Deklaro & Ba Atelier. Inside Koukaki’s Minimalist Design Haven

 

This magical space operates less like a traditional retail boutique and more like a functional design installation. Deklaro is the project of Sandra Sharman, a former UNESCO international policy specialist who stepped away from a twelve-year career in global affairs to return to her family roots in design and aesthetics. Sharman has engineered a temple to quality and bespoke design that explicitly rejects the fast-paced cycle of modern fashion in favor of analogue, one-off beauty.

“I don’t view this as a fashion boutique; it’s a lifestyle and interiors project,” Sharman explains. 

The core of Deklaro’s design output relies on structural intervention on existing materials rather than production from scratch. During a sabbatical from UNESCO in Asia, Sharman sourced high-quality contemporary Korean and Japanese garments. Entranced by their tailoring—which she describes as a cross between Nordic minimalism and sharp Asian lines—she began treating each piece as an individual canvas.

Instead of generating textile waste through new manufacturing, Sharman and her small team of pattern makers recontextualize existing garments. They retain the original labels out of respect for the source craftsmanship but subtly alter the silhouette. A long coat is radically shortened; standard buttons are replaced with custom hardware; silhouettes are re-shaped or given hidden functionality like deep pockets. The results are completely bespoke, one-of-a-kind women’s and unisex garments.

The physical space in Koukaki mirrors this focus on texture and form, functioning as a gallery through a collaboration with Greek-Egyptian graphic artist Salma Barakat. Barakat began translating her graphic layouts into dense, hand-tufted textiles during the pandemic. They met in the previous Deklaro shop, admired each other’s work. The shared design vocabulary between the two women was immediate. Today, Barakat’s rugs and tapestries hang from the walls and line the floors of the studio, grounding Sharman’s minimalist garments and shifting the boutique away from retail and toward a curated installation.

This insistence on the physical environment extends to Deklaro’s complete rejection of digital retail. The brand maintains a basic informational landing page but strictly refuses to operate an e-shop. For Sharman, the design project cannot be divorced from the neighborhood, the real-world weight of the fabrics, or the slow, tangible experience of a physical space.

“Everything is analog, going back to the tangible,” says Sharman. “It’s about creating a hidden gem in the city where design, craftsmanship, and wellness intersect naturally.”