Another Shopping mall in Athens

The Metro Mall Athens opened today her doors at Metrostation Agios Dimitrios.

Allthough the temperature today doesn't remind us of winter, entering the main entrance you will be welcomed by playing snowmen and Christmas trees all around.

The mall exits of 4 floors with at the ground floor and the highest café and fast food.

H&M gave gift cheques, a small envelop with a credit card inside for her visitors and Blanco has for all customers today a discount of 10%.

This new mall is full of retail shops of chains like Zara, H&M, Benetton, BSB, Attrativo, Toi&Moi and so on.

And some details
  

Without appointment you can get your nails fixed at Fairynails 

  

At ΠΙ&ΦΙ you can get your shoes fixed.

And my favorite Belgian Pralines!



Miss & Mr. Tourism 2011

Models Academy organized last night at Messiah in Glyfada a national beauty contest.
Eleven female and 7 male models competed to gain the title Miss and Mister Tourism.
George Koutoulias, owner of Models Academy, provided a well organized evening and gave a chance to new models to show their potentials. Not only the main title was given but also titles like Miss Teenager, Miss Princess, Mister Photogenic, Miss European Union Greece and Miss Young Tourism.

Katerina Skourli, Miss Young 2009, was the hostess of the night.

And here the models of the night in order of appearance. The dresses are by Zinas Designers Clothes.
Alexandra Panagiotou - Jenny Georgouli - Aliki Milantou - Stella Kagia

Penelopi Stamatakou - Yianna Dimaki - Lydia Makryoniti - Elena Kostopoulou

Afroditi Barba - Danaï Olga Bigkou - Katrin Nikitaki



A beauty contest without lingerie or beachwear is like a fashion show without clothes so the models showed twice some lingerie and undergarments.




And the winner of the title Mr. Tourism is Giannis Vidalis.


And the winner of the title Miss Tourism 2011 is Jenny Georgouli from Samos,
with first runner up Elena Kostopoulou from Athens and second runner up Penelopi Stamatakou from Mani.


Jenny Georgouli will represent Greece at the international beauty contest, Miss Tourism Planet from the 28th of June until the 14th of July 2011 in Athens.

8th BAZART

Today started the 8th BAZART. Twenty-five artists present their work, some for the first time. Artists participating in this year exhibition are from Greece and from abroad. They cover a wide range of artistic expression that starts from the traditional painting and reaches to applied arts, including projects that define the beginning of the relationship of art as vital and necessary.



The pieces of art are paintings, sculptures, photographs, jewelry, decorative objects and even clothes.
Some artists caught my eye and I catched their work with my camera.

Pericles Kondylatos' work we had just seen during the City Fashion & Fusion exhibition (see previous post) and now he takes part with some of the following pieces of art.

He studied fine arts at the Surrey institute of Art & Design and did his masters at Camberwell College of Arts in London.
His artistic expression is the starting point for painting, but talks with the construction sculpture and photography. Without obeying the "restriction" of the canvas extends the work on projects that impress both the specific use of color and the unexpected forms.

Kyveli Vezani was born in Athens in 1982. She studied cognitive science at Yale University and interactive telecommunications at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
She lives and works in Athens, where she started a line of handmade bags and jewelry called Knock, which refers to the expression “knock on wood”.

Yianna Karvela designs and manufactures jewelry of metals such as titanium, brass, copper and silver. Forms are sometimes abstract, sometimes linear, sometimes robust and others with a sense of humor, always imaginative and unique.

Ioanna Koulouri is a jewelry and accessories designer for "meet the cat". A concept store in Xalandri, aiming to present and highlight new emerging Greek clothing and accessories designers.
She studied Statistics and Insurance Science at the University of Piraeus, while attending several sessions in applied arts. After graduating she worked in advertising until 2005 when she decided to change career path and founded her own company "meet the cat".
I loved the way she used an essential piece of clothing, the zipper in an inspiring way.

Panos Apergis is a fashion designer and known for his costumes for cinema and television. His designs are presented at this BAZART. The photos of the fashion show are from Fashion Week Athens fall/winter 2010/2011.



And so many more artists to mention, if you like to see them all pay a visit to the exhibition and get an impression by yourself. The information of the artists I got from www.m-art.gr/space. For more information and of the other artists visit their website.

Woman as Muse

'From nine divine muses to one of fresh and blood' is the entrance sentence at the exhibition Woman as Muse in museum Herakleidon.

An inspiring exhibition with many works of famous artists. Among them Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. But also greek artists like Γιάννη Μόραλη, Γιώργη Βαρλάμου, Γιώργου Οικονομίδη, Μάρκου Ζαβιτζιάνου, Εμμανουήλ Ζέπου and Δημητρίου Γαλάνη.

Like fashion designers also artists have their muse.
Alexandra van der Staaij, curator of the exhibition, pointed me out that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec portraited as one of the first a woman in men's clothes: Mary Hamilton.

Mary Hamilton worked in the world of entertainment in Paris during the Belle Époque. She entertained her public with monologues, would always be dressed in men's clothing on stage, with pants, a coat and a hat, to the delight of the not so shocked patrons of the café-concerts.

Like the fashion admirers among us we know that only in the 1920's women started to wear pants...as precursor Coco Chanel. The jacket at the lithograph rings bells for some designer's collection. Greek designers like Christoforos Kotentos and Lukas use this kind of shoulders. Would Lautrec have been their inspiration?


Henri's muse was Yvette Guilbert. She wore dresses that accentuated her unfashionable slender figure and long black gloves. Standing motionless on stage, only gesturing with her arms, she perfomed bold lyrics in a way that resembled a monologue, wherefore she was often called a 'diseuse' (sayer).
She and Henri were friends, despite her complaints about the way he depicted her, accentuating her chin, tight lips and prominent nose.


An other interesting lithograph is of Edmée Lescot. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec shows her as a Spanish dancer. She was known for her perfomances of all forms of Spanish dance, such as the bolero, the fandango and even the tango.


Herewith I like to thank Alexandra van der Staaij for her time to show me on the last day of the exhibition all the details of the works.

Today the museum re-opened with a new exhibition of Edvard Munch. Also he has works with women...
www.herakleidon-art.gr

Feeling Human's Love yourself fashion show by July Two

The Feeling Human team presented their 7th event for 2010. A fashion show by JULYTWO with the aim to raise awareness about the problem of eating disorders and promote the work of ANASA (an association that supports people with eating disorders in Greece).
It is strongly assumed that the fashion industry has a superficial idea of beauty and what is considered to be perfect. Now more than ever fashion icons have become role-models for the youth. The point is to show that real beauty is being healthy and to discourage the idea that thin is beautiful.


The event started with a video presentation created by Olga Tzimou and performed by Zeta Douka portraying the real emotions connected with eating disorders and to prove that this battle can be won. Have a look for the video at http://vimeo.com/16827057
(Andreas Stigas, Heather Nomi Tshuma and Olga Tzimou)
During the fashion show AVITH provided live music.

Ioanna Christidou and Konstantinos Stefanou for JULYTWO presented their spring/summer collection 2011 with professional models like Andreani Tsafou and Evelina Kazantzoglou but also with general women, all with the correct BMI (body mass index). A collection with bright colours, geometric prints and challenging patterns. Also they showed romantic wedding dresses and finishing with the designs for the Feeling Human project.






To underline the effort against eating disorders during the event you could eat some nice sweets...! Donna Chalas of Donna's Bridal Sweets made and offered these cupcakes and we could feast again!




Yvonne Ivana Bosjnak and Heather Nomi Tshuma as the founders of Feeling Human and the organisators of the event made this evening to a success and I am looking forward to their next event.

Under the bridge

During fall Athens Photo Festival 2010 is presenting works of photographic artists at several locations in Athens. On Friday the 19th of November was the opening of the largest exhibition 'Under the bridge' of this festival. Twenty two photographers and 13 newcomers are presenting their works at the Olympic buildings at Delta Faliro.

The most three interesting photos and artists to me are the following:

These photos are made by Polixeni Papapetrou in her serie Between worlds. She is a photographic artist who explores the relationship between history, contemporary culture and identity. Dress-ups and the performance of identity is a main factor in her works.
In this serie she explores the magical affinity that children has with animals and the parallels in their worlds.

This photo is from the China story by Harvey Benge. His photos explore the strange anthropology of cities. The unusual and ignored of the human landscape. He asks the viewer to re-examinate the opinion that photos as documentary are a full representation of the subject.

James Johnson-Perkins and Dimosthenis Agrafiotis brougth a living subject to the exhibition to give more impact to their works.
Two artists with a mutual inspiration of Venice around 1500 and reflecting the human ingenuity in times of crisis.

The exhibition is until the 12th of December (www.hcp.gr).