Around the World in 80 Dresses

I admit to have a penchant for the tailored suit. When I was still working it used to be a sort of uniform. You didn’t have to think much about what to put on. Just two suits and assorted blouses or jerseys and you were fit for a business trip. Now that I am retired the opportunities for suits present themselves not so often. Still I like to wear a suit every now and then on an autumn day in the city or for a lunch appointment. The best: this autumn season the suit is having a renaissance. Look at all the mannequins in suits at the Paris Fashion Week! So, suit is even rhyming to young and fashionable, mainly the version with pants, though. The chequered dark red and green suit was made in Italy by Bartolomei and the black and beige by Viviana Fougá in Buenos Aires. It is sheer joy to stroll along the streets of central Buenos Aires, Recoleta or Palermo and to do some leisurely window shopping. You will never finish browsing. Some boutiques and dress maker’s ateliers are tucked aw...

When in Hongkong do as the people from Hongkong do. That’s what I thought. So, first thing I bought a couple of ample jackets, silk, cotton, flowery, in subdued colours, whatever. And I went to a tea house to taste fragrant Chinese tea. No, I was not ashamed to behave like a silly tourist. I got that Eastern feel I had longed for.  I didn’t care that hardly any fashionable young Hongkong lady does wear these heirlooms any more. They may remind them of their grandmothers’ attire. That’s why one finds most of them at vintage shops.    New ones are the asymetric black jacket from Taipeh and the black and pink from KL.  The latter softens the boyish look of my flanell bermudas from Comptoir des Cottoniers.   I just like the comfort of those ample jackets so much. Any boring black pant gets a new life combined with a lovely Chinese top. Try it.

Mercifully, I am not the oldest in the room. The huge sandstone cheminée in my French farmhouse is more than hundred years old. May be, my heavy silver necklace is as old. At least, the shop in Shanghai’s French Concession I got it from assured me it was an old Miao piece from the South China mountains. (See my post of February 11 for the gorgeous Miao girl decked out in silver.) Their silver jewellery was a wedding gift and a sort of insurance for the bride. These massive pieces are not easy to wear in our urban contexts. Not only are they quite heavy, they are also most ornamental and difficult to combine with the casual clothing which is the order of the day. You just have to break the mould. So, here the Miao heirloom comes with an animal print dress and a bomber jacket with lots of fake leather and a zip from  H  & M . I purchased these items in Trondheim on a trip to see my partner’s school time pals in Norway. I firmly believe that all the great chai...

No better way to combine an evening dress made of vintage duchesse with rose applications from the now defunct Berlin Haute Couture label Schwichtenberg with a plushy tightly fitting spencer from a street market in Shanghai's cavernous underground. Berlin-Friedrichstrasse meets Shanghai Metro. After I had succeeded in crossing the murderous traffic on the street leading to my subway station without being run over I dived into the never ending underground shopping lanes. Sheer bliss! Fortune readers rubbed shoulders with high fashion and with mouth watering delicacies.  The old fashioned Schwichtenberg bolero is getting a new life with jeans and a slightly crumpled shirt.

A calligrapher in Singapore wrote the classic Chinese poem for me with his brush on a scroll.  I showed it to an English speaking Chinese friend and he translate d and interpreted: The rain at night / Plum blossoms / Winter sweet/ In the land of dreams about the butterflies / A wintry feel The poem, he said, is unusual in so far as the poet evokes reminiscences of winter in spring, while most of the poems about spring are just the other way round. They speak of hope for spring and renewal in the clutches of a hard winter.  I myself do not often think of winter in spring. When I do so I think of a warm fireplace or the first hellebore blossoms I missed. Winter is the time of subdued colours like the animal print blouse in blurred ‘shades of grey’ as if calligraphed with an ink brush. The black pencil skirt was also sampled in Singapore while the splash of red is European fusion. No Singaporean Chinese city sleeker would dare to wear such a bright colour. Understateme...

The tailor made dog-tooth suit is demanding for a hat. Why not playing with the image of Jackie Kennedy and adding a pillow box, albeit the fashion conscious first lady may never have put on a poncho. I purchased half a dozen in South America as they come so handy when it is too warm for a coat but too cold without a cover. My silver necklace comes from China. When I was in Malta I happened to see an exhibition of the silver jewellery hand made by the Miao tribe in China’s Southern mountainous region. What a pleasant surprise! There I saw a display of a necklace very similar to mine which I had found in Shanghai’s French Concession and a silver adornment exactly like mine. The Miao women wear the heavy jewellery for weddings and other festive events to this day. My dear friend who is the proud owner of a white vintage Mercedes convertible and even joined a club of other fans of these elegant cars was not at hand for the photo with the vintage pill...

Yellow makes me happy. I am thinking of sunshine, lemons in my garden and the festive portraits of imperial China. More down to earth I am always hunting for accessories in yellow as it is just too bright and prominent for an entire outfit. In Cape Town Rage is the answer. Their shoes are all Made in China and for one season only. Anyway, who would want to wear the same shoes forever. They are so affordable that you can indulge in unusual colours. Add a yellow scarf and your plain grey dress is immediately beefed up. Colours talk to each other. Yellow gets a whole new meaning when combined with shimmering purple velvet. I did so in Valetta, the ancient and most picturesque capital of Malta. There is a church for every day in the year. So, my velvet suit hinting at the colour of a Roman-catholic bishop’s robe seemed appropriate. Valetta is all about exuberance and showing off. In the bright sunshine of the Mediterranean Indian summer I flashed my new ring comprising a heli...