Around the World in 80 Dresses

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.

I fell in love with the electric blue bolero before reading the label. May be, the mother and daughter team Helena and Melissa Ross located in Cape Town’s Northern suburb Durbanville are as avid gardeners as I am. Since then I look out for the yellow flower with the dark eye and the beautiful name and not only in garden centres. Thunbergia alata , the Black Eyed Susan , is native to South Africa and so is the brand. When I am in Cape Town I like to buy Proudly South African .