance created by Angeliki Chatzi.

The narrative unfolds within an installation of shelves and benches, spinners and buckrams. The passing time is being constantly reminded by the sound of a sewing machine. The preparation of the costume serves as the main narrative tool.

The three Moirae (according to Greek mythology the three Moirae represent Fate) are preparing a costume for the two main characters. This could be their funeral or their wedding costume. The completion of the costume will signify the end. The two heroes constantly live under the burden of the end approaching. Desiring to extend their time they try to seduce the Moirae and drum out these costumes. This is the basic pattern of the performance structure.

The heroes fight with what the Moires impose upon them, the end of their life, the final change. The atmosphere becomes intense each time the situation becomes critical.
The performance draws from the ancient Greek texts and mythology. More specifically it follows the myth according to which Apollo drunk the three Moirae in order to prevent Admitos' death. The structure is formed through the use of themes often encountered in ancient Greek literature, such as the parallelism between marriage and death. Fate is being portrayed here as in ancient Greek tragedy, the world's order. Timeless questions related to the power of human will, pathos and thus to the responsibility of someone's deeds are being addressed in a rather innovative manner.


Patron functions as a connection between the delivery of ancient drama and modern forms of performing. The narration shares patterns with the familiar to the spectator ancient Greek themes. However, via the new expressive possibilities that are provided a fundamentally new experience is offered.


Direction, Choreography: Angeliki Hatzi
Set design: Yannis Arvanitis
Costume design: Konstantinia Vafeiadou
Performers: Roxani Zogana
Pierre Margendie
Yannis Pavlopoulos
Dimitra Sofou
Nikolas Fragioudakis


Teaser video: Stathis Mourdoukoutas

↑ seriously, you must watch it.

Patron means sewing pattern in Greek, from the French patron de couture.

The show opened last Wednesday, March 9th at the Municipal Theatre of Serres. Performances in Athens start today, Monday March 21st, up until Tuesday, April 19th at the new Frown Tails project space at 6 Paramythias st. in Keramikos.

Shows every Monday and Tuesday at 21:00
Duration is 70'
Tickets cost €10, if you have student ID €7
Reservations at 6944276307 and info@frowntails.com

images in this post are stills from the video
text via FrownTails, read it all in greek too here

Serving up north

1 afternoon
1 hotel
17 hotel rooms
17 participating designers and labels
1 great party

After the first successful Room Service three weeks ago at Semiramis Athens, OZON RAW's project travels up north.

The first Fashion Room Service in Thessaloniki is taking place today 15:00-22:00 at The Excelsior Hotel.

Just like last time, guests will have the opportunity to see, feel, try on and even buy from the participating designers newest collections straight from the 17 rooms that will be transformed into pop-up showrooms, and it will be followed by a cocktail party at The Excelsior’s lounge bar.

The participating designers this time are:

Drama Queen
DRESS2IMPRESS
Apostolos Mitropoulos
Aldo Cibic, Patricia Urquiola
WeSC Footwear
The Otherwise Project
Scoopa
Digitaria
Kiehl's
Spanaki
Division 925
Conquistador
Parthenis Bridal Collection
Georgina Kostara
Maria Mastori

More info here.

And those of you northeners who'll be there, please say a big, heart-warming hello to my dearest friend Anna Spanaki and her beautiful clutch bags!

Interview with Tassos Sofroniou

Tassos Sofroniou is a multi-talented fashion professional who was kind enough to grant me this mini interview. I won't say more, it's all here. Read on.


Q:
Although you have been professionally active in fashion for many years now, most people came to know you through the Greek Next Top Model television show. What are the important things about your education and career we're still ignoring?

A:
There's a long list of things that I've done so far. Studied graphic design, photography and history of art. I have been a national champion in swimming while going to school and I have been working in fashion from a very young age. I have been PA to the godmother of british style Isabella Blow, worked with Alexander McQueen, Julian McDonald, Jeremy Scott. Was a freelance fashion editor in Interview, Surface, Scene, Sunday Times style magazines.



Regarding my profession as a designer, stylist, photographer and TV persona throughout the years I am always in a constant search for excitement. I design, produce, style and photograph my collection for Conquistador. All these years of hard work in various different but similar aspects of fashion that I was involved, worth every minute I spent learning and practicing about it.



Q:
A brand's online presence is crucial these days. You have a blog for your brand as well as the official site conquistador.gr which is on its way, plus your own online presence that consists of your personal blog, facebook and twitter account. Still, when one googles "Tassos Sofroniou" the first result to come up is the now derelict MySpace where your user name is "tassaros". Do you worry about controlling your online presence? How come there's not an official portfolio page of yours with an "about" or "bio" page, so people professionally interested in you can know more about who you are and what you have accomplished?

A:
I am trying to balance all my previous work activities with the latest, as the owner and designer of my menswear label Conquistador. I have been privileged enough to have personal contact with the people I am interested to collaborate and so far "tassaros" has not caused me any troubles.



Soon the official site conquistador.gr will be launched and all the relevant info about me and the label will be clear for people to discover. The world of web is an exciting one, but all my dynamics at this moment are focused on the design, the presentation and the quality of my products. Soon all will fall into place when you search Tassos Sofroniou.



Q:
In one of the episodes of the 2nd cycle of Greek Next Top Model you proclaim to the girls competing that the winner of the test gets to win a Conquistador sweatshirt that is worth €500. This statement caused a wave of baffled, ironic or even mean tweets and comments on why could/should a sweatshirt cost that much, especially in this economy. Do you really design sweatshirts that cost that much? If yes, why do they?

A:
I was very precise when I stated that the winner of the task would win a collector's Conquistador top worth €500. I was very precise on my speech. Some people heard what they wanted to hear. The retail prices of my tops vary from 180 to 395 euros. My collection, whether it is a top, trousers, a leather bag or leather accessories, come in limited numbers per style.



The tops are cotton combined with real natural leather in parts. They are stocked in shops among designers like Ann Demeulemeester, Miu-Miu, Rick Owens and Raf Simons. Therefore, as a new company with limited backing and resources, I believe I am true to my customer as far as value-for-money is concerned, and of course I know that the product I make is not accessible to everybody, not so much for the price per se, but because it takes a brave man to understand my concept. My tops are not sweatshirts. You don't wear them to to the gym. They are not American Apparel.



Big thanks to Mr Sofroniou who kindly answered all of my questions and to Mary Kitsopanou who brought us in touch.

Conquistador AW 2011/12 collection pics and portrait on top of this post are all property of Tassos Sofroniou and were published here with his permission.

Conquistador

Three weeks have already passed since the last Fashion Room Service at Semiramis and it would be a total waste to let those pics of Evangelos Baos wearing one of Tassos Sofroniou's creations inside the Conquistador room to just sit around in my folders.

Great chance to unearth them now.

Those who live up north and missed it then, get a second chance. Conquistador will be participating again at this weekend's Fashion Room Service up north in Thessaloniki. More detailed post to follow on that.

But also, I was lucky enough to secure a quite interesting mini interview with Tassos Sofroniou plus pics from Conquistador's AW2011/12 collection that I'll be posting tomorrow, so don't forget to check back in the morning.

H to the M

Bremen, summer of 1998.

Back when H&M was still Hennes & Mauritz.

I still remember everything I got in that first fast fashion shopping spree of mine. I was like a kid in a candy shop. Still wear several of them. I love my clothes. Who said fast fashion has to be disposable?

Oh and yes, I am that old.

All warm and bright

Stripy wool sweater, BENETTON. Magenta pashmina scarf, bought in a bazaar in Turkey. Light brown cotton skirt, ZARA. Grey ballet flats, PULL&BEAR. Crown-shaped silver ring, bought in a jewellery shop in Nafplio.