Window shopping in Stuttgart

It was a lovely, sunny day in Stuttgart today, and all of the stores were closed for the Easter holiday, so I thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to do some window shopping to see what the styles are for spring. Unfortunately the sunshine made it a little difficult to take pictures through the store windows, but maybe you can see the images ok.

Floral prints - and color - are everywhere! Blouses, skirts, dresses, pants...
I particularly like the use of black at least on the sleeves and sides of the dress (don't know if extends to the back), to tone down the print.

 

Hard to photograph with the sunshine, but there was a whole lot of floral going on here, including the backdrop.

 

 

I do like this jacket, but I would wonder how versatile it is. But if you're buying cheap "throw away" fashion then you don't care. I think this jacket was around 100 Euro - not cheap but not outrageous.

 

Lots of green - and prints.

 

 

I saw a surprising number of pants in prints.

 

This was a high end store - I think the jacket is about 1400 Euro. Those are some healthy shoulder pads in that jacket!

 

This was Zara - the printed jacket is a bit much, but oh my, what is that mannequin in the back wearing? A vest, a strip of fabric as a top and is that a super short skirt? It's actually shorts. Bleh. I don't think the pants on the front mannequin are all that attractive either. But next week Zara will have something else in the window.

 

There was other, non-print or brightly colored clothing. Here is your basic black dress with a beaded neckline. Very pretty. Too bad I couldn't get a better picture of it.  

 

I like the top of this white dress. It looks a bit odd with the no-hip mannequin, but I think the fabric detail of the top of the dress would do nicely to balance out a "real" woman's hips. (And yes, that's my reflection on the left, taking the picture with my cool, yellow Nokio Lumia 920 phone)

 

Another bad photo and it's not a display window so it's harder to see the dress, but I liked the seams on the front.

 

I believe this look is called "Lagenlook" - you'll have to look it up, I couldn't find a good site (in English) that explained it. Basically it's layering, but I think there can be a fine line between looking like you threw on lots of clothes because you're cold and looking chic. I do admire women who can pull this off.

 



 

 

 

Valentino made a table cloth and someone thought it was a skirt. Really. This is Valentino. You can't really see the texture of the fabric in this photo but to me it looked just like polyester table cloth. This store is high end but they have some pretty ugly things. I should have taken a photo of the harlequin print man's jacket in the other window.

Even though the tag on the dress clearly says Valentino", I had to check online to see if it really is and yes, here's a longer version. Still looks like a tablecloth.
 



 

Frühlingfest is coming up and it's time to get those Dirndls and Lederhosen out! I am actually going to try to make one this year, using the patterns they publish in the September Burda issues that prompt people to wonder who would make and wear such things!

 



Remember when ripped and torn jeans became fashionable and people paid a lot of money to buy "new" ripped and torn jeans. Well now you can apparently buy scuffed up sneakers. I thought these shoes were a prop, but no, they are selling for 169 Euro, scuffed toes included.

 

 

I thought it was a mistake, but there were others. These have darkened impressions in the top where your toes would be. See what your money can buy you?

 

 

And speaking of what your money can buy you, I am not into designer purses. I can't understand why people pay so much for them. In Europe they often include the prices of the items in the window. I'll let you figure out what costs what at Louis Vuitton. The tall bags are about the size of a small shopping bag and the smaller clutches look about the size of pencil cases. Maybe they are pencil cases.



And finally, I'll leave you with this non-fashion-related display. I loved this "door" display. It looks like the sheep are just waiting to get out. And I love sheep.

 



Great tips for sewing silk

Britex fabric store in San Francisco has a blog, and their latest post is about tips and tricks for sewing a silk blouse. Really good stuff!

Knitting gifts from a while back...and some videos

I finally got around to uploading some pictures of a couple of knitting gifts from...oh, last fall. Talk about lazy! But I made up for some of that laziness today by recording TWO videos on knitting cast on techniques for left handed knitters. I will admit that I only thought about making the video because I forgot how to do one of the techniques, and since there aren't too many instructions out there for left-handed knitters, I thought I'd make a "real" video and upload it to YouTube for other left-handed knitters out there.

First the knitting gifts. I made this hat for a friend who likes to play guitar. The yarn is "Allround" by Wolle Rödel, a German yarn I bought locally. I used a pattern, which was created by a German woman, coincidentally. I bought it from Revelry. I don't know if you can tell that the motif above the musical notes is a row of guitars. 

 

 Ravelry info

 

The other gift is a cowl. The pattern, available here, is called "Burberry Inspired Cowl Neck Scarf," because the designer was inspired by one she'd seen sold by Burberry for $750. Yes, $750. I made this scarf out of  Lana Grossa Alta Moda Cashmere, which is actually a wool/cashmere blend. The cowl has large cables knit into it to give it some texture.

 

Ravelry info

 

 And now for the videos. The first video demonstrates the "Old Norwegian Cast On" - also called "Twisted German" or "Elastic Long-Tail." This makes a stretchy cast on edge. This is the cast on that I couldn't remember how to do and after only finding videos of the technique for right-handers I thought I'd make one for left-handers.

 

 

 

After having some fun making this, I thought I'd make one for the regular "Long Tail Cast On."

 



 

 

 

A visit to Prague

Prague, a set on Flickr.

Prague was bitter cold this last weekend, but we endured it to see the Easter markets, which were not too different than the Christmas markets actually - hot wine, beer, and regional food specialties and treats mixed in among stalls selling tacky souvenirs and gifts. The common treat was a spirally wound strip of dough cooked over an open fire that was rolled in sugar and almonds. The "it" item of the market were the intricately painted eggs.

Unlike many cities in Europe, Prague was not extensively damaged during WWII, so the buildings you see are original and not rebuilt; however they have been restored over the years, particularly since the revolution in 1989. The architecture is quite a mix of Italian, German and Austrian influence with a heavy dose of Art Nouveau. We are always looking up when we walk through the streets and are delighted to find interesting facades, stonework and decorative painting on the buildings.

Milk, bananas, yarn...

I was shopping in the discount grocery today and look what I picked up along with my milk and bananas:

The yarn isn't too bad actually - 75% wool, 25% poly - and it comes with free double point needles. The needles alone would cost at least 4 Euro so I couldn't pass it up. I almost bought two. The other color choice was light tan and light blue striped, but I didn't need that much sock yarn or double points.

Yarn in the grocery! Good thing they don't sell fabric too. Although one of the department stores does and that's temptation enough whenever I'm there, which is often because the grocery I usually go to is in the basement.

What I did this winter

No fiber projects to post. Sorry. I have been knitting (and frogging) quite a bit but don't have anything to show yet. The only sewing I did was to make a couple neck gaiters out of fleece scarves. I simply cut the scarf and made a tube by serging one edge. We needed them for skiing and I refused to pay lots of money for a scrap of fleece!

I have been having a great time skiing this winter and want to do more. I'm actually a little sad that it's warming up outside! We went to Austria this weekend for some cross country skiing, and although the conditions weren't ideal - a bit slushy and icy in spots - we were so pleased to see that there are trails everywhere in Austria. You can just park your car and get out and follow the tracks into the woods, across meadows, and next to rivers and streams.

These are some pictures from this season's skiing, both cross country (nordic) and downhill (alpine), in the Austrian and French alps.

 

Cheap clothes

Probably 10 or 12 years ago I participated in a market study. I was paid $50 to sit in a room with a group of other people, mostly women, and talk about clothes. One discussion has stuck with me. The moderator held up a pair of pants and asked us what we'd pay for them. At the time my business wardrobe consisted of nice dress pants and blouses and a few suits for when the customer was in town. The labels in my clothing were Liz Claiborne or Jones New York. My price point was around $70-$90 for pants. I was shocked when one woman said she'd pay $15...and many others in the room shook their heads in agreement that they too thought $15 was a fair price.

I'm currently reading the book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline.

Although I had an idea of what's been happening to clothing and fashion over the years, I really did not realize what's been going on. I'm only on the first chapter and already felt compelled to blog about it.

I do not buy (many) cheap clothes and I avoid H&M, Zara, and Walmart, so I was not aware that today one could pay even less than $15 for pants, dresses, blazers, and shoes. Maybe it's because I sew, or maybe it's because I never got into shopping with my girlfriends or maybe it's because I have difficulty finding clothes that fit right, but I pretty much dislike clothing shopping.

I was aware of the developing trend for large quantities of cheap clothing around 20 years ago. At that time I was a grad student on a very tight budget. I went on a trip to Germany and Austria (thanks to the deep pockets of my then boyfriend) and got a glimpse of how expensive clothing was in Europe. Maybe it was because I was in touristy towns, but I saw that clothes were sold in small stores at relatively high prices. But I also got the sense that because of the cost, the clothing was purchased wisely, worn often, and cared for. I returned home to find that a new discount store opened in my town with rack upon rack of generic clothing in a variety of colors and at a very cheap cost. I realized then that Americans could (and would) purchase clothes without much thought and because they were so cheap it wouldn't matter if they weren't worn or became misshapen rags after one washing. Even though I didn't have much money, I decided I'd rather live like a European. The problem was that even if I saved my money, quality clothing was disappearing from the stores.

I purchased my Liz Claiborne and Jones New York wardrobe from Macy's but soon I began to hate going there. The dressing rooms were cluttered with piles of discarded clothes, and the aisles were crammed with racks of generic, cheap clothes. Fortunately I found that because I had purchased relatively good clothes - $80 instead of $15 for pants really did make a difference in quality - I didn't have to shop that often. Then my job changed and I no longer needed suits for customer visits. Casual Fridays became Casual Monday-Thursday as well, and soon I was the "best dressed" engineer in my workplace when I wore pants that weren't out of denim. My wardrobe consisted of either clothing I sewed myself or sweaters, blouses and pants I picked up at Costco along with 2 gallons of milk and 24 rolls of toilet paper. Once or twice a year I ventured to the mall department stores to treat myself to a new outfit. I would succeed at finding a few things, but usually the day was long and frustrating because I was dismayed at the quality and trendiness of the clothing, lack of any sales help, and inability to find clothes that fit and could be worn for more than a few months.

Now that I'm in Germany I would love to say that I'm living like a European, but I fear that this now means buying cheap clothing, for the most part. When I walk downtown I pass many stores with racks of 10-euro tops - flimsy things that wouldn't last beyond one washing (and certainly not the 2-hour wash cycle of  European washing machine!). Truth be told, I haven't done much clothing shopping here, except for winter coats and ski jackets, but when I do, I won't be visiting H&M or C and A or browsing the racks of those cheap 10-euro tops. Thankfully there's no Costco here to tempt me with the convenience of buying clothing with my groceries. I brought my sewing machines, there's a fabric store just a 5 minute walk from my apartment, and I have Burda magazines.