Around the World in 80 Dresses

Normally I am not a fan of Northern climes. Much too cold for my liking, but what can you do if you have a Norwegian lady friend and she happens to get married in her home country in early spring. Put on as much wool as you can was her advice. I checked my collection of cuddly sweaters and packed a huge suitcase. In went woollens from Norway proper, from Lithuania where I had been freezing to death on a business trip until I got hold of a wonderful woollen jacket with felt lining and from Ireland where the seller had assured me that an old grandma had been knitting my sweater for a whole month. In went two pairs of slipper socks another dear Norwegian friend had knitted for me. I was ready for the ice age. At least, I didn’t have to put on my reindeer fur from Hardanger Fjord. It can get nearly as cold in Northern Germany at the Baltic Sea. Then I am visiting my daughter in Kiel where she is working I can feel that I am close to Scandinav...

My personal guardians come from a small gallery in Lithuania. I saw them on an exhibition in Vilnius and travelled some hours up country to meet the artist at her studio. A friend of a friend agreed to take them along when he was going home. As he had not much time I met him on a parking and ordered my taxi driver to look out for a green Opel. He did not hide that he was worried. May be, he suspected me of smuggling weapons or drugs. Here they are looking at my mixture of African necklace cum German dress cum Malaysian bag not to speak of the belt from Guadaloupe where there is dancing everywhere.   I like to think that my gods are looking benevolently. That’s what household gods are meant to, aren’t they? .

I do like black and white for autumn and winter albeit on a bright summer day the contrast can be a bit harsh. On those days I had rather combine white with brown.  The necklace of unpolished amber is adding just that bit of colour to the French skirt and jacket with the poetic name Le Blé en Herbe to break up the strict white and brown. I happened to see the necklace in the shop window of a jeweller on a harsh winter morning in Vilnius when I was eager to escape from the cold to the light and warmth of a shop. Amber is found everywhere around the Baltic sea. The brooches I found in a shop in Krakov when I visited my elder daughter during her semester at the famous Polish university and the fake tortoise shell handbag is proudly South African.