Around the World in 80 Dresses

The embroidered pouch, the petit point bag and the silk gloves are cherished fashion items from my mother and grandmother. Used sparingly with a modern outfit there is still place for these heirloons. My belts are a  mix as happy as it is incoherent. For the lilac belt made of crocodile leather I spent the greater part of my first salary on a new job when I was young and a spendthrift. It happens to match the pouch of the same colour from Argentina, I acquired much later in that eldorado for leather lovers. Shoes get a whole new meaning depending on where to wear them, for outdoors, for indoors, and for those late night outings. So, just one or two pairs of black ones won't do. However, I am neither Imelda Marcos nor Grace Mugabe. My shoes are still fitting into my wardrobe albeit I have to admit shoes can become addictive. Here they crowd my water lily basin’s rim to be in the lime light.

My days in Frankfurt coincided with the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the largest international book fair worldwide. Thus, it seemed appropriate to spend my first morning at my favourite bookshop Weltenleser   indulging in literature from Georgia. This small country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia was the guest of honour at the book fair and had brought to Frankfurt a plethora of exhibitions and other events besides their beautiful pavillon at the fair grounds. Their intriguing scripture and their rich treasure of ancient gold took centre stage. No stay in Frankfurt is complete without spending Germany's greatest poet a visit. Goethe spent his childhood in his father's house in the old town centre. The large 18th century house of the wealthy and influential citizen is the greatest tourism hot spot in town. I duly renewed my love affair with Goethe and his poems (see my post of March 6, 2018) in his home town. I thought my outfit should blend in with the cheerful colour...

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.

  As to see beautiful sarong-kebaya combinations you will have to travel to Bali. This island so distinctly different from other parts of Indonesia is imbued with Buddhist traditions. I had the chance to attend a royal funeral in Ubud and to witness this important event where a gamelan orchestra played, ladies wore their finest and a sarong seller offered her ware stored in a bundle on her head.   In Malaysia the sarongs are called songkets .  The main techniques are batik (see also post  A New Take on Batik, March 18 ) and ikat . Ikat is the name of a long process of binding the yarn to resist colour and dying it several times to obtain the pattern. Sarongs are now mainly confined to dancing performances and museums.  I bought the batik cloth with the blue flowers from Tiga Serangkai Design in Eastern Malaysia and the black and brown one in Malaysian Borneo from Sarawak Design. In the olden days my red sarong with the golden threads would ha...

Velvet used to be a rare and precious fabric. Not so much any more but it still creates a festive atmosphere. You think of a candle light dinner or a room illuminated by crystal chandeliers.  My favourite Cape Town designer  Eroll Arendz   may have had this in mind when he created the west of copper coloured silk incrusted with matching velvet and adorned with velvet wristbands. A less formal take on velvet is the vintage purple suit with loose pants and a shirt by Jeff Gattana, Paris. It fits perfectly to the knitted coat from Argentina’s Andean city Córdoba.  Raquel Rossetto has used the velvet sparingly, just for the buttons. The curvy applications on the coat remind me of Córdoba’s baroque cathedral. The second biggest town of Argentina has a much more Spanisch ambiente than cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. The colonial past is still lingering in the streets and the old buildings with the backdrop of the Sierras Chicas.     ...

The French colours bleu-blanc-rouge are bringing back summer memories from the Cote d’Azur. Once I possessed a silk dress from Leonard , Paris with just a bit too many maritime motifs. Tempi passati . Only the matching scarf held on to my drawer and joined forces with the dock steps. They are making me sail slowly through the light blue air of these early summer days. 

I believe in the power of scarfs. Any plain dress will get a new look with a scarf whatever the style of the scarf is, dramatic, delicate or elegant.    Bright colours and bold patterns may be too loud for a whole dress, on a scarf they come off quite well. You can play with transparent chiffon, soft silk or cosy wool, knot it tightly around your neck or throw it casually over your back.  © HansenHimself, Lesotho, pixabay   For winter there is mohair. Some of the best wool of the quaint mohair goats comes from Lesotho. It is cold in the mountais of the small land locked enclave of South Africa where the ponies are still the main means of transport. Warm mohair and the colourfull Basotho blankets are sheer necessity.  The possibilities for playing with scarfs are endless.

No, it is not Diane von Furstenberg ’s      c lassic wrap around dress which I wear.  My trois pièce is a dream of chestnut coloured duchesse, light silky velvet shining like jewels and lined with bright red silk completed by a scarf.  I bought it in New York at Bergdorf Goodman whereto I had fled from an icy drizzle on a grey winter day.  © littleny, 123RF © Leonard Zhokovsky, 123RF