A Greek summer table is never bought in one place. It is collected, a plate from one island, a candle from another, linen from a grandmother's drawer.
Ours brings together four corners of Greece. Here is how we set it.
The plates
Every piece is painted by hand and glazed by hand on Skyros, the island whose embroidery inspired this year's collection. The motif is Copper Flowers, in a deep ivy green that looks right next to bread, olive oil and tomatoes.
Stack the dinner plates with the dessert plates on top. Nothing else needed.
Anemones
Pure linen in Greek blue, embroidered with anemones and finished with scalloped edges. It creases, it softens with every wash, and it is supposed to.
Fold the Anemone napkins loosely and let them fall off the edge of the plate.
The light
Poured on Corfu with CHOE candles, in natural soy wax that burns clean and slow. Neroli, orange and cinnamon, like the end of a long lunch.
Light the Pyrgi candle when the sun goes down. Fifty hours means it will see you through the summer.
The host
Whoever sets the table sets the tone. Lemon yellow and navy stripes, the colours of a Greek summer, and cool enough for a kitchen in August.
The Iphigenia blouse in cotton voile, with cut embroidery on the sleeves, and the Aegean striped maxi skirt in linen and cotton. Bare feet, and the table already set.
The atmosphere
One long table by the water in Ermoupoli. Green flowers in wicker baskets, small lamps all the way down, the plates from Skyros on linen in Greek blue.
Keep the flowers low enough to talk over, light everything at sunset, and let the evening do the rest.
Leave the candle burning.
