Anne-Cécile Reymond
Illustré par Michael Androulidakis, Andreas Souchis, Vera Snijders, Gabriel Koutoulias, Achileas Samaras
Version française disponible dans l'Intemporel N°3 Automne 2024
It’s a world of its own kind. A world as we love them: style in all its social, artsy and intemporal aspects.
L’Intemporel had the pleasure to interview Vassili Bourtsalas, Bespoke Athens’ brand creator, which is, in his own words, « a true style and tailoring laboratory. »
Used to the business world from his father and grand-father sides, both merchants in Athens, Vassili got brought to that activity at a young age, since he often went to work with them. His mom, however, is the one who introduced him to the world that then gave birth to countless dreams: Hollywood.
As a stewardess, she hung out, during her flights, with actors and actresses she then introduced to her son, at night, on the small screen. When it’s usually time for little children to go to bed, Vassili sneaks into the room in which his mom irons, to watch Casablanca, Fred Astaire dancing with Ginger Rogers … This encounter with Hollywood leaves a strong mark on him “to be completely honest with you, I think that my entire personality has been influenced by that. Not only in the way I dress, but in the way I live. I have a Hollywood way of life.”.
His aesthetical inspiration is mostly Fred Astaire “He broke new ground in terms of style: very trendy, very intense for his time, with flannel pants for instance.” Gary Cooper also played a part in influencing him, as he defines him as “elegant” with his more masculine outfits. The keywords, to summarize this style, are elegance and sharpness, “it’s all about movement” explains Vassili, “it must be very refined, there must be something that doesn’t come from the outside, but the inside, rather: it’s called grace.”
Used to business and classy spaces from his childhood, Vassili seemed to carry inside himself the seedlings of Bespoke Athens from the very beginning, “my dream, in the very back of my head, has always been to open a store.”
In order to provide himself with the means of achieving this, Vassili has been the actor of his own movie, his own epic poem, among trainings and creations, always faithful to his tastes and values. After taking business classes in the US, he buys a store in Greece and conceives his very precise project: “I had the idea of gathering all the tailoring styles in one place, and only hand-made.”
It’s in 2004, in Firenze at the Pitti Uomo, that he gets his vocation confirmed, considering this place like a giant amusement park, gathering all he appreciates. He gets trained to sewing and measuring by a Greek tailor whom he admires, thus obtaining the savoir-faire of his ambitions. Joining his business skills to his new knowledge, the dream comes true: “I held knowledge, I had been trained and grew skillful.”
Bespoke Athens is a “styles’ laboratory” that only looks for “the best of the best” in terms of tailors, from all the vibes: french, english and italians: “Bespoke Athens has no limit: whether the fabrics come from Bangladesh or France, what matters is that it’s the best quality.”
Vassili’s strength is met there: offering all the styles, vibes and mindsets we can imagine.
“The english is made to last, very neat and precise, the italian is great for its shapes, the pleats and sleeves … If it’s Italian it must be Napolitan.”
The particularity is the wideness of the offer in terms of styles and possibilities of made-to-measure creations: ‘it’s our very job to develop our client’s dreams and projects, whatever they want. We have knowledge, we can do it all, with the only requirement of always giving the best. That’s our work’s guideline.” The main idea is to try and create from people’s personality, not to work with an already-made idea in mind: “People have different styles, it’s as simple as that. Greeks have no defined or cliché style, it’s easy for them to mix the Italian one to the French one for example.” The brand gets supplied by several references, Arnis for France, Liverano for Italy etc.
Why a “style laboratory” then? The legitimacy of this periphrasis is found in the striking analogy of Vassili as a scientist, appointed by his clients with various projects in constant movement: “we offer something very energetic and go-ahead, totally opposed to stillness or immobility. If you’re looking for something retro today, but totally different in two weeks, we’ll do it."
"Nothing’s definitive. Gotta be moving! ”
The brand, not being confined to anything, allows itself disobedience to boredom and time. Geography itself is not a limit to Bespoke Athens, since they don’t get affiliated to a greek style, denying the very concept of it “there are few tailors in Greece. They have no specific style, they wear gray, black, white …It’s not that big of a deal here.” We can not talk about a greek community in terms of sartorialism, nor of a growing influence of that concept in today’s world, “I think social networks play a big part in this. Communitarianism gets boosted this way.”
Pitti Uomo is, in the eyes of the brand, the place in which we find today’s Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, but it still isn’t the norm of our time: “we gotta understand that what we witness there, is only 5% of the global aesthetic, which is saddening.”
Cinema plays a major role not only in Vassili’s story but also in his brand, which also gives importance to an unexpected concept: values. The idea of inwardness being breathed into clothing is even made clear in the brand’s headline: “dressing the soul.”
In the end, Bespoke Athens draws its strength from a childhood dream in black and white, and maintains its power by demanding freedom and excellence.
+3 (0) 210-3645518
Anagnostopoulou 15-17, Kolonaki,
Athens 106 73
Retrouvez cet article sur Bespoke Athens dans le numéro de l'automne 2024 !