fAsHiOn & tRaVeLs

After 3 rounds of champagne, equal visits to the chocolate fountain and sightings of Athens’ most prestigious people; I think I have to “report” about the opening of Golden Hall, Athens’s new mall!

The “rumors” about its opening have been flying around for months and in every second advertisement in the latest Vogue issues would state that a new store would be opening at the Golden Hall (Tod’s, Hogan, Pinko and so on). The timing of the opening wouldn’t be better…1 month before Christmas!! I was happy to be able to find an invitation for the Grand Opening (thanks to my mum), though that would mean that I would lose my yoga session, but it was an evening well spent! So down to business now…I have a LOT to report about!

Golden Hall Overview

For the record, I have to mention that the building that will be the Golden Hall from now on, used to be the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) during the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Four years after that (in order to legalize the new use of the property, plan and reconstruct-internally that is) the IBC is transformed into a mall that has 3 levels: two for shops, with the odd café here and there and one for restaurants (but not your typical food court, we’re talking about elegance here). As the press release stated, the mall has 41.000 sq. meters gross leasable area, 1.400 parking spaces and 132 shops. The shops include women’s, men’s and kids’ fashion, footwear, accessories, jewellery shops, bookshops, home and decoration stores, sportswear shops, cosmetics’ shops, hair salon, coffee shops and restaurants.

This mall is targeted at a more sophisticated and well-off target group as it hosts many prêt-a-porter shops mixed with high street brands (the Inditex group has big time in this mall, as most of its brands are there: Zara, Berskha, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti and so on). It is not for teenagers that want to hang out, shop a little, drink a coffee and probably watch a movie (venues that the nearby The Mall Athens provides). It is also remarkable that most of the cafés within the Golden Hall do not provide much space to sit and chat (as cafés in Greece are obliged to do), the have a more on-the-go philosophy.

The ground floor is dedicated to high street brands: there are the Inditex Group shops I mentioned previously, Accessorize, Notos Home, Dyrberg/Kern to name but a few. The first floor hosts more “prestigious” shops: Marc by Marc Jacobs (I think I’m going to like this one), Coach, Hogan, Longchamp, Furla and shops that house many different brands both clothes and shoes (e.g. Zilly, Attica golden, Kalogirou). This level also houses the best jewellery shops: Kessaris (probably Athens’ best jewelry shop), Ilias Lalaounis (probably the most famous Greek jeweler – btw Charlize Theron wore earrings made by Lalaounis at the Hancock movie), Pentheroudakis (another Greek jeweler), Liana Vourakis (Greek jeweler) and Links of London among others. The top floor will house 5 restaurants: Meat me, Mezzaluna, Pastis, Wagamama and Prytaneion Gold.

The Opening

I haven’t seen any pictures or even passed by the mall before the opening, apart from some 3-D images I managed to find online. It was far better (and elegant) than I expected (because when I think of malls, Trafford Centre in Manchester, UK always pops up in my mind and that was an over-the-top mall). The entrance is GRAND: it has a big round fountain that changes colour at night and a large open space, with trees and lawn.

Upon entering (the ground floor) a small aisle leads to the first Hall that has 3 sets of gold pillars and 2 staircases leading to the first floor (actually one goes up and one goes down). As Christmas approaches, there was a Christmas tree in the middle, where Mrs Marianna Latsis, main stakeholder of the Latsis firms (her father was a shipping billionaire) and mother of Paris Latsis (former fiancé of Paris Hilton) and the CEO of Lamda Development (a company belonging to the Latsis family) (oh! And don’t expect me to remember the guy’s name since he doesn’t appear in gossip columns), greeted their guests. On the 2 staircases there where performers (I cannot find a more appropriate title), dressed up in white 1900s costumes and dresses which incorporated light inside (see corresponding picture as my description in flawed, I know) and hung from the ceiling were trumpet players playing music.

Walking down the aisles leading to the rear part of the mall, we were “greeted” by fairies hung from a sort of carousel (see image, the quality is not good – what would you expect from a cell phone – but you get the picture). The aisles were also filled with lace arcs with fairy lights inside, performers standing on balls and mannequin dolls dressed up in vintage dresses. The rear hall had a small stage and a jazz band was playing there. But again it wasn’t your typical jazz band…it was more of Charlie Chaplin-meets circus jazz band.

The first floor was the “catering” level, as it was full of buffets with delicious finger food (provided by Ekali Club catering) and sort of seating area. And there was champagne…lots of champagne…From the ceiling hang golden chandeliers (it is a Golden Hall after all!) and red roses where everywhere (note: the chandeliers belong to the mall’s permanent décor). The vibe was different from the “fairy tale” attitude of the ground floor.

The second floor, which will host the restaurants, had a black “theme”, was full of sofas (black again) and had an ice bar (and I was wondering where the hell did that chill came from!). It reminded me of exclusive clubs and was definitely the place where people partied afterwards (though I did not last that long). The best part was the chocolate fountain it had!!! I hadn’t seen one for a while, so you can imagine my joy! And it had marshmallows as well (though they were big and sugary)!

And now…my favorite part of the report (you will understand why!)…

Spotted

I don’t think of myself as a celebrity-struck person, but it’s nice to see closer people you only see in the pages of Vogue or Hello! So, the following people from the Greek Jet Set were spotted at the opening of Golden Hall:

Marianna Latsis (see above)

Erietta Kourkoulou, daughter of Mrs Latsis

Gianna Angelopoulou – Daskalaki, former president of the Athens 2004 Organising Committee

Ilias Lalaounis, jeweler, accompanied by his wife and daughters

Yiannis Deloudis, owner of furniture shops

Petros Kostopoulos, publisher, owner of Imako Media S.A.

Stella Lizardi, Editing Director of Vogue Greece

Costas Kessaris, jeweler

Celia D, Greek fashion designer

Andria Papadopoulou, Greek fashion designer (I totally love her shows)

Tina Daskalantonaki, CEO of Classical Hotels (does Grecotel rings a bell?)

Liana Vourakis, jeweler

Anouschka Raphael – Swarovski (I hope I spell it right)

And last, but not least…I’ve included some pictures from the event! Enjoy!