Greek Revival

When it’s time to recharge, globe-trotting designer Tino Zervudachi heads to his chic Aegean retreat.

- Mark Rozzo

About 30 years ago, Tino Zervudachi alighted on Hydra, a nearly 13-mile-long Aegean island of rocky hillsides, where winding streets and crooked stone steps snake among traditional whitewashed houses roofed in terra-cotta tiles. Separated from the mainland by a thin channel called the Kolpos Idras, the island can be reached in 90 minutes on a hydrofoil from Athens. But for Zervudachi, the place felt a world away. Back home in London, the young designer was finding his stride working with the legendary David Mlinaric (with whom he’d eventually partner to form the estimable firm of Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi, which Zervudachi took over after Mlinaric’s retirement, in 2005), and the island offered a quiet respite from his busy city life. “When you step off the ferry,” he says, describing the feeling of arriving at Hydra, from which most motorized vehicles have been banished, “there are no sounds of cars or mopeds—all that noisy commotion. It’s just so restful. You completely disconnect.”