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?

Ecosmosis

Architecture, Art and Design employ pioneering means to help promote a social and environmental awareness.

The Exhibition Ecosmosis that will take place at the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre from the 30th of May to the 30th of June, brings to a close the Against All Odds series of actions and events under the title Ethics / Aesthetics.

The opening of the exhibition takes place today, Tuesday May, 29th and will also include Absolut Athens Think-Tank Awards, an honoring event sponsored by Absolut, for the Greek and international students that participated in the AAO's academic workshops.

Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Center
Pireos Street 254, Tavros
May 30 – June 30, 2012

More info at aaoproject.org

Prigkipo

Prigkipo sells her beautiful trinkets on Etsy, but if you live in Athens, you can also find her today at Athens Video Art Festival on Agias Irinis Sq.

Look at the new finger bling I scored yesterday here.

H&M's collections for a cause

H&M Fashion Against AIDS, Wateraid and Conscious collections. Fast fashion is trying to do better, and Guardian is also noticing.