FASHION ON A PLATE – AXL Bazaar
FASHION ON A PLATE – AXL Bazaar
Photo credit: Rose Lamond
Athena Xenakis was born into fashion. Even as a child she preferred adult’s fashion to kids’ clothes and pestered her parents to purchase Ferragamo designer shoes even though she was only eight years old. She has been an artist for 14 years and is now married to a jeweller.
She stocks about 200 items in her boutique which has become a destination for vintage women’s wear and jewellery. Each item is carefully curated for quality and design.
Items are painstakingly examined to ensure they fulfil the boutique’s raison d’être. Each item is chosen for its outstanding beauty and to ensure environmental sustainability.
Athena’s ethos is that we don’t need new clothes all the time that might end up as landfill when many items are beautiful in perpetuity.
Her items are mainly procured from overseas couturiers and vestiers (dress makers) who design for TV and film productions. Each is unique.
They are highly desirable, mainly over 15 years old, and are vintage.
“Vintage doesn’t mean our collection is from a time warp,” says Ms Xenakis-Levendi.
“Clients need inspiration and are looking for greatness. We make women feel and look beautiful,” she says, adding “I am not just selling clothes. I am selling a lifestyle.”
The boutique itself is a masterclass in haute modèle; a stripped back concrete floor, Persian rugs, polished grey plaster, bejewelled walls, a magnificent, héroïque French Empire armoire embellished with ormolu and a Carrera marble Moroccan desk with fretwork and mother of pearl inlays. The chair cover, with its Picasso-esque inclinations, is her own design.
The pièce de résistance is a ceremonial gold-threaded kimono signed and dated 1952 from a Japanese designer. Athena collected this piece, an object d’art in its own right, from a collector whose other pieces have been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Her jewellery collection includes Italian-designed items including a marvellous mauve amethyst necklace.
Athena is a local resident and is very appreciative of the tremendous support from other locals. AXL Bazaar has been open for three years and she anticipates many more successful years.
AXL Bazaar
35 Elizabeth Bay Road, Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011
Phone (02) 9360 0555
Email AXLBazaar@gmail.com
Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and by appointment
By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage solutions
