How the Pandemic Turned a Publicist’s Love of Collecting into a Career Preserving Greek Crafts and Culture
When travel publicist and globetrotter Andria Mitsakos found herself in the midst of renovating a charming 538-square-foot farmhouse in Paros, Greece, at the onset of the pandemic last March, she didn't expect that her life would change forever. As the owner of a PR firm based in New York City, Miami, and Athens who couldn’t return for what seemed like an indefinite amount of time, Mitsakos began leaning into her childhood passions and love of travel to start a whole new adventure in lockdown.
“My mom is an interior designer, my great-aunt was an antiques dealer, and I really grew up around the world of design,” Mitsakos says. “We traveled quite a lot as a family too, and my mom was always on these shopping missions. Whenever we landed somewhere, we would be figuring out what to buy and talk to the front desk about where to source pieces for our home, often ending up in some back alley to find a cryptic antiques dealer, which meant we were carrying all of these amazing pieces back home on an airplane with us. But my mother never shopped without a reason.” Her father's work in social studies also led to their dinner table being filled with interesting personalities from around the world, which furthered Andria's interest in global cultures.
One of the trips that left the greatest impressions on a young Mitsakos was her family’s annual winter vacation to the Caribbean, where her mother would source beautiful pieces from a local ceramicist. Her family discovered that while these artisans were masters of their craft, they weren’t always design-minded and didn’t have access to some of the tools they needed, realizing they could help these artisans become more appealing to consumers by offering them those resources. This would also help these small artisans preserve their craft.
“My mom brought pigments and glazes over to this ceramicist in her suitcase, placing her order, and then, on the next year's trip, we’d go pick them up,” says Mitsakos. “I was educated on collecting and cultural preservation from just being a kid on vacation with my family. It’s definitely been an influence throughout my career.”
Though Mitsakos ended up founding her own travel publicity business, her company was based on the same pillars she grew up with when it came to design: sustainability and cultural appreciation, along with a delight in special places, people, and things. Mitsakos's world travels also led her to begin impressive collections of her own, with pieces from Sri Lankan bazaars and hard-to-find Mexican artisans. Soon, her hospitality clients began looking to her not only for publicity needs but also to bring them unique pieces to feature at their hotels. And once the pandemic hit, her impeccable eye became more in-demand than ever before, as people around the world still sought to create well-traveled interiors but couldn’t be well-traveled themselves.
What started as a break from work and travel ended up transforming into a brand-new chapter for the entrepreneur and publicist. While Mitsakos searched for local pieces to design her own charming farmhouse in Paros, she realized that there was not only a market need for beautiful, craftsman-made pieces from other parts of the globe, but many of the artisans she sourced from were in desperate need of business to sustain and preserve their crafts.
“After a life of collecting, there were manufactures that still use those ancient methods of craftsmanship, especially in Athens,” says Mitsakos. “While there are of course trades in Spain, Italy, South America, and so many places across the world, this is where a lot of artisans I was working with are, and I realized that I was one of their only clients during the pandemic. If I didn’t continue making and buying pieces from them, it might not be sustainable for their craft or culture.”
Soon, Mitsakos’s home concepts line, Anthologist, was born as an e-commerce platform connecting the world to an incredible network of Greek craftspeople, along with some of Mitsakos’s favorite vintage finds from around the islands. This collection of items is very personal to her, as many of them are pieces she’s found to fill her own home within Paros over the last year. She says Anthologist has had a great response from the trade industry and consumers alike, as people are looking for more places to source from and there are so many people who haven’t been able to travel to Greece this year but could find something on her site that reminded them of their previous trips to the Mediterranean.
“I think that since everyone has been cooped up, home decor is on the rise, and people maybe don't have as great of access to flea markets and favorite shops as they normally do and want to be surrounded by more things that have a bit more soul than what you'd buy from a big brand,” she says. “[This collection] is full of things that I surround myself with every day. It’s folksy, traditional with a bit of humor, and most of all, it reminds me of home.”
Every item sourced, whether it’s sold as-is or used by Mitsakos to create one-of-a-kind pieces, must emphasize and promote authenticity, cultural preservation, and crafts. The new shop owner says in a world when there’s so much newness all the time, especially in America, she loves this gravitation back to nostalgic pieces, antiques, heirlooms, and slower processes of decoration in the home.
“Being a collector gives you perspective on cultivating special things versus just buying out of need," Mitsakos says. "If anything, this year taught us that we need more treasures and fewer things. Renovating in a pandemic is limiting, and I realized that the more time I spend at home, I really just want to be surrounded by things that I love. I said to myself, 'Forget trying to find it, I’ll make it or find someone who can,' which is what my mother always taught me."
This spring, Mitsakos is taking Anthologist one step further by opening up shops inside boutique hotels across Crete, Santorini, and her current hometown of Paros. She is also launching a new collection of ceramics that she designed herself in partnership with an Athens-based ceramicist and is also doing interior styling for various hospitality properties across the Greek Islands and the Caribbean. The multihyphenate has also finished restoring her cozy farmhouse in Paros and has been thankful for the slow pace, to have to live in her space and let it dictate how she should decorate and design with local crafts and textiles. She hopes Anthologist will help inspire others to do the same, to seek cultural preservation and slow decoration as a means of true sustainable luxury.
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