Around the World in 80 Dresses

Years ago my then time sweet heart brought me a precious painting from Russia. The icon is showing Saint Catherine in an embroidered dress in front of a star studded background. The painting makes me always think of my own visit to Russia.  It was a romantic evening in early winter in St Petersburg. The first snow was falling slowly on the square in front of the Hermitage.  From that journey I brought home a lovely fringed scarf. Russian women wear these large scarfs for special occasions. Mine is made of royal – or should I say imperial - blue silk accentuating the embroidered chrysanthemums.  ©  St Petersburg, Nicolle,Shekin, pixabay 

There are coats to keep you warm, coats which match a dress and coats for special occasions. The grey flannel coat with ample rhinestone applications at the sleeves comes from a shop in Singapore specializing in French prêt-à-porter vintage. You needn’t wear an expensive dress as the coat is absorbing all the attention. The embroidered black piece from parory in India is more a tunic than a coat. So, it asks for matching slacks and a top to go underneath.  I found the coat in a shop of Cape Town’s pitturesque fishing village Kalk Bay on a visit to The Court Yard Café , a charming little restaurant on the Main Road facing the harbour and run by the daughter of my friends. © holmespj, Harbour, fishing boat, pixabay The hand woven linen coat with an ethnic touch made by Giwa vyed for my attention in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. It goes well with skinny jeans. Their shape hints at tight Asian pants and their material tones down the ethnic look. © jenn...

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.

  I met Betty at a coffee shop in Singapore’s Thomson neighbourhood where she was living. She hails from a Eurasian family, the smallest ethnicity in this cosmopolitan city-state. Her Portuguese ancestor married a Chinese lady and they stayed in Singapore ever after... Once Betty invited me for New Year’s Eve to celebrate with her close knit family. With our chopsticks we tossed the traditional salad from its huge bowl into the air as high as we could. The winner would have good luck for the year to come. Later on we exchanged presents in little bright red parcels and played cards. Behind the façade of their sky scrapers and glitzy malls Singaporeans are traditionalists and love to spend time with the family clinging to their customs in a speedily changing environment.   When I unwrapped my present I was thrilled. I found a beautiful kebaya which had belonged to Betty’s mother. In the olden days Singaporean Eurasians and Peranakans of mixed Malay-Chinese parent...

Argentina evokes the faded charm of Buenos Aires impregnated with languid tango music and dancing, but there is more to it in this vast country nearly as large as a continent. The Andean provinces of the far North West are a world apart. In the crisp air of the mountain villages and small towns the indigenous Indian culture seems to have survived more easily than in the Eastern plains.   © http://www.turismo.catamarca.gob.ar I strolled for hours along the stands and shops in Catamarca’s Mercado artesanal.  The town lives up to its   sonorous name San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca. Here you won’t find mass products for the tourist market. Every single item is handmade, intricately embroidered, carved, etched or chiselled.  © http://www.turismo.catamarca.gob.ar A lovely silver ring with a rhodochrosite, the locally mined rose coloured gem stone and an embroidered shawl were vying for my attention. On that chilly day in late autu...

This is not a lady’s belt. These artfully embroidered belts ornate mens’ waists at Hermannstadt, Romania at least once a year when the Hermannstädter Sachsen celebrate their “national” day. © Hermannstädter Zeitung, Nr. 2500, 30.09.2016, Foto: Werner Fink The descendants of German settlers from the Middle Ages are a sizable minority in Romania’s Western province Transylvania. They are all bilingual German and Romanian and have their own newspaper, the Hermannstädter Zeitung . I am grateful to Beate Unger the editor in chief who told me a lot about the Sachsen on my visit to see my daughter who was working in Romania. Klaus Johannis, the Romanian president hails from their community. They have left Germany and Austria hundreds and hundreds years ago. As professed protestants they were exiled from their home countries like the Huguenots from France. Their fortified churches in Siebenbürgen, the Land of the Seven Towers, testify of the struggles they had to endure at their ...

I love the elegance of Far Eastern dressing styles, the brightness of Indian colours and the softness of South East Asian silks. From every trip to Asia I come back with loads of fabrics and stuff. Too much in fact. You don’t want to look like going to a fancy dress party. The avid traveller and the style conscious fashionista are competing within me. I have to restrict myself to using the exotic items sparingly. A vest here, a silk shawl there toned down by some black. The green velvet cap with the silver embroidery has a special place in my traveller’s heart. It was a gift I got many years ago on a trip to Upper Egypt. © Christophe Cappelli, 123RF © Marc Ryckaert ( MJJR ) Gurna_Mosque_R01 I was a young professional on my first job and we stayed overnight in the ancient village of Gurna. The roof of the white washed caravanseray was the deep blue star studded sky. Our group was invited to take part in the stock dance which substituted TV as the villagers' eveni...