Trashing it

Working on my Kiehl's project this weekend. Fancy guessing what I'm gonna make?

Hint, hint.

The Night Porter

Vienna, 1957. Max is an ex nazi officer who has managed to escape punishment for his crimes and is working as the night porter at a posh hotel. He hangs out with his friend and former SS comrade Bert, who also happens to be secretly in love with him. One day, concentration camp survivor Anna arrives at the hotel along with her current husband. Thirteen years after the end of WW2, Anna and Max resume the sado-mazochistic relationship they had in the concentration camp as tormentor-victim and lovers, under the jealous eyes of Bert.

The theatre version of Liliana Cavani's classic 1974 film Il Portiere di Notte is premiering tonight in the Black Box hall of Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.

This is the first time for acknowledged Greek film director Giorgos Panousopoulos directing a theatre play.


Starring: Takis Chrysikakos, Maria Tsaroucha, Zacharias Rochas, Dimitris Kalatzis
Adaptation: Hara Tsioli
Set/Costume Design: Spyros Laskaris
Music: DNA
Lighting Design: Giorgos Panousopoulos
Assistant Director: Margarita Panousopoulou
Assistant Set Designer: Katerina Grapsia
Set Constuction: Nikos Bikos
Still Photography: Pathy Katsoufi
Graphic Design: Red Design Consultants

Premieres tonight, shows every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 21:30.

You can buy a ticket with credit card over the phone at 210 3418579 Mon-Fri 11:00-14:00, at Public Stores, at the foundation's Box Office (Piraeus 206, Tavros) Mon-Fri 11:00-14:00 as well as on-site one hour before the performance. Tickets cost €15.

More info in English here and in Greek here.

Creating with Kiehl’s for a cause

I'm very excited to announce this project, as I will working for a noble cause, while collaborating with a company I know and have respect for.

Kiehl's has decided to bring together fashion designers, artists and bloggers, to unite their efforts in a great initiative titled "Kiehl’s Friends Create for a Cause" aiming to help the underprivileged children in downtown Athens learn about ecology and art.

Using the well-known and loved reusable tote bag as their canvas, artists will create one-of-a-kind designs.

The creative process will be published by bloggers for all of you to see.

For each bag created, Kiehl's in Attica will be donating €100 towards the creation of an Eco Art Workshop for kids living in Keramikos and Metaxourgio, two of the most underprivileged neighborhoods of downtown Athens.

This workshop will be run in collaboration with the non-profit organisation Clean Up Greece in the premises of Rebecca Camhi Art Gallery in Metaxourgio.


The artists creating the bags and the bloggers who will be exclusively documenting the progress are:

singer Alex Kavadias on beautylicious.gr
concept maker Georgios Carabellas on lfof.gr
jewellery designer Elena Syraka on yatzer.com
fashion designer Orsalia Parthenis on ohsochic.gr
artist Fotis Pechlivanidis on beautyblog.gr
Eleftheria Arapoglou of DIGITARIA on ozonweb.com
make-up artist & hair stylist Panos Kallitsis on beautydiaries.gr
SOMF designers Mariaflora Papapanagiotou & Olivia Efstathiou on miss-athenes.net
architect Pinelopi Kapnoula on fashionarchitect.net

Oh yes, I'm very excited indeed. And you know what's the best part? You can win one of those bags!

Starting from May 26th up until June 2nd you will be able to visit the Kiehl's corner at Attica department store, see all the bags on display and get photographed at the Kiehl's corner to enter the draw and win the the ones you like best.

The draw will be held Thursday June 2nd, 18:00-20:00.
Until then, you can watch all the progress on the collaborating blogs and on Kiehl's Greece Facebook page and start coveting your own favourite bag.

Good luck!

Art Athina 2011

The obligatory view from above pic at the opening of this year's Art Athina international contemporary art fair.

First stop at the OZON stand, for saying hello to friends.

Second stop at the Athens Voice stand to see the mural created especially for the exhibition by Billy Gryparis.

And then it was art all over the place...

Here are my favourites, plus useful links to check out the artists at your own convenience.
A multicoloured embroidered canvas by Dafni Barbageorgopoulou.

A painting by Apostolos Georgiou, my art professor in architecture school.


Two amazing portraits by Adriana Molder.

A painted-on map by Josh Dorman.

Two photo portraits by Chantal Michel.


And an unidentified dapper gentleman shot by me because he looked cool.

The dapper gentleman revealed himself via a very kind email. He is Demetris Taliotis, director of APOTHEKE and a blogger at ombion.blogspot.com. Go pay him a visit and say hi from me!

Posts from the two previous years here and here.

And next time, see you there!

You go Miss Athènes

It's the brand new ΣΟΜΦ official website and it's waiting for your clicks.


And here is Mariaflora herself, wearing one of her own designs at 4FashionShake this April, posing for me along with Diane Pernet.

I think she approves, non?

Non important cat post

Yes, it's a slow day. And you know what they say all over the internet, you can never go wrong with a cat.

Especially if it's grey and looks great with all outfits.

The perfect little black dress

It actually exists! And I have it.
Here are 9 reasons why this dress is so perfect:

1. It has the perfect length, the hem just hits the knee.

2. It's classic, ageless and can be worn from early morning to late night, as it's not too revealing.

3. It's by A.L.E. by Attrattivo and I got it from boutique Faltso in Samos. It feels great to support the Greek fashion industry as well as local shop owners.

4. It's a blend of non-stretchy wool and viscose, which is very flattering to the body and makes it perfect for most seasons, plus easy to care for.

5. It has belt loops, a feature very much appreciated by a belt-obsessed girl like me.

6. But it can also be worn sans belt, thanks to the already cinched-in waist.

7. As it's not stretch, it has a very practical zip down the back which reminds me of the way they used to make dresses back in the day.

8. Simple as hell it may be, but it still has some cute, interesting details like the gathers on the left shoulder.

9. And it has pockets. I rest my case.


My only negative observation is this:

Why on earth didn't Attrattivo keep producing this cut, in other fabrics (maybe a summer blend) and other colours? I'd buy at least 3 more versions of it, were they available.

Seriously you Greek companies, you all enjoy scrutinizing ZARA, but you never take a moment to stop, think and use their success to improve your own business.

Why are all these fast fashion companies so successful? Because they listen to what the consumer needs and make it for them. And because of that, they sell tons. So if any of you Greek fashion manufacturers read me, take this in account. Next time a product like that flies off the selves, make more of it. In more colours and in different fabrics. Even if it's for the next season.

And we'll sure as hell buy it.

Black, white, red and green

Pepper that is.

More precisely, whole peppercorns of various colours and other spices that have been residing in my kitchen ever since my friend Greta gave them to me as a gift from her trip in Istanbul. And yes, that's a lot of them.

Especially if you don't actually own a pepper mill. An unfortunate lack of equipment which I decided to fix quickly, given my obsession for spicy stuff and the obvious abundance of supplies. But since I don't have time nor patience to go real-life shopping for anything other than clothes and shoes, I decided to e-commerce my way out of my spice problem.I took advantage of a special free shipping offer that Greek online shop Buldoza had going on a couple of weeks ago and placed my order.

Since I like to mix my peppers, Ι decided to get one dark wood pepper mill for my black/red/green/white pepper mix and a mill-and-salt-shaker set to keep on the table for plain black pepper and salt, all by German manufacturer Fackelmann.

Oh, and a pair of American Vintage lounge track bottoms. What, you thought I could actually order online from a shop that offers clothes too and not get something from that department as well?

The stuff arrived in four days.
I am very pleased with the small mill, but sadly the large one didn't stand up to my expectations. It grinds poorly and delivers one third of the quantity compared to the small one. I'm actually thinking of placing an order for an extra couple of single small ones for my various pepper mixes.

And maybe this time I'll combine my order with this cute stripy top.

Mum's skirts

I know you're already seen all these pictures of me wearing my mum's skirts before. I just thought that for mother's day it would be blog-appropriate to give her a big thanks for saving all those clothes in the attic.

Thanks mum!

First pic shot by me, original post here.
Second pic, shot by Thalia, original post here.
Third pic shot by Nells, original here.

Swap NOT Shop

Today is Saturday.

What a great day for all of us to go through out closets with a sharp eye, weed out the stuff that no longer fits, has bored us to death or simply takes too much space from the stuff we really love, give it a good wash and hang it to dry just in time to swap it tomorrow.That's right, the swap-NOT-shop team is ready to roll once again, this Sunday May 8th from 14:00 to 21:00 in the garden of 6DOGS.

The deal is that you bring one bag of clean clothes and shoes and you swap it for a bag of whatever you can find. There will also be a bench with tools and materials for you to customize your finds, in case the inspiration hits you right on the spot. Plus, designer CorBo will be there to help you get it straight. And then we can have coffee. Sunday loveliness.

Unconventional chic by Lacoste GIVEAWAY

Who doesn't know that little green crocodile?

Much like Thalia, I too used to see it all the time on my dad's polo shirts and button downs. To be honest, I wasn't very fond of it it at that time. Being a little girl I found the image of a crocodile with a wide-open mouth full of scary teeth kinda intimidating. A kitten would have worked much better, four-year-old me thought.

Years passed and my perception changed. Now I find polo shirts just perfect for the base of any outfit, especially in this kind of mid-season weather, when it's too early for flimsy, sleeveless tops but yet too warm to completely cover up with heavy fabrics and long sleeves.

Plus I just love the feel of piqué cotton.

So when Lacoste invited Elena, Thalia and me to participate in their new unconventional chic campaign, we were quite excited!

The whole campaign is based around the timeless appeal of the simple white polo shirt.
Lacoste has set up a special pop-up kiosk on the 3rd floor of The Mall Athens.

There you can use the special computer program to put together your own unconventional chic look based around the simple white polo, upload it directly to your account on facebook and also print it out to take it with you.
And most importantly, by answering three easy questions about the campaign and registering, you instantly win a €30 gift check to use at the Lacoste shop that same day! Hurry up though, the kiosk will be there until May 17th.

But there's more, so read on.

Locoste invited us to do the same thing in real life, by putting together our own unconventional chic looks using anything we wanted from the store.


Take three bloggers...

let them go wild them inside the Lacoste shop...

and interpret unconventional chic each in their own unique way!


I couldn't decide if I wanted to include the pink polka dot scarf or not, so here are both my versions:

The unconventional...


and the chic!

And here's the really big news:
By commenting here on this post you could win a €100 gift check courtesy of Lacoste for you Fashion Architect readers to spend in any of their shops in Greece!

Winner will be chosen using a random generator. The giveaway ends on Friday, May 13th. Don't forget to include your email if it's not visible on your google account so I will be able to contact you!

Plus, you can also participate on the giveaways hosted by Thalia and Elena as well, to improve your chances of winning.

Comment away and good luck everyone!

*happy update*
After entering all commenters with legitimate emails in an excel spreadsheet, removing duplicates (you naughty kids) and running a random number generator I am happy to announce that the winner of the €100 gift check is...

Chara
(congrats girl, I've already emailed you the details)

Thank you everyone who entered, and of course, Lacoste.