New Xmas Kid

New Kid is the brand that I presented to you some months ago (re-read post here). These past few months, Rachel started also the market section in the official webpage and just for your pleasure this weekend you can buy all shoes (except model Dreamcore), with a discount of 50%! Just type CHRISTMAS as check out.

As for me, yesterday night I found myself at Rachel's studio where I bought these goodies and also had the pleasure of seeing for the first time the Fall/Winter 2012 collection. Stay tuned because we are talking about some good stuff! 

Remember Tomorrow

Ioanna Kourbela is a Greek designer that happens to be a personal favorite! Few days ago I received not only the current season's Fall/Winter 11-12 lookbook from which you see my 3 most desired looks above, but also a very pleasant surprise (that unluckily for me, luckily for you I cannot attend).

Save the date! Sunday 18th December at three o'clock at Andrianou 109 and Hatzimihali 12 str, all season's xmas bazaar 50-70% off plus a super contest organized by Athens Voice for two male and two female complete Ioanna Kourbela looks as christmas gifts!

Madame Shou Shou

Thanks to Tonia, some days ago I discovered a new Greek brand under the name "Madame Shou Shou".

Initially dragged by the careless-colorful-so-Greek mood of the photoshoots for the first two collections, I wanted to learn more about the designer Elina Kordali. For this reason, I decided to ask her in person. Enjoy the interview and don't forget to visit her fb page for more details on her collections!

" I have studied Fashion design at Instituto Marangoni in Milan and afterwards I did a Master in fashion styling at IED in Barcelona. Madame Shou Shou started on April 2011. The 2nd winter collection is already in stores

Usualy I name my clothes after the people I love most,my favourite piece from my winter collection is a brown jacket which i named after my most loved person in my life , Paul.

All the fabrics of my collections as well as the production are 100% "made in Greece". From the very beginning I knew that I wanted it to be this way. I don't know if it will be a positive decision but at least I'm happy to be helping even like this, these difficult times.

In the beginning it was very difficult to find the contacts, but now I can definitely say that I am satisfied both for the price and quality of the materials I'm using.

Designer or Stylist?...

I am a designer but in all the photoshoots I realise how much my studies and my knowledge of styling have helped me. I think that my Fall/Winter collection combines casual with theatrical. All the clothes are made of very soft and comfortable fabrics while at the same time their lines are very romantic as if created in the past eras.

I love traveling, I am leaving in  a few days for one month round trip in South America. I think that this trip will make me more inspired that why the Summer Collection 2012 will have a lot of influences of these places...

A webpage as well as the eshop of Madame Shou Shou will be soon online so stay tuned!

pic source: all pics taken from Madame Shou Shou's fb page

Forte_Forte

Forte_Forte is designed and produced in Italy by Giada Forte and Paolo Forte (double the forte and you get a brand name!).

Some more info about the brand, as I found in the Tranoï webpage, is that the collections are made exclusive with Italian fabrics rich in special finishings and lovely hand-made details. Furthermore all pieces are embellished by precious embroidered labels, decorated with tiny enchanting jewel charms, and sold in small perfumed bags.

find out more about the brand in the official site!

DElight S/S 2012

At the same time that I'm burying in the back of the closet all the summer clothes and try desperately to find some warm Winter alternatives, DElight publish their Spring/Summer 2012 collection's lookbook! Rather familiar feeling, instant DElight recognition and some very well structured shirts and jackets from what I can tell so far!

Above are my 3 most favorite pieces! Follow DElight on Facebook and like yours.

Lazzari

Lazzari is an Italian brand with -apparently- really cute clothes that I discovered some days ago! What you see above is the lookbook of the Spring/Summer 2011 collection which I know, is already a past collection but I couldn't help but post these pictures as I really like the color pallet and the concept!

Pastels seem to be in trend even for the next Spring/Summer 2012 so I'm thinking of embracing it even during Winter!

Whyte_Bianco di Partenza

15 students from ISIA-Polimoda's Fashion Design course presented their creations a few days ago at the Contemporary Centre of Art EX3! Fellow students, teachers and the fashion crowd of Florence was there to see live the creations of the new designers!

As a teacher later mentioned to me ISIA is a more artistic institute and that's the reason why the 15 students presented more conceptual collections than stictly wearable ones. Here you can see my three most favorite collections.

Giulia Betti collection's name was 263 and was a mix of the Red Riding Hood and fairytale animal creatures!
 

Ieliena Mojarova with the collection "Wing Walkers" that was highly applaused

and the most wearable collection according to me, Sarah Proietti's Femdom

Each student had a unique theme, music soundtrack and presentation something that added extra points to the whole event!

Last picture taken from ISIA Design official site.

Made in...

As this is a rather personal blog, I wanted to share with you a change of my way of thinking in regards to a reality that is more and more experienced around me lately. I live in Florence for more than 9 months now and what is really obvious is how proud the Italians are for their famous etiquette “made in Italy”. If this etiquette is stronger or weaker than before is a matter that I wouldn’t like to mention right now but at least the etiquette remains strong in the minds of everyone as synonym to high craftsmanship and quality.

 What I realized these past few months is how much Greece is strong in imports. Like the fact that we had Starbucks way before Italians have had (the first Starbucks is rumored to open in Milano soon) and Inditex brands such as Uterque and Oysho that opened in Athens before approaching other more important European cities first. Well, nothing is wrong with that for sure and personally I felt rather proud that I had something that others didn’t have yet, but in such a plentiful environment is normal that we…well I, forgot something.

…How little I cared if something was made in Greece or abroad. And here I am today reading about these foreign brands such as The Row of the infamous Olsen twins that is predominantly manufactured in the USA. As Ashley Olsen says, "I really believe in our ability to be able to create here and utilize the skills that people have here. The skill set is here... But whether it's cars or clothing, I believe in manufacturing as close to home as possible." Then, there is another “celebrity” brand that is doing really well, Twenty 8 Twelve of the Miller sisters that for the first time this Autumn/Winter season they attempted to manufacture on home turf with a limited edition collection exclusively “made in England”.

 Made in…should count a lot more these days and as fashion is concerned, we shouldn’t forget about the existence of Greek brands. From Attrativo to Badila and from Ioanna Kourbella to the new generations of Greek designers, we should care a little bit more about our choices and consuming habits!

 p.s. well I also remembered this post of dearest Alecca Rox. Check if you haven’t done yet!

pic sources: style.com, vogue.co.uk

Ancient Greek Sandals

Almost a month after the last post and as I'm still in Greece enjoying my last holi-days here, I stroll around Athens in search of what's new and what's been missed all these months that I've been abroad! I have to admit that I catch myself behaving like a tourist and I visit shops around the centre in search of genuin "Greek" things, clothes and...hmm food!

These internet-free days that have passed, I realised that the most precious piece of clothing for summer is a pair of sandals and when out of a chance I found the site "Ancient Greek Sandals" I thought that the idea of such a site was very smart especially for the people who live abroad and don't have the chance to visit the area around Plaka and Monastiraki!

The sandals named after Greek godesses vary from real classics (if you go camping you'll definatelly recognise the "most-wanted" of the list) to originals with more elevated design details! The sandals above were my personal favourites and although being a little bit overprised for me, still the fact that they are designed by Christina Martini who has worked for designers like Vuitton and Balenciaga make them special.

Holidays!

The long expected holidays are finally here. Ahhh, summer in Greece how much I missed you!

lemon trees

Forgotten in my hard disc's folders, was this picture of the earrings I had bought during a previous Tell a Story almost a year ago... Never had the chance to actually wear them but thanks to the dearests Stella (McCartney) and Miuccia (Prada), when I come back home, I will dig them out and I'll be dressed according to the summer fruit trend as well!

Funny!

Travel diary

a quick stop in London...
and back on traveling!
...being a tourist is so much fun! These past days (hmm..should I say weeks?) I'm traveling non stop around Tuscany. No wonder why everyone loves this region, there are so many places worth visiting. So please don't be cruel with me, this blog was never supposed to be a travel blog but it's summer, it's warm, it's worth traveling more and caring less for your outfits...

Just put on a dress, your sandals and off you go! Right?

p.s. zara's changing room is another very exotic destination. especially when trying on those yellow platform sandals! what can I say, a fashblogger is a fashblogger.

Yohji Yamamoto/ Fashion in Motion

Ten days ago and while in London, I decided to visit the V&A's current exhibition on Yohji Yamamoto. I recently started reading his autobiography "My dear bomb" and I thought it would be amazing if I could have also a visual of his previous and most important creations. The museum features over 60 garments as well as a timeline and installations of his wider creative output.

Unfortunately, I reached V&A 45 minutes before its closure, but I was extremely lucky as I got in time to see an exclusive catwalk presentation of Yamamoto's Spring/Summer 2011 collections for womenswear and menswear. Menswear collection this time was inspired by the V&A textile archives so this was THE place to present a collection like this.

As the press release mentions "The garments were modelled by real-life couples, an idea the designer first incorporated into his Spring/Summer 1999 menswear show. Yamamoto likes to observe the way people make the clothes their own, stating that he tries to create a garment to 80% in order to leave room for his wearers to add their own final 20%"

The fact that the models were actually real-life couples, filled with electric vibes the room as the couples were hugging each other, held each others' hands and couldn't stop smiling -nervously but actually so realistic! They even stopped in the middle of the catwalk for a couple of minutes as if they were taken a "family picture" by the photographers!

p.s. Today was the last day that you could visit the exhibition. Find out more about it here.

Pitti June 2011/ Streetstyle

Last week, Pitti Fair turned Florence once more into the most fashionable place on earth, proving most of all that men can actually be well dressed. Well I never doubted but Pitti is a rare occasion where totally well-dressed men are e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e to be seen! After a while you get used to this sight and when Pitti is over, Florence seems once again average normal! What a pity!

Of course not only men visit the Fair. Many beautiful ladies were present as well! The three ladies that you see in the picture above were according to me the most interesting each one for a particular reason! Lady no1 for being brave enough to match stripes and gingham print in bold red (hmmm, I predict a trend here), lady no2 for her beautiful scarf-turned-belt and lady no3 for the inspiring colorblocking!

Alessandra, LP33.3 and Dimitris

These days my mail is full of look books -some of the current season, some others already of the Fall collections.

As Florence is burning hot, I prefer to not show you yet jackets and heavy fabrics. Instead as you are already familiar with Alessandra Modarelli, LP33.3 and Dimitris Petrou, I decided to unite Italy, Australia and Greece under one post and show you my most favorite pieces of their current Summer collections!

BIANCOCO' is the new summer collection of designer Alessandra Modarelli and is consisted of knitted white cotton. In the first picture of course you get to see one more amazing turban! The cardi is perfect for the summer nights in some Greek island!
LP33.3 comes from Australia as I have already mentioned in the past! Their clothes may seem simple but I find their lines and inspirations always interesting! For SS11 they got inspired by the work of Australian artist Rosalie Gascoigne and the erotic Shunga woodblock prints of 18th century Japan.

For the end I kept one of my most favorite Greek designers, Dimitris Petrou. Two months ago he presented his SS11 collection and it may seem as if it was presented too late for some of you but actually this way is much more efficient for the Greek clientele. The collection under the theme Theros, was consisted of vintage scarves, jean and leather mixed with other fine materials. These two looks were my personal favorites but I would love to wear some of the garments that the designer designed for men as well!

Tag.your.closet

You tag your friends on facebook, why not start tagging all the clothes inside your closet? That way you'll have a virtual wardrobe ready for you to pick your next -and maybe forgotten?- picks and others will get inspired by your closet!

Tag.your.closet is Greek, it's brand new and it's a great place to discover how the Greek style bloggers-and not only- like to get dressed, find their new purchases, the exact prices and sometimes even a link that will lead you directly on buying that t-shirt that was love at first sight!

Well, it's also a great place to find exactly what I wore on that LuisaviaRoma party I attended some days ago!

Have fun and start tagging!

LuisaviaRoma party/ Museo La Specola

So, as promised here's the post of yesterday's Luisa via Roma "Firenze4Ever" party! This time it didn't take place at Luisa via Roma store, but instead at the Museum of Zoology and Natural History, La Specola.

To match with the place, the dress code was "Animalier" and it was the first time that I had to attend a theme-event. Girls of course proved how much they still love the leopard print trend in everything! Leopard dresses, shoes, bags, shirts, skirts and belts could be seen everywhere and men in order to be as fashionable used much more their fantasy with leopard bow ties and pocket squares!
The event started with a live dancing performance that reminded me a lot of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's dream with the dancers mingling and dancing among guests throughout the night!

Later on the party continued on the open terrace of the Museum and of course it was a pleasant surprise for me as Florence is full of hidden gardens that sometimes you have no way of discovering as most of them are private!
The blogger-friends of the evening were Amy from Sea Sage, Fosco Giulianelli from The Fashionist (-What is an Italian doing in Sweden? -There's no better place for a man that loves blondes =D ), Zahra from Trendy Zahra and Chrysa from Stories and Sequins that to my surprise is Greek and was the winner of Luisa's contest for the participation in the Style Lab!

Among the others oh-so-famous bloggers she got to see first the Autumn/Winter collections that Luisa via Roma will be featuring next season, style her looks and of course get photographed in them!
Check her blog for the pictures and of course congratulate her for winning.

Not pictured but also seen yesterday night, was another blogger that comes from Greece and currently lives in Florence! Katia Fourtouni from Style on Book.
SuperDuper hats designers Veronica and Ilaria were once more present at the party and I had to take one more pic of them and their lovely hats!
The Oriental beauty above seen, caught everyone's attention with her Burberry studded trench coat and amazing make up and long earrings! As for me, I chose to wear a vintage white silk skirt with an H&M body and match it with light pink accessories!