Although people start businesses for all sorts of reasons, patriotic fervor is usually not one of them. Yet the leather goods company Callista is an exception.
Celia Sigalou, its chief executive and co-founder, recalled the brand’s start in 2013, during Greece’s economic crisis: “We said, ‘Let’s do something ——”
“For our country,” Eleni Konstantinidou, the company’s president and co-founder, said, finishing the sentence of her business partner, who is also her sister-in-law.
Greece had been struggling through another year of financial problems, trying to cope with austerity measures, mass layoffs and riots. Personal budgets were tight, especially when it came to luxury purchases. “All the high-end brands were difficult for people to afford,” Ms. Konstantinidou, 57, said during a joint interview.
Neither woman had a fashion background: Ms. Konstantinidou was a marketing specialist, working for her husband’s architectural firm, and Ms. Sigalou was a civil engineer. “We’re not 100 percent fashion,” Ms. Konstantinidou said, “but we do follow the trends.”
They decided to establish Callista — the name is a variation of kallos, the ancient Greek word for beauty — and to make what Ms. Konstantinidou called “a good-quality, affordable luxury handbag.”
Their first piece was a tan leather tote that they personally designed and produced, something Ms. Sigalou recently described as “the bag we ourselves would carry.” It sold for 300 euros (now the equivalent of $332).
The tote was a hit from the start. “We asked a famous Greek retailer, the Kessaris store in Mykonos, to sell our bags,” Ms. Konstantinidou said. “We started out supplying 20 bags. I myself delivered them to her. After three hours, nine bags were sold.”
The business now produces about 60 items, including small leather goods, that are designed by a team and assembled by artisans at a workshop in Kifissia, a leafy residential suburb north of Athens. Prices range from €65 for a leather tassel key chain to €1,150 for a collarless belted jacket in black or tan leather.
The women wanted to support Greece’s traditional skills, said Ms. Sigalou, 55, so at the workshop, “you won’t find a machine, just hands” working on the leather weaving, knotted cording, lacing, beading, fringe and decorative stitching that accent the designs. The totes, for example, have as many as 356 knots and 950 stitches, all done by hand.
Such ornamentation makes the bags distinctive. “Once you see a Callista, you will recognize the next Callista you see,” Ms. Sigalou said.
For several years, the brand has also collaborated with the Mentis-Antonopoulos Passementerie, a small factory inside the Benaki Museum in Athens, which promotes itself as the country’s only maker using traditional methods to produce braids, tassels, fringe and other passementerie.
On this particular day, several large boxes were waiting in the workshop office to be shipped to Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s. Callista products are also sold on the brand’s website and by other stores in Greece, Britain and the United States.
Last year, sales topped €4.2 million, according to George Kostakis, the company’s head of finance. The brand now employs a staff of more than 50.
The offerings, which have varied over the years, now include women’s sandals in colors such as bright red, sky blue and mocha. The men’s line offers leather backpacks, canvas weekend bags and wash bags, all with the handmade details that Ms. Sigalou said had become “our DNA.”
This year Callista has also collaborated with the Benaki’s passementerie factory on an unusual selection of straps, bags and key chains made with some 100-year-old handwoven material that turned up in the museum’s warehouse.
Approximately 32 inches to 46 inches in length, the cotton straps (€165) were embroidered and finished with leather detailing and clip closures, while the drawstring bags (€275 to €295) feature embroidered fabric inserts.
This latest project affirms Callista’s original intent, Ms. Sigalou said, noting that “our collaboration with the Benaki Museum is rooted in our passion for preserving traditional craftsmanship.”
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