ATHENS- With the new year coming up I can’t help but do a replay of 2014 in my mind… Starting in Sydney after a long flight, on the 27th floor of a hotel, skyping with my boyfriend in Athens, wearing a massive hotel robe and all that while watching the fireworks go off from the window. Lonely but still struck with a feeling of Aw at how extraordinary my life had become.

I’m Kristen, fashion blogger and youtuber with a day job and no free time. Born in ’91 in Athens, I’m half Greek and half Portuguese and a vegan, the low key kind that doesn’t judge other people for eating meat. In the summer of ’13 I moved from Greece to Dubai to become a flight attendant and I traveled to 17 countries in almost every continent and visited 22 new cities.

My two biggest loves are fashion and traveling. Seeing the world was an experience that truly had an impact on the way I dress. Now I think more practical; I don’t live to dress, I dress to live. I love wearing things that are comfortable, that don’t hold me back from great experiences. I ditched my high heels and clutch purse light and started wearing ankle boots and backpacks. I said goodbye to the stuck up fashion blogger that I felt I was becoming and started smiling in pictures. They had a bigger purpose now. They weren’t just about me and my outfits – they were about where I was as well. I learned to not think of myself, to look around at my surroundings and try at take as much in as possible in the short time that I spent in every destination. What does Thailand/New Zealand/Nigeria/Italy/Sri Lanka (fill the blank) look like? What do they wear here? What do they eat? How do they live?

Instead of becoming spoiled from the riches of Dubai I became more grounded and from the isolation of migrating to a new country I found true values in my life. FAMILY. LOVE. KINDNESS to every living thing on this earth. Because after seeing so much this world has to offer and meeting people from every continent, I came to understand how little I truly know but how much there was to learn from everyone around me.

But I stayed the same person; and when I moved this summer back to Athens with my “loots” from my travels and my crazy stories that are usually told by sailor uncles, I still loved the same two things. So I brought back my fashion blog, all covered in dust and spiderwebs from not posting for a year and started blogging again. Maybe looking less posh than before but sure as hell not having a problem with it. I want my blog to inspire other women to dress with more conscious and animal friendly materials and to give ideas for practical and wearable outfits. I’m taking a break from traveling for now, to set some roots back in my own city and explore it but I’m not done seeing everything yet…

Kristen Leotsakou – Kristen Leo

KRISTEN’S FASHION PICKS: