Yassou! from Athens and "Sustainable Couture"

Dear Friends:

A family issue brings me to Athens, Greece this week. In my spare time I have been wandering around the city trying to find the "Greekest" places. It's not that easy.

Years ago, the Athens flea market had stall after stall of items made all over Greece. Lots of handmade pottery, wood carvings and dolls in traditional dress, particularly those cute guy dolls in the short white skirts and blue blouses. (Will the Greeks ever live that down?) Now, of course, almost all of the Greek souvenirs are made in China.

The women here are very fashionable with the right shoes, jeans, skirts, tops, sweaters, jewelry and bags (huuuuge bags). And they look exactly like the women in Union City, Weehawken and New York (and probably Boise, Melbourne and Vladivostok.) These items all come from China as well. What d'ya wanna bet that the trendy women in Beijing only wear jeans made in the US, France or Italy?

This brings me to one of our new ideas: "Sustainable Couture". It seems the only way that one can have totally original items in our 21st century is to create them yourself (that's the couture part..."couture" in French means hand-sewn) or purchase them from a charming little shop (hint, hint) that supports designers making one-of-a-kind items out of superb existing fabrics (that's the sustainable part). A classic win-win. You get to wear fantastic original things while helping emerging designers, a sweet neighborhood shop (ArtsEcho Galleria, of course) and the environment!

We will be having a mini-"sustainable fashion" show as part of our next musical evening (December 9th) to show (and show-off) some of our vintage and designer clothes as well as some of the new and exciting things being created (as we e-speak) at the Galleria.

Upcoming events:

Friday, November 13: meet Ben Roman (and all of us) and see his wonderful watercolors.

Wednesday, December 9: Hear Jennifer Lampert (an amazing singer!) sing great NJ songs and see our own Dexter Lane prove photographically that "there's no place like home".

Warm regards and Yassou! from Sandra and the ArtsEcho Galleria team (busy holding down the fort)...Lil, Judy, Crystal, Ben, Arianna, Jackie, Karina, Lina and Dina (and Toni who will be teaching knitting tomorrow morn)...

PS: We're open on M-W 11-7, Th-F 11-8 and Sat 10-6. You can call us at 617-1110.

PPS: Since I'm in Athens, I have NO IDEA what's on sale, but I bet that the lovely Lil does and I'm sure she'll be glad to tell you! Hi, Lil...(I'm waving...)

PPPS: We are starting a list of artists (visual, musical, theatrical, photographical, etc) for a the North Hudson Artist Coalition, a new organization (for which we will donate admin services and a place to meet). We are doing this so that artists who live in our area can have a stronger voice in Hudson County. If you are an artist (or know one in Union City, Weehawken, West New York, Guttenberg or North Bergen), please give us a call or send me an email.