Ioanna Kourbela opens 23rd Athens Fashion Week

With medieval influences Ioanna Kourbela presented her autumn/winter 2018-2019 collection during the opening night of the 23rd Athens Xclusive Designers Week in the city center of Athens.

Ioanna Kourbela's inspiration for her collection "Arch Echoes" was by french medieval heroin Joan of Arc. Dedicated to all the women driven by inner voices to take action that exceed the allowable, to all the power women of the world.
The greek fashion designer created a collection of modern 'armor' made of leather, with embroidery and metal details. A collection that highlights the female power and it is an inspirational journey.

Ciytlink opened her doors for the opening evening of Athens Xclusive Designers Week.

About Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc or in french Jeanne d'Arc and also known as 'The Maid of Orléans" or "La Pucelle d’Orléans" was one of the first power women in the Middle Ages. She was a peasant girl, born in 1412 who, believing that she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War.

Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned to death by the English and their French collaborators as a heretic. She became the greatest national heroine of her compatriots, and her achievement was a decisive factor in the later awakening of French national consciousness. (Continuing reading on Britannica,)
In 1920 she was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.

About Ioanna Kourbela

Ioanna studied fashion design and she attended various design courses on stage & costume design. Her collections reveal different aspects of a minimalist aesthetic, and the essential is the return to the charm of the classical harmony. After graduating, in 2003 she joined the family business «Kourbelas Knitwear» and presented her first collection named ‘Ioanna Kourbela’. With Ioanna as creative director, the company develops three distinct collections: Female & Male Exclusive Collections, Ioanna Kourbela Accessories Collection as well as the timeless Basics Collection, for which she was presented this year with the Emerging Designer Award at the international PURE exhibition in London. Moreover, the sur mesure bridal collection “White Collection” places Ioanna at the map of haute couture. Her creations can be found all around the world, with more than 100 collaborations and three exclusive boutiques in Greece as well as exports in 21 countries.

Ioanna Kourbela and Tonia Fouseki, the director of AXDW.

Photos courtesy of Studio Panoulis

Flowers, stripes and beads @ Madwalk 2018

Madwalk is for me one of the best events in Athens, celebrating music and fashion. Not an ordinary catwalk show but more than 10 designers and brands show their collection while the artist performs.

I love the vibe, maybe not the best way to show your collection to the fashion press but for sure a great way to show your collection to potential clients. 

Flowers, stripes, black and white, beads and sequins, all present at the catwalk. From casual to evening wear, for men and women. So in other words for every one something likeable. 

Now I wanted to show you may favourite look but I decided that for you it is more interesting to see more looks. So scroll down and enjoy!

These first three designs are by Stelios Koudounaris, he impressed me by showing flower prints as I know him as a designer with elegance, sensitivity and conceptual patterns, highlighting the female body.

Dimitris Petrou impressed with his colour blocking for men and women. The orange suit worn by Sakis Rouvas was an eye catcher. But Dimitris created also an orange suit for women. And daring by combining the classic prince de galles fabric with orange and black. The greek designer used his logo DP for ribbons, belts, bags and fabric for a more personalised touch.

Stylish white outfits from Yvonne Bosnjak.

Lace, beads and workmanship by Vrettos Vrettakos.

Femininity and elegance at Vassilis Zoulias' collection with flower prints and jumpsuits. Jewellery by Pericles Kondylatos.

Cheerful colour combinations at greek fashion brand BSB.

Bold prints at Apostolos Mitropoulos

And outsider Pepe Jeans London with a casual collection. I enjoyed the styling at this show!

Did you see my post on the participating artists?

Photos courtesy of Studio Panoulis.

MADWALK 2018 - The Fashion Music Project

Fashion, music, great acts and original appearances are the key words of MADWALK, the well-known fashion music project of Athens. Yesterday evening it was all about appearances.
Fashion designers present their best collections and musicians play the best they can, an evening full impressions.

The charming Mary Synatsaki and Christos Mastoras presented the yearly event.

Fashion designers and brands participated in MADWALK creating each time a different atmosphere with their unique styles, among them Apostolos Mitropoulos, Axel, BSB, Christina Zafeiriou, Dimitris Petrou, Galanu, Madame Shoushou, Pepe Jeans, Stelios Koudounaris, Vassilis Zoulias, Vrettos Vrettakos and Yvonne Bosnjak.

All these designers were accompanied by musicians and singers, like Sakis Rouvas, Elli Kokkinou, Eleni Foureira, Rena Morfi, Demy, Thodoris Marantinis, Andriana Babali, Doretta Papadimitriu and Yianna Terzi.

A photo impression of the event, courtesy of Studio Panoulis.

More on the fashion designers in my next post!

Happiness is a direction

Opening my mailbox I found this great picture about happiness. Reminding me that today we celebrate the International Day Of Happiness. Asking to join the movement for a happier world. Share happiness and be part of something amazing. Happiness is a direction. Probably you know it. Being happy happens more often when you choose to be and when you choose to remove your doubts.
So let's create a world-wide flow of happiness.

Happiness, a mystery that philosophers, writers and thinkers in history have tried to solve. An idea that has remained since Aristotle's years, teaching that "Happiness depends on ourselves".

In addition, recent Harvard University research findings have shown that positive thinking may affect performance and have a positive impact on day-to-day life. Happiness: a pan-human issue that touches all of us. Whatever your approach, one thing is certain: blessings of pleasure of the power of beauty can act like a monopoly towards happiness.

Do you agree with the manifest of Lancome:

So knowing the best is yet to come makes life great!

Photos courtesy of L'Oréal

Fun, femininity and flowers @ H&M for Spring 2018

Andreea Diaconu, Anna Ewers and Imaan Hammam star in the new H&M's campaign while award-winning actors Winona Ryder and Elizabeth Olsen dance in the campaign film.

For Spring 2018 at H&M, fun, feminine and floral-printed pieces take on voluminous shapes for statement-making modern women all around the world. Wardrobe heroes such as flowing dresses, wide-leg trousers, jeans and sophisticated blouses are updated with embroidery, asymmetric hems and cascading ruffles.
Black and white dominate with pops of red and light blue. The H&M Spring 2018 collection will launch in stores and online on 22 March.

To accompany the collection, a special campaign film was made starring Winona Ryder and Elizabeth Olsen. It also features a diverse cast of strong women, including the models Andreea Diaconu, Anna Ewers, Imaan Hammam and Naomi Shimada, and singer/songwriter Andrea Valle.
The film takes us to Buenos Aires, where a celebration of female empowerment and friendship spills out from a local café and into the streets.
Meanwhile, the print campaign, also shot in picturesque Buenos Aires, stars Andreea Diaconu, Anna Ewers and Imaan Hammam.

“It was such a thrill to be in Buenos Aires for the H&M Spring campaign, and more importantly, to be surrounded by such a wonderful cast of strong women. The entire experience was incredibly inspiring,” says Elizabeth Olsen

"I love the way that the campaign really celebrates women in a very authentic way. I found that to be really refreshing and much needed right now in this culture. They are celebrating themselves and each other,”says Winona Ryder.

“It was wonderful to see how all the women on set were able to express their own personalities through the strong yet relaxed shapes of the Spring collection. The voluminous pieces in particular, moved so beautifully in the dance sequences,” said Pernilla Wohlfahrt, H&M’s Design Director.

To catch all the fun, dance moves and fashion, watch the film!

Photos courtesy of H&M

From blogger to the new muse of Lancôme

Every fashion blogger's and influencer's dream is the become the new face or muse of an international brand. Chiara Ferragni, one of the most celebrated personalities in the press and social media, did it!  She is the new face and muse of Lancôme!

In 2009, when she was still living in Milan, she started her lifestyle blog, The Blonde Salad. It has become a benchmark for every Fashionista, thanks to its unique style and aesthetics for fashion. Listening to her intuition, Chiara turned her personal life into a style blog and nine years later, over 11 million fans around the world follow the Italian Influencer in her passion for fashion, her adventures and her journey.

With a European style and mentality, Italian from birth and heart, and Los Angeles by choice, Chiara Ferragni, who is now waiting for her first child, is a beloved personality. This very diversity will be shared with Lancôme, both in Social Media but of course, and through many other actions during the year.

Photo courtesy of L'Oréal

Be authentic and dream @ Harper's Bazaar International Women's Day Summit

Inspiring, informative and connecting. These words came up to me on my way home after attending the first International Women’s Day Summit organised by Harper’s Bazaar and Branded U in Amsterdam.

DeLaMar Theatre in the city center of Amsterdam was packed with ambitious women all eager to learn, to get inspired and to meet other women and share their ideas.

"You don't become what you want, you become what you BELIEVE"  - Oprah Winfrey

Margriet Sitskoorn impressed me by training my brain, not only mine but also all the other women attending the summit. Margriet is a professor in clinical neuropsychology and she gave a convincing lecture on important skills that will lead to success.
About our working memory, our impulse control and our flexibility. Among the tests was a maths test. At the end we had to announce the answer but what I heard was wrong. What happened? Couldn’t I count anymore? Pfff, my result was correct by why most women gave the wrong answer? They were influenced by the professor in the way she was presenting the numbers.

Maybe it helped me that I was taught by my science teacher that girls are better in science than boys. I was surprised to hear from Margriet that men and women are equal in mathematics.
But I am so thankful to my female science teacher that she made me believe that girls are better. And I didn’t listen to the male saying that boys are better. Finally I was better in science than the boys but more important I believed I could be better!

Margriet Sitskoorn gave a glimpse of her EFFECT program to improve your skills, about learning new things everyday, about flow-focus training, about a fixed sleep pattern, on exercising with fun, about enjoying the small things and most important about time.

The message of Wassila Hachchi in het conversation with Silvana Simons was very clear: be authentic, that is the best power inside you. The talk was about managing a public image. Don’t care about what people are saying about you. Be yourself and don’t change because someone has a different opinion.

An inspiring quote by Meryl Streep

In a short video message by Corinne Vigreux, co-founder of TomTom, about perception, she gave an example to think about. In a room full of men, never serve coffee! As perception is reality men will think you are there for the coffee and not for example as head of the marketing department.

The discussion followed by this short film was about how you can ensure you are perceived the way you want to be perceived. So never ever serve coffee. Believe in yourself, listen to feedback, be calm en learn how to diverse, to be unique.

Just before the small break Anneke van Giersbergen couldn’t haven chosen for a better song than Cloudbusting with the lyrics ‘Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen ’ originally by Kate Bush.

Sitting for almost two hours the smoothie with strawberries was a welcome treat. Not to mention the salmon wraps!

“Fuckingly boring” was Ilham Mestour’s answer to Cecile Narnix about the dutch hair. Ilham is a freelance hairstylist and Keune's Global Creative Artistic Director. She has done many editorials for magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
A bob-line suits a lot of people, and shoulder length hair is suitable for all ages, according to this international hairstylist.
I enjoyed watching the quiz Ilham had to take, she had to choose which hairstyle she liked most. Although she said earlier in her interview that Alexis of Dynasty had inspired her. She choose Krystle Carrington’s hairstyle above Alexis’. So the whole audience had a good laugh!
Ilham Mestour brought so much energy to the interview it was a joy to listen.

Another inspiring lady, Cassandra Stavrou, founder of Propercorn in London with Cypriot roots gave six guidelines to build a worldwide company. It is about creativity and empathy, about little things, about enterprising, about teambuilding but most of all be prepared to fail. And get up again!

Dr. Suess:' quote "Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try."

Janneke Niessen struggles with the quest, why only a few girls are interested in tech. We have to change the world in thinking in role models. Thinking about a nurse, you shouldn’t think immediately about a woman and about a fighter pilot as man. But even in a test with children between 5 and 7 years old proved that they already have stereotypes.

Using a lot of text in your presentation? Add a penguin, everybody loves penquins! Janneke Niessen

She Matters is a great initiative by Christina Moreno, helping immigrants and refugees to integrated in the dutch society. Every story should be told. As Christina told her story. She had a dream. Her circumstances were very difficult in the beginning of her life but she believed in her dream and became international lawyer. With She Matters she found her passion helping women and girls to get started in a new place. Christina found her why and her passion and asked us to find ours.

The panel discussion on Sisterhood in business was about the importance of supporting other women in your business. As for man it seems to come more natural.
During the after drinks I encountered it with some elderly women. I think they missed the message. Why is their so much envy between women? And disbelief? Encourage everyones dream! Especially among 'sisters'!

Sabrina Starke closed the summit with the song True Colours by Cyndi Lauper.

Time for a drink! Time to connect! But most of all be authentic and have a dream!

My outfit for the day!