Patmos is a tiny Greek island, lying in the Aegean, in the north of the Dodecanese. It was once named by Forbes as one of Europe’s most idyllic places. It’s this sense of idyll that won over Maria Lemos, the founder of London fashion showroom Rainbow Wave and owner of boutique Mouki Mou, and husband Gregoris Kambouroglou, who first visited Patmos in 2008, after their go-to island of Mykonos began to change. ‘In Patmos we found a haven,’ says Lemos, ‘and we decided we did not want to go anywhere else. So we returned, with our family, nearly every year since then.’
But what is so special about Patmos? ‘It’s special because it’s remote,’ explains Lemos. You have to really want to get here, and that deters a lot of people. Plus there’s the history, the monastery, the beauty of [ancient citadel] Chora, but also the beauty of the land and the island’s formation. From Chora, you have a 360-degree view of the whole island, and from almost every cove you can see other islands. So it feels like you are surrounded by other islands, and yet Patmos is unique among all of them.’
In 2022, the couple took their relationship with the island to another level, opening Pagostas, a guesthouse. ‘Our idea with Pagostas was to restore the place to what it used to be: a guesthouse of a monastery. Simple, monastic, elegant but incredibly restrained, so that travellers could find peace – rest and restore.’
