Anyone who has spent time here knows that the sun is a constant presence, and it shapes the rhythm of daily life in ways that visitors often do not anticipate until they experience it for themselves. The summer months bring intense heat, and the city adapts in a manner that is both practical and beautiful, with awnings extending from balconies, cafes, and shops. These awnings are not just functional objects but also part of the urban landscape, and they have become an unexpected source of inspiration in our work.
One thing that most non-residents of Athens don’t know is that awnings have a culture. They have rules. Awnings come in many colours, from dark green to bright orange. But they also have two sides! The outside, visible from the street or the balcony across is a block colour. By law. And each building has a certain colour that everyone needs to follow. No exceptions and no discussion. If your building has mustard coloured awnings, that’s what your own will be.
Now the inside… The inside can be anything you want. We’ve seen prints of cloudy skies, tropical jungles, ships in the ocean, minimal flowers, abstract lines, balloons and rainbows. What the resident sees is what they want their balcony to be. It’s this contrast of rules and privacy, conformity and rebellion that make awnings such an interesting feature of the city.
There’s a subtle way in how awnings bring a sense of time and place to the city. Athens is a young city, despite its history. It was mostly built in the last century in rapid waves. Different neighborhoods popped up almost overnight, the whole geography reshaped. And the awnings reflect that. Depending on when a particular neighborhood was developed, a certain colour dominates. The ones from the 70’s feature pop orange colours, the older, conservative centre is dark blue. It’s quite a trip really.
This is something we try to replicate in our work, not by copying the awnings themselves but by embracing the city. Each one of our bags and accessories is unique, they never repeat. With this almost infinite amount of visual information, we have made it for years, thousands of combinations! When we look at the awnings of Athens, we see a similar variety, where a single bold colour is allowed to speak for itself with competition from all other buildings. The blue of a balcony awning against a whitewashed wall, the orange of a canvas stretched over a fruit stall, the yellow of a sunshade on a rooftop terrace, these are all parts of the visual jigsaw puzzle of the city. We like to think our colour palette shares this intentionality.
