Slatchel candy

Back in July (queue "how time passes" sigh) we were invited by Greek luggage company Lycsac to see their brand new line of products.




Slatchel is the name, because the are satchel bags by Lycsac and all.




They are made in Greece from plasticized fabric, keeping their price down compared to similar leather models and making them perfect for people who don't like to support the leather industry (I can think of a few, including Ms Thalia above).




Stephanie got the green-and-red-tartan Epatia model...




...while I opted for the Barbie-pink Arsinoe.


I find the fact they are named after Greek mythology female characters rather amusing (and I secretly hope there is a Pinelopi model in the future).




But even more fun is the fact that the most recent Union Jack premium satchel is named Elizabeth. If I ever encounter one dangling from a shoulder I will make sure to follow protocol and address it as Your Majesty.

Summer past

The curse of the person holding the camera is that they are never in the picture. This is a post celebrating the summer namedays & birthdays of my friends, in lieu of mine. Let autumn begin.

Samos International Film Festival

I'm still in Samos.

Good for me, as the 1st Samos International Film Festival - Between Two Continents is starting tomorrow and I will get to enjoy all kinds of amazing international film screenings on the beach, along with my friends.

My friend Pan Pan is also invited to play live on Saturday, so yay for that too.

Here's the amazing teaser video:



And here's the programme:

August 23th 

11.00 / Birds by Aristophanes / Teen Theatre // Samos Town

21.00 / Opening Ceremony // Pythagorion Beach

21.30 / Paradise / Panagiotis Fafoutis / Screening // Pythagorion Beach

00.00 / Opening party // Mezza Volta / Samos Town

August 24th

11.00 / Masterclass with Panagiotis Fafoutis // Garden Cafe / Samos Town

21.00 / The Building Manager / Pericles Hoursoglou / Screening // Pythagorion Beach

23.00 / Head-on / Fatih Akin / Screening // Pythagorion Beach

August 25th

11.00 / Masterclass with Pericles Hoursoglou // Garden Cafe / Samos Town

18.00 / Birds by Aristophanes / Teen Theatre // Samos Town

21.00 / La source des Femmes / Radu Mihaileanu / Screening // Pythagorion Beach

23.30 / Io sono l΄ amore / Luca Guadagnino / Screening // Pythagorion Beach

22.30 / Yiafka - Pan Pan / Concert // Karlovasi High School

August 26th 

21.00 / Closing Ceremony // Pythagorion Beach

21.30 / Soul Kitchen / Fatih Akin / Screening // Pythagorion Beach

00.00 / Closing Party // Escape Music Club / Samos Town

Feel like you didn't get enough holidays this summer and need an extra weekender in order to survive the upcoming season? Here's your chance.

For more info visit SIFF.gr and see the programme in Greek here. Facebook event here.

Blue + Yellow = Green

The fact that I'm not posting as much as I have planned to, due to vacation time, doesn't mean that I'm not sticking to the Fasting From Fast Fashion experiment. I've already put together many outfits and even shopped a bit, all without touching fast fashion items.

Living out of a suitcase sure helps.


Oh, and Spyros says hi.



No, Spyros is not fat, he's just hairy (that's what he has instructed me to say).


91 Bright Yellow and 93 Emerald by Korres


Light blue top, Attrattivo. Floral skirt, 80's vintage. Belt, Fornarina. Brown leather bag, Longchamp. Green sunglasses, RETROSUPERFUTURE. Tan leather and snakeskin print sandals, Bronx.

Big thanks to my sister for being the photographer this time.

Summer Korres

Korres MANGO BUTTER LIPSTICK SPF 10 in Coral
The most wearable orange I've come along. Plus, it's super moisturizing, if you like me, have lips that are chapped not only in winter. And is includes an SPF 15. Summer staple I tell you.


Korres MULTIVITAMIN COMPACT POWDER
Because my skin is more like MVP3 during summer, but will fade back to MVP2 by October. One has to plan forward if one wants one's forehead shine-free.


Korres Myrtle and Citronella Emulsion
In yet another hopeful attempt to tell mosquitos "thou shall not pass".


It is suitable for kids over 3 too, hence the dino. Ross Geller would approve.

Coming up next week:
An epic post about our visit to the Korres factory here in Athens, Greece. Just letting it sizzle a bit longer till you're all back from touring the Greek islands and all. Soon...

Trinkets, bows and leather

This summer's favourite.

Quality leather, handmade in Greece and hand-embellished in Samos by my good friend Eva.

Pink waves

This is the outfit of my first day on this experiment.

Funny thing is, all those things have already been in my wardrobe for at least two or three years already, so it kinda resembles that project Stella was talking about, of only wearing outfits with clothes older than 18 months.

All outfit details on the end of this post!

Dress, DC. Grey sandals, CAMPER. Blue handbag, Longchamp. Green sunglasses, RETROSUPERFUTURE. Gold circle ring, Prigkipo. Black reversible leather belt, vintage.

Fasting from fast fashion

Hi there. I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but life happened. Sorry. Now that we have this covered, let's move along to the fun part of this post.

This morning, as I was stuffing my suitcase for my summer vacation in my home island, a thought came to mind: I have lots of high-street or fast-fashion clothes in my closet. Maybe too much.

And fast fashion is bad.

However, I am also the proud owner of  items by local and international non-fast-fashion labels, several second-hand and vintage items, as well as some designer stuff, both mainstream or independent. Surely it should be perfectly possible for me to get dressed for a whole month without utilizing any fast-fashion-produced items.

So, half an hour before I was due to head to the airport, I emptied my half-made suitcase and started all over again, this time no fast-fashion-items whatsoever.

A vacation is a perfect opportunity to try this experiment. During holidays we live out of a suitcase anyway, so a limited choice of options is the norm.

As the idea for this experiment is relatively fresh, I haven't had the time nor the determination to list every single one of my suitcase's contents today, but I'm planning to do so in the following days.

As an appetizer, here's a clue of what I have packed:
10 dresses  
21 tops
4 skirts
1 pair of shorts
4 pairs of flats
4 pairs of heels/wedges
and 4 handbags

A necessary disclaimer here: I'm no expert in determining which label should be considered fast-fashion and which not. The choices I made for this experiment were purely subjective. Specifically, I vetoed all items by Topshop, H&M, the Inditex family and several other similar brands.

And let me tell ya, that was no easy task. Almost all my basic summer tank tops are by H&M and the majority of my skirts are ZARA. Not packing most of my tried-and-tested go-to basics for this vacation felt weird. But experiments are meant to be exiting and force us out of our comfort zone. Restricting given options is known to lead to more creativity.

The image on the top of this post is the whole contents of my suitcase (minus shoes and accessories) just after I unpacked. I will try to post outfit pics each day, plus a complete index of all the items I have packed.

Let the experiment begin.

Ask the folks in purple

So, you think you're an internet geek? So did I...

Along with Dimitris Kalogeropoulos of away.gr and Nikolas Bardakis of neolaia.gr we were the lucky bloggers to unbox and test the new offering by Vodafone Greece. This is what we found out:



Comically huge box and purple-clad cute guys aside, fashion bloggers could really use this.

Ever wondered how you can link your instagram account to your facebook, what image editing programs are available to use on your smartphone or if there's a mobile app that allows you to publish blog posts on the go? Well, the Vodafone Internet Team folks know their geeky stuff and can help out a fashion blogger in distress.

And from what I learned, there will also be some girl geeks on the team. Just make sure your outfit looks good against purple.

Under the sun

Old, new and essential, partly also seen on this feature by Miss Bloom.

Green sunglasses, RETROSUPERFUTURE bought two years ago on YOOX. Blue sunglasses, bought this year from SHOP ERMOU 112A. Floral fan, ACCESSORIZE.

Absolut Think Tank Awards

My architectural posts have been becoming more and more scarce, so here is some interesting stuff from the Absolut Think Tank Awards that took place on May 29th.



The people awarded for their participation on the Againts All Odds project were:
Giannis Skaltsas, Athens School of Arts
Giorgos Mitroulias, Lecturer at University of Thessaly Architecture School (my school)
Kostas Moraitis, NTUA
and
Maurice Benayoun, New Media Art Professor Paris 8 and the creator of Ecosmosis exhibition

That's him below:


And that's me exploring the exhibition, shot by him:


The Against All Odds project explores social & environmental issues through actions and events like conferences, workshops and talks, with a "bottom up" approach, trying to sensitize the public by making it fully and really participate instead of just observing.

I was lucky enough to sit down and have a very interesting talk with Lina Stergiou and Maurice Benayoun (the people behind Against All Odds) on the day of the exhibition opening and the Absolut Think Tank Awards, and here are some interesting things that stayed with me:

• Architecture is social design
• The collective spirit and openness are lacking and the project is looking to bring them back (hence the title Against All Odds)
• Constrains help us produce unexpected solutions
• AAO is exploring new tracks, not necessarily expecting any immediate results

Also be sure to check out The Art Collider, an open project facilitating the cross-polination of global works and the research that informs them. Basically, it's a social network where people like architects, artists and social scientists put together artworks. It's fascinating how Maurice Benayoun's work is questioning the relationship between the works and the viewer and how the individual can have a collective impact, which translates to the Against All Odds agenda.

If you missed the Absolut Think Tank Awards day and exhibition opening, no worries. Ecosmosis is open until June 30, at Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Center.

Just don't miss it.

Feel your heart, take care of it

Feel your heart is an initiative by Coca-Cola light aiming to educate women on taking care of their heart's health. To help rise funds for this cause, Coca-Cola light has partnered with Greek fashion brand BSB for the creation of the scarf you see below.



The scarf costs €19, it is made of pure cotton - perfect for summer nights - and you can find it in all BSB shops. But most importantly, all the proceeds from its sales of the scarf will go towards the EELIA foundation,  to help the cause of this initiative.

So, on Tuesday we found ourselves invited at the BSB headquarters, for the presentation of the final design that we fashion bloggers helped chose.

Look who else was there:

[pic stolen from Thalia's post]

More info at niosetinkardiasou.gr

Gimme sandals

New sandals from Blanco.
Now, can it please stop raining already so I can wear them?