destination athens; The bag designer Devi Kroell takes to the streets to find leather sandals, gold jewelry, and folkloric frocks.

Byline: Irini Arakas

You can't get around it," says Michael Kors. "From classic Grecian drapery to flat sandals to gold jewelry, Greece equals hot-weather magic." It's true, Greece was the word for designers this season as the goddess dress ruled the spring runways.

So bag designer Devi Kroell and I flew to Athens. Hot-weather magic it wasn't. Rain rolled down mercilessly from Mount Olympus. But buckets of water do not deter Kroell, who treats this shopping trip like an Olympic sporting event. The Swiss-born shopper is agile, quick to orient herself in a foreign city, and speaks all the necessary Greek words and phrases: Hello, how much, thank you, goodbye.

Kroell is no stranger to strange cities. She is the daughter of a diplomat. She speaks five languages and has lived all over the world. "I am so happy my parents are living here now. I am looking forward to fully embracing the culture," says the 29-year-old.

This is no exaggeration. Kroell and her Italian fiance, Alessandro Chiurazzi, will be getting married in Athens in May. "We are having the ceremony in a Greek church and we are closing off part of the Plaka for the first night of festivities." The Plaka, a neighborhood in the center of the city, is our first stop. The jewelry store A. Patrikiadou (58 Pandrossou, 011/30-210-325-0539), sells ancient coins and Byzantine jewelry dating as far back as the fourth century b.c. Sales manager Ioannis Kesisoglu donned a Herculean smile when he spotted the future bride. Kroell had her eye on two coins: an Alexander the Great from 323 to 326 b.c. ("for Alessandro. Well, for me to remind me of him") and an Athina coin from the same period for her sister, who happens to share the goddess's name. She also spotted a replica of a seventeenth-century Minoan Bee pendant. The price was $1,880, and Kroell wasn't buying. In Athens, she knew, there is always the "first price" and "the real price." "It's usually 30 percent off the original," she said, leaving with the promise to return and negotiate. As we ...