TASTE
The lucky charm that adorns this year’s Navarino Icons gift boxes reflects the common values of Costa Navarino and Shedia.
By Maria Athanasiou
An exceptional 2024 good luck charm, created in collaboration with Shedia, accompanies this year’s Navarino Icons holiday gift boxes. Shedia (meaning “raft” in Greek), is an esteemed NGO that supports and empowers homeless people through the publication and distribution of the street magazine of the same name, and the charm is a creation of the Shediart team, part of a social and environmental program that transforms the pages of old Shedia street magazines into art objects and utilitarian items. The items are then sold at the Shedia Home store or via its website.
The charm that comes with the Navarino Icons gift boxes is designed in the shape of a house; it’s a form that’s charged with meaning for the people of Shedia, embodying as it does a sense of home, of roots, of heritage, and of belonging. Both the connotations of the charm and the recycling process that produces it are in perfect alignment with the philosophy of Costa Navarino, which is built on the foundations of commitment to environmental sensitivity and respect for communities and local traditions.
These are the core elements of the Navarino Icons product line, too; inspired by the area’s long-standing cultural, agricultural and culinary traditions, the line celebrates the connection that people have with nature and the richness of the Messinian land. The products are made according to local Peloponnesian recipes and have won more than 40 awards in top competitions, with the Navarino Icons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) being named EVOO of the Year for three consecutive years.
“This holiday season, our team at the Shediart workshop had the unique opportunity to design a truly special item, a good luck charm crafted with great love and passion for Costa Navarino. It was a social and environmental project that brought us immense joy,” says Christos Alefantis, the founder of Shedia and editor-in-chief of their magazine. “We’re deeply grateful to the people of Costa Navarino for giving us the chance to draw on our imagination and our own strengths in the creation and art of making special objects from materials that, at first glance, may seem but are not at all ‘useless,’ as is the case with the pages of old issues of the Shedia street magazine. Ultimately, we’re grateful that they stand so actively and directly alongside us in this great effort to restore to some of the poorest among the poor in our country their faith in themselves, first and foremost, to feel visible, active, useful, and present. And all this with a unique perspective, high aesthetics, and style!”
This exclusive good-luck charm from Costa Navarino and Shedia will be decorating the festive boxes of the Navarino Icons series, a line which includes gastronomic products, exclusive accessories, and artworks, all in elegant packaging. The charm, too, will become part of an exciting narrative about the richness of the soil of Greece, the gastronomic heritage of the country, and the passion of its people.
