Handcrafted Heritage: The Mentis–Antonopoulos ‘NEMA’ Passementerie and Dior

The ‘Mentis’ and ‘Antonopoulos’ manufactories are among the oldest companies in the field of thread processing and the production of silk-making items, and the only workshop still operating in Greece that continue to produce ribbons, braids, tassels, fringes, and other passementerie products using traditional methods. The legacy of these two manufactories was saved thanks to a groundbreaking initiative by the Benaki Museum, which created a centre for preserving, researching and promoting ‘silken arts’ at the Athenian neighborhood of Petralona: Mentis – Antonopoulos (‘NEMA’) Passementerie. The space also hosts educational and exhibition activities, serving as a living center of intangible cultural heritage. (Photo: © Benaki Museum / Leonidas Kourgiantakis)

The Mentis – Antonopoulos (‘NEMA’) Passementerie of the Benaki Museum collaborated with the House of Dior for the Cruise 2022 collection, presented at the Panathenaic Stadium.

The Dior Cruise 2022 collection at the Acropolis. © Filmed at the Archeological Site of the Acropolis of Athens and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

Dior’s artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri envisioned a celebration of creativity and craftsmanship rooted in the cultural dialogue between Greece and France. Determined to showcase the richness of contemporary Greek artistry, Dior sought to engage local creators, visual artists, and traditional artisans whose work continues to shape Greece’s cultural landscape. This vision naturally led to a partnership with the Mentis–Antonopoulos textile workshop (NEMA). During her visit to the NEMA workshop on Polyfimou Street in Petralona, Chiuri was inspired by the living tradition of Greek textile craftsmanship. As a result, Dior commissioned decorative elements for the hats featured in the show, with production carried out by the Tsalavoutas family workshop, renowned for its handmade sailors’ caps. NEMA specifically produced the twisted handmade cord adorning the brim of the traditional nautical cap reimagined for the Cruise 2022 collection.

Under the guidance of NEMA textile supervisor, ethnologist Virginia Matseli, a series of accessories for the hats was created, overseen by the British designer Stephen Jones, who has been associated with the House of Dior as its artistic director of millinery for more than 25 years. “A Greek fisherman’s cap, special edition”, adorned with a braid, the Christian Dior signature, and jacquard laurel leaves, says Stephen Jones. “When they would come back from sea, the tradition is their wives would reknot the braid” he adds, describing the new essential as a “symbol of home, hope, happiness and family” (© Film directed by Marianna Economou) (Photos: elculture.gr)

‘NEMA’ Passementerie Museum at Petralona, Athens (Photo: © Benaki Museum / Leonidas Kourgiantakis)

(Photo: © Benaki Museum / Leonidas Kourgiantakis)

The first step towards the creation of ‘NEMA’ was taken in 2012 with the rescue of ‘Mentis’ Passementerie from oblivion. The business was founded in 1867 in Nafplio but soon after moved to Athens in order to cater for the needs of its main clients, the Royal Court and the Palace Guard. The original workshop on Kerykeiou Street in Monastiraki included a silk workshop, a weaving facility and a dye house whereas a separate silk cocoon incubation house was located in the area of Mets. In 2011 the business closed and its equipment was donated to the Benaki Museum by Marina, Othon and Spyros Mentis. The workshop was refurbished and opened again in December 2012.

In 2014 the Benaki Museum welcomed another donation, of the Georgios Antonopoulos family manufactory. The Benaki Museum refurbished a new space on 10 Polyfemou Street as well as the original space on no 6 so that the new donation was housed. It includes the complete archive of the business, many products and its entire equipment, among which two rare Jacquard looms. The collection was inventoried and researched by the Head of ‘NEMA,’ ethnologist Virginia Matseli. (Source: Benaki Museum)

Historical passementerie products of the Menti company (Photos: Athens Voice). The ‘Mentis’ and ‘Antonopoulos’ manufactories supplied over decades passementerie products to fashion, interior and costume designers, furniture upholsterers as well as military and ecclesiastical tailors. Their client lists included the Presidential (formerly Palace) Guard, the Greek National Opera, the Greek National Theatre, the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), the Greek Organization of Small & Medium Sized Enterprises & Handicrafts (EOMMEX), the Greek Royal Welfare Fund, the Lyceum Club of Greek Women and many others in Greece and internationally (Source: Benaki Museum)

The Menti family: Spyros, his wife Anna, and their four children. From left: Giorgos, Dimitris, Anastasia, Othon (left), The Menti shop (right) (Photos: Athens Voice)

(Photo: © Benaki Museum / Leonidas Kourgiantakis)

(Photo: © Benaki Museum / Leonidas Kourgiantakis)

‘NEMA’ has developed into a centre for preserving traditional techniques of thread manufacture, weaving and embroidery. To this end, the Benaki Museum Education department works with specialist craftspeople and offers lifelong-learning courses focusing on these traditional techniques. The Benaki Museum Shop, in an effort to marry old expertise and contemporary creativity, works with artists using raw materials from ‘NEMA’ for their creations (photo above). Their works are offered for sale at the various Benaki Shop outlets (Photo: © Benaki Museum / Leonidas Kourgiantakis)

The Benaki Museum Shop currently presents the exhibition “From Ink to Silk” by Nikomachi Karakostanoglou and the Art Rug Projects initiative by Ilektra Soutzoglou. The exhibition is hosted in the historic space of the Mentis–Antonopoulos (NEMA) Passementerie of the Benaki Museum, until December 5, 2025. The collaboration between these two women goes beyond a shared artistic project—it is a meaningful encounter between two worlds connected through history, heritage, weaving, and art. All of this unfolds within a space that carries its own profound memory. NΕMA serves not only as the backdrop for the exhibition but as an integral part of it—a living vessel of Greek textile history that today hosts its continuation in a contemporary, creative form.

General view of the exhibition “From Ink to Silk” at the NEMA Museum (Photo: nikomachi.k_studio). The creative encounter between visual artist Nikomachi Karakostanoglou and the Art Rug Projects initiative by Electra Soutzoglou brings together an artist and a historic carpet weaving company in a dialogue between matter and spirit, past and present, the gesture of art and the art of hand-weaving in an act of translation and transformation

Works by Nikomachi Karakostanoglou for the exhibition “From Ink to Silk”: Aegean Atoll (upper), Intimately Close (lower left), Imprint (lower right). In this bold project, visual artist Nikomachi Karakostanoglou steps in as a creative voice, bringing her own cultural heritage into the conversation. In her practice, she approaches material not simply as a vessel for form, but as a carrier of memory, energy, and sensation. Light and water are fundamental elements in her work—not merely as images, but as ways of perceiving the world: endless, fluid, intangible, and ever-present. This flow continues when her work is translated into a silk carpet. Her visual language becomes more tactile through weaving, yet retains its poetic nature (Source: Benaki Museum)

The story of the Soutzoglou family begins in Sparta of Asia Minor in 1900, where Nikolaos Soutzoglou founded one of the first Greek carpet workshops. Following the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922, he restarts the business all over again in Greece. The third generation, represented by Electra Soutzoglou, now breathes new life into the art of weaving by linking the traditional art of carpet-making with contemporary art. Looking towards the future, Electra launched Art Rug Projects, a platform where contemporary Greek and international artists are invited to transfer their visual works onto carpets—turning painting into weaving and artistic design into handcrafted objects of art.

Since 2017, visual artist Nikomachi Karakostanoglou has been exclusively working on her drawings and sculptures, challenging herself through the scale of the works and the materials she has collected during her travels across Asia. In 2023, under commission by the Onassis Foundation’s Stegi, she created two outdoor sculptures: “Drop of Knowledge” and “Flow.” She has held solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. Her works are part of private collections as well as the collections of MOMus, the Benaki Museum, and the Onassis Foundation.

General view of the exhibition “From Ink to Silk” at the NEMA Museum. Art Rug Projects by Soutzoglou focuses on interactive collaborations with Greek and international contemporary artists, whose selected works are transformed into handmade rugs and tapestries—either as one-of-a-kind artworks or limited editions (Photo: Benaki Museum)