Otrera Evil Eye Scarves

January 22, 2009 Ninu Nina

New York designer Elle Sakellis launched her collection of Otrera Evil Eye Scarves in the fall of 2008, and in just a matter of days, her scarves were picked up by Kitson and Intermix. Her dreams as a designer are coming true as she is currently debuting these funky scarves in Barneys nationwide, Henri Bendel, and Saks Fifth Avenue Mexico. In addition to the five original colors of black, blue, green, purple, and orange, Elle Sakellis has now released new colors for spring including turquoise, coral, nude, yellow, and white. The message of good karma behind the Greek Evil Eye has inspired confidence in its wearers from New York to Dubai, and has now crossed cultural boundaries in the fashion forward city of Tokyo.

How did you begin Otrera? After spending almost 10 years working in finance, I decided to take a break and take an extended vacation to Mykonos where my family spends most of their time. I spent that time on the beach and started making jewelry just for fun. I started making pieces for friends and got an overwhelming response so I started a little business making jewelry and eventually starting designing private label jewelry for other household names like Victoria’s Secret.

As my jewelry business started to grow, I wanted to slowly start expanding into other accessory categories and scarves were the next natural step for me as I love them and think that they are a staple to any outfit. During another summer in Mykonos, I walked by a tourist shop where there was a wall of evil eye amulets all hanging together and it made me think of how great it would be to incorporate that into a print pattern for a scarf line.

Your inspirations? The majority of my inspiration comes from not only my culture but also from other people’s cultures. The experience of watching people’s reactions to the evil eye print has been so thrilling. There are so many people that know the story about this historic symbol of protection and those that don’t know about it, really enjoy learning about its story.

Plans for 2009? As I have been traveling to tell my story about the Evil Eye Scarves, so many people have taken the time to tell me about other symbols of protection and good energy that were prevalent in their cultures and it has really inspired me. My plans for the year are to bring more of these historic symbols to light in my prints as well as to branch out into other categories in fashion. I want Otrera to become a name that will represent good luck, good energy, and constant protection from all things negative in our lives that prohibit us from doing what makes us happy.

Favorite websites

www.shopintuition.com- Love the novelty items you can find there!
www.shopbop.com- I’m obsessed with their lookbooks!
www.shopsheboutique.com- Also have great lookbooks to give me outfit ideas!