When you ask me what kind or store we are and what is it all about, the scene from Wes Anderson Moonrise Kingdom favorite movie immediately comes to mind, where Sam meets Suzy for the first time at theatre backsatge before the school play and he points at her and asks “What kind of bird are YOU?”
We are the store that I dreamed of creating during the (endless) days of working as a CFO for a ship insurance company and hearing comments about my hair and outfit is not appropriate. When I heard angry bosses yelling at their staff, when I was working as a free lance accountant and wished I could see a different surrounding from the gray offices of Piraeus.
At the time I was eagerly searching for my passion and every afternoon after work I went to art and creative seminars. I tried everything Jewelry design, scenograpy and costume design, pilates training, photography classes. The time when in my parents’ basement I was learning how to make scented candles. Where I used to go to the center of Athens to discover new materials in order to create my own molds to make something original and unique. When I took whatever fabrics, threads, buttons I could find from my grandmothers and used the sewing machine to weave curtains and patchwork bags and knit scarfs and capes. The period when, to express myself creatively, I turned my shoes into paintings, my face into canvas, old TVs into installations, old buttons and Christmas light into jewelry.
Finally, we are the store I hoped to create when I started the accounting school 21 years ago and suffered every day that passed with me psychosomatics because I couldn’t be there and it didn’t express me. And earlier in school when I felt like an alien because my hair was frizzy and I looked awfull in Fruit of the loom t-shirts.
This is the kind of store we are!
KISS ME, STUPID ismy happy place where everything is beautifull and smells great. A place where there is no discrimination, we are not put into categories, where everyone feels good about who they are. It evolves and changes and this way it forms its unique identity.
I discover brands with an ecological approach and smart design, useful and practical products that improve our everyday life. I decorate soy candles, vases, room fragrances and home decorations, just like I would do in my own home. I recommend makeup products so that each person leaves the store with colors and products that suit them so they don’t add one more unnecessary product to their make up bag. I choose our jewelry, screen glasses and all our accessories and make individual suggestions, with the belief that for everything that doesn’t fit us, there is something that fits us like a glove.
When I was in elementary school I showed my mother a composition I made in my room and asked her what she thought, she replied “It’s inspired!”. That’s what I put into everything I do and choose for KISS ME, STUPID.
xx Elpida
PS This article was written Thursday morning while I was making vegetarian moussaka while trying to practice some self care.
