The House

A decade on Skoufa Street.

Two returns to Athens, one courtyard, and a rule that has not moved since.

2013

Two people came home.

Athina Vlachou trained in cutting and draping at Central Saint Martins, then spent six seasons under Antonio Berardi in London. She came back to Athens in 2013.

Niccolò Castellani arrived the same year from his family’s Florentine workshop, founded by his grandfather Aldo in 1946. They had met during a residency at the École de la Chambre Syndicale in Paris and found they were annoyed by the same thing: occasion-wear in Athens had become indistinguishable from rental — fast, sized, finished by machine.

The interwar building on Skoufa Street, Kolonaki
2014

One room, three commissions.

They opened above a quiet courtyard with three commissions and one seamstress — Eleftheria Mavroidi, who had embroidered for the National Opera for twenty-two years and is still at the frame on the third floor.

The workshop has since climbed two floors and gathered nine craftspeople. The rule has not moved: every garment passes through both founders’ hands at least three times before it leaves.

Hand-finishing at the workbench
The discipline

A decade in numbers.

The intake is capped on purpose. It is what nine pairs of hands finish properly without rushing a hem.

The rule

We do not pre-cut.

There is no sample line and nothing hangs on a rail waiting for a buyer. Every piece is cut, basted, fitted, and hand-finished only after you have stood in the salon and we have measured your shoulders, your waist, your reach.

When the book is full it closes until the next season. That has cost us commissions and it is the only reason the ones we take arrive finished.

Begin

The salon is open by appointment.

Skoufa 38, second floor, Tuesday through Saturday.