Alexandros Kalogiros is an art director. He spent most of his adult life between Athens and Rome, working in fashion and advertising. When the pandemic grounded him back in Athens, he looked at the city with a fresh eye and noticed a gap that seemed obvious once he saw it: a place of three hundred days of sunshine, a growing international crowd, design-literate visitors arriving in increasing numbers — and nowhere serious to buy a niche perfume.

“We wanted to bring perfume brands that did not already exist here.”

He and his co-founder Dimitra Louana Marlanti, a set designer and creative director who had followed a parallel path through the Italian fashion industry, opened Phāon in 2022 on Likavittou 29 in Kolonaki. The interior was designed by Stamos Michael, an Athens-based artist and interior designer whose aesthetic matched theirs from the first conversation. The result is a room that functions more like a gallery than a boutique — fragrances arranged among fresh flowers and bespoke ceramic objects, the whole space built around the idea that scent deserves the same care as visual art.

The brand selection was sourced through the network Kalogiros and Marlanti had built over years in fashion — labels that trusted them before the space had opened or proved itself. Astier de Villatte, Atelier Materi, Heeley, Matière Première, Ormaie Paris, Papier d’Arménie, Parco 1923, Perfumer H, Santa Maria Novella. Alongside these, bespoke vases, candleholders, and incense holders made by ceramist Egidio Milesi and local jewellery designers including Vasiliki by Kiki Karayiannis. The flowers are seasonal and sourced locally to support Greek growers and minimise waste.

Monocle included Phāon in its Athens shopping guide. Yatzer covered the opening. The photography of the store, including the launch images, was shot by Anastasia Perahia Dèdé.