ATHENS – Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, the wife of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and co-founder of the Greek brand Zeus+Dione, shared her personal taste and style with the Financial Times (FT) on November 1.

She noted that her “personal style signifier is my brooches,” FT reported, adding that her “collection started with the ones given to me by my mother, who received them from my grandmother and great-grandmother.”

Grabowski-Mitsotakis told FT that “the last thing I bought and loved is a 1920s backgammon set from an Athens antiques shop called Martinos. I play a lot of backgammon with my youngest daughter Dafni. This board has a traditional marquetry design and the color of the wood is just beautiful. martinosart.gr.”

“A recent ‘find’ is Kross Coffee Roasters in the old town of Chania, in western Crete,” she told FT, adding that “my husband [Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis] is from Crete and we have a summer home there. This is where I go to get a coffee every morning when I am in town. It’s owned by true coffee lovers. It’s very tiny but not at all your typical Greek café – it reminds me of somewhere in Denmark.”

Grabowski-Mitsotakis’ favorites include the book Who Owns History? by Geoffrey Robertson, “a very persuasive moral and legal argument as to why the Parthenon Marbles belong to Greece and should be permanently returned to the new Acropolis Museum,” she told FT.

Also among her favorites, artist Mark Rothko, “I have always been intrigued by the contrast between the brightness of his paintings and his personal struggles with depression,” Grabowski-Mitsotakis told FT.

She also noted her everyday style includes jumpsuits and a shirt inspired by the Evzones, the Presidential Guard, which “I bought it because the next Zeus+Dione collection is based on the 200th anniversary of Greek independence, which we will celebrate in 2021,” she told FT.

Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, left, with Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, the wife of Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Elysee Palace, Aug. 22, 2019 in Paris. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Grabowski-Mitsotakis said, “An unforgettable place I’ve travelled to in the past year is Zagori in the Epirus region – it’s one of the most mountainous areas of Greece and one of its best-kept secrets. It’s amazingly beautiful, with two national parks and a lush, soaring landscape of dramatic gorges and turquoise lakes. There are clifftop monasteries and charming mountain villages, and the hospitality is truly authentic. We stayed at Aristi Mountain Resort & Villas, in the woods above Aristi village. It’s so solitary, and the mountains are breathtaking. aristi.eu,” FT reported.

Also among her favorites, Grabowski-Mitsotakis mentioned her best souvenir – a copy of Melencolia I, a print by Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer, the beauty treatment AquaGold Gold Fusion Facial, introduced by Costas Papageorgiou at Harrods’ Wellness Clinic, her style icons – including Jane Birkin, Lauren Hutton, Phoebe Philo, and Iris Apfel, and “the best gift I’ve given recently is a pair of beautiful, multicolored ceramic tumblers – a collaboration between Zeus+Dione and the artist Maritsa Travlos,” she told FT, adding that she gifted a set of tumblers to Brigitte Macron, wife of French president Emmanuel Macron.

Grabowski-Mitsotakis said that “the best gift I’ve received is a baseball cap from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,” FT reported, adding that “it was given to me by my eldest daughter, Sofia, when I went to her graduation there last year. I love hats, mostly straw ones, but now I wear this one all the time. It’s sentimental as well as practical.”

Pavlidis brand dark chocolate also makes her list of favorites as does her lucky charm necklace which includes “a cross and a Virgin Mary from my mother; a fish with an evil eye, from my best friend; and a charm with the inscription Je t’aime from my son, Konstantinos,” she told FT.

Grabowski-Mitsotakis’ favorite space at home is the terrace, FT reported, adding that “it’s covered in the plants that one would find in old Athenian gardens – lemon trees, olive trees and aromatic plants that tolerate the Athenian summer heat and drought. For me it’s a sensory landscape, evoking childhood memories.” 

Grabowski-Mitsotakis told FT, “if I didn’t live in Athens, I would live on the Cycladic island of Tinos” and “if I weren’t doing what I do, I would be a cellist.”

She concluded by saying that “this year, I’ve really come to appreciate the sense of solitude and sitting in one place. Quality time at home. I used to be on a plane every week – this year has made me wonder if all this travelling is really necessary,” FT reported.