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October 05, 2006
Spain Spree
Remember that little spending spree at C.O. Bigelow that I mentioned? The one where I spent $12 on a piece of fabric for my hair? That was just the very tip of the iceberg. I have since swiped my credit card at far too many small, tastefully decorated Park Slope boutiques in exchange for questionable purchases wrapped in colorful tissue paper. I'm consoling myself by saying I'm supporting the local economy (choke).
I visited them ostensibly to buy gifts for my hosts. Instead, I spent untold amounts on clothes I'm not really sure I need or want but that I've spend twenty minutes discussing with the very attentive boutique staff.
It goes like this. I walk through the door, and friendly greetings are exchanged. An inquiry is made concerning my shopping needs. I say I'm just browsing. Then I find the most inexpensive item in the store (usually around $50) after combing through $267 cashmere hoodies and such, and am escorted to a fitting room. While trying on my chosen affordable item, which never works out, helpful salespeople offer to bring me items I might have missed.
Extremely cute tops and bottoms are handed to me in my tiny enclave. My alter ego -- a well-to-do, chic hotel-visiting, jet-setting European sophisticate -- takes over. She has an interest in such things and understands that one shouldn't be bothered by the concept of cost while considering the art of fashion. She tries them all on, nonchalantly chooses a few items, and hands my poor credit card over to the helpful handmaidens.
While I'd advise caution when entering any one-word boutiques in the Slope (loom, otto, bird, kiwi, etc), I do have to recommend one place: E Lingerie by Enelra (you can tell it's different just by the name: four words instead of one, and they use uppercase AND lowercase letters!). My money there was well spent, I think, and there's a good selection. It's on 5th Ave, just south of the Key Food parking lot.
Prepping for Spain is an adventure all to itself. I have an aversion to booking accommodations. Organization in the packing arena is not my forte (the shopping spree is my panickey response to the packing dilemma). I've decided to knit gifts, which means that I have engineered a little mini marathon of knitting for myself at the same time that I need to focus on other, more pressing matters. For the scarf, I'm just doing ribbing all the way. It shows off the yarn nicely. The pattern is thanks to Old Navy, where I saw a skinny scarf knit that way.
Our trip looks something like this.: Madrid (tapas!) -> Barcelona (nostalgia!) -> Zaragoza (festival!) -> ??(somewhere in the car on the way to the northern coast, hopefully involving cheese country)?? -> San Sebastian (seaside!) or Bilbao (shiny!) -> Santander (churros!). Sounds exhausting.
Posted by csageday at October 5, 2006 02:38 AM
Comments
Oh, boy. My solution is to be too fat to fit anything in any of those stores. It goes like this:
I walk by and see something gorgeous in the window. I consider that I would be willing to part with mega-bucks to be inside that marvelous dress. We all know that the window dressing is a size 2, but they will have more inside, and I know it's a design that will work on me.
I go in. I discover that the size "L" wouldn't fit me even if I lost 30 pounds, because there's other stuff under there - ribs and big quad muscles. Unable to depart so quickly from that dress of my dreams, I cruise around the rest of the store. Here we can go two ways. One, I find the one weird blouse that is cut funny and actually fits. I hate it and don't buy anything. Two, I find that there is nothing in the store at all that will possibly fit me. In either scenario, I leave without buying anything, much to the relief of the sales folks who were dying for me to get out.
Once or twice a year, I try that routine with a whole bundle of stores - just roll down Smith Street or round the slope. The rest of the year, I look wistfully in the windows and keep on walking.
Posted by: Amber at October 5, 2006 09:48 AM