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...

Grey is the new black. It is so elegant and softer. My dress comes from Denmark made by Charlotte Eskildsen for the label Remix. I purchased it in Bergen, Norway. For me the colour is reflecting the silvery grey of an overcast day in the North. Bergen seems to be one of the wettest places on earth. There they love to tell you all sorts of jokes mocking their rainy weather: An American tourist asked a boy: Tell me young man, is it raining here every day? I don’t know, madam , did the lad answer, I am only eight years old.  The gathers in the front of my dress add just that bit of playfulness needed for a less sober look. Draped jersey is Charlotte Eskildsen’s speciality. Grey has the great advantage that it lends itself to endless possibilities of combinations. Sometimes I add violet boots and bag and a lot of silver, sometimes I feel more like jazzing it up with gold and an Asian spencer. The plushy spencer is doubling as a wind screen for chilly days. A red turtle neck swe...

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...