VOULIAGMENI – Born and raised in Vouliagmeni, a magnificent, suburb of Wedding photographers Athens Greece located in the southern coastline and surrounded by natural beauty. It provides absolutely everything to someone who wants a calm, quite, yet glamorous, vibrant and vigorous life without pollution. It is believed to be one most beautiful places in the world and I strongly agree with that, and trust me I’ve travelled a lot around Europe. I consider myself very lucky to live here, the view is breathtaking from all over the place and it even has waves to ride when the wind is south; many people also tend to compare it with California, my second favourite area and the place I dream to visit the most. I will tell you all about that later in this column.
Growing up by the seaside -the beach is actually a couple of blocks away from my house- couldn’t make me something less than a water-loving child. I used to be very active and was into all kinds of sports since the age of 2; you can blame my dad for that, he was also a huge fan of sports variety. Even though I’ve tried almost everything, I always had an addiction to water sports and windsurf was the one that stole my heart. On my latest years snowboard and surf are also a big part of my life.
Fashion on the other hand is a way of life. I come from a family that was involved with it a lot before I was born. This made me realise I had a passion for fashion since very young. The biggest inducement were both my grandmothers with their love for fashion and their huge closets full of vintage clothes and accessories that passed to me.
Right after I finished school, at the age of 18, I moved to Worthing, a small town close to Brighton in England, to study fashion. Even though it was located next to the sea, I couldn’t stand the depressed rainy weather, as I was used to the warm and sunny weather of Greece. Long story short, after completing the 1st year, I moved back home to finish my studies in fashion design and styling. Somewhere in the middle of my university years, I decided to create an inspirational page, something like a portfolio, which later on was enriched with outfit posts and ended up into a personal style blog. And this is when “Surf Addict Fashionista” was born, taking its name from my biggest loves, surf and fashion.
Apart from surf and fashion, I am also a huge fan of music, especially disco, rock and a bit of country and I own an old VW beetle. This is why I believe I should have been born in a different era, so I would have lived during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s preferably in California; my family has fairly influenced me on that. I grew up, listening to stories about the West Coast and I am not sure of the exact reasons yet, but I was always in love with that place. Hollywood and its movies are definitely one of them, I love how they present the perfect Californian life with the fairytale-look houses, the big blocks, the clean streets and the beautiful beaches. “Beach boys” songs, accompanied by pictures of wavy coasts, full of sunshine and palm trees, tanned girls walking around while surfer dudes arrive with their old bugs and their surfboards on top keep popping out of my head. Another very good reason is that I’m definitely going to enjoy the the shopping experience and the freedom of wearing absolutely anything I want without being judged. One thing’s for sure, I will be able to surf whenever I feel like it and that’s the raddest excuse!
As you can assume, I’m definitely not a big city girl, I like my open spaces, I need heat, sea, sun, waves and palm trees (oh and shops) in order to be happy. I think California is the only place I can live after my current location.
Rea Papathanasiou – Surf Addict Fashionista
