Homes

Pillows With A Repurpose

Once Upon A Time Shirts Were Shirts And Scarves Were Scarves. Today They Are Cushions And Placemats Designed In Monaco.

Sophia Vaharis Tsouvelekakis
PILLOWS WITH A REPURPOSE

COMING FROM an entrepreneurial family that imported food and luxury items to Greece in the 1950s, I grew up in the family-run business from ground level. From a young age in Athens—Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou was my classmate—I realized that “the sky is not the limit.” By the time I met my husband Konstantinos in 1992, I had already published a book about the first woman to win a Formula One Championship. I went on to compete at the 24-hour Chamonix ice race, came third in the Women’s 10-meter Air Pistol Championship in Greece and, since 2013, I hold the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of wine and champagne labels, a staggering 16,700 labels from 60 different countries.

Yet family and working with my husband is my greatest pride. We are shareholders in real estate and 45 retail stores (Replay, Brooks Brothers) and department stores (Attika) in Monaco, Greece, Cyprus, and the Balkans, with over 2,500 employees. Our Brooks Brothers boutique in Monaco opened with the inauguration of the Yacht Club in 2014 and is the smallest in the world. We also provide items to the Yacht Club’s boutique to help promote new Greek designers who are doing their best after a crisis that deeply wounded the country.

During the Covid lockdown of 2020, I became inspired to combine my sense of entrepreneurialism with my strong philanthropic beliefs. I was going through old clothes in my closet that I knew I would never wear again but didn’t have the heart to get rid of when I saw an opportunity to develop repurposed and elegant accessories for home and yacht decoration. My first attempt was to transform men’s shirts into decorative pillows. The process included the selection of vintage fabrics and adding lace and ornaments to create a new product. My next idea was sustainable double-sided placemats and flagship pillows adorned with the evil eye, which protects against negative energy. I expanded the collection to towels, bedsheets, bathrobes, and candles. What started out as a hobby turned into a small business venture with commercial success in Monaco, Cannes, Athens, Hydra Island, Thassos Island, and Kastellorizo, and developed into the MyCrown Collection brand in 2021. All products are designed in Monaco and produced in Europe, and a portion of the sales revenue is donated to support a long list of non-profit organizations in the Principality, from the Prince Albert Foundation to the Monaco SPA.

Truthfully, I couldn’t imagine doing anything different with my life and am grateful to my parents, who to this day are still my best mentors.

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