All Pretty Things

Never ever again

Remember my doubt for Uggs? well, I thought I'd go for it and get them. After all, I think they are a classic. Coincidentally, I saw on the Betsy Palmer site that they were holding a Sample Sale for Uggs. I thought of going, then forgot. And then on Friday, a colleague tells me she is going. I couldn't resist and thought: what the heck, let's see how it is. I got up at 6:30, had a quick shower and took a tram to my colleague's place at 7:14. Eight in the morning we were there...with another 1000 million people, no, really, at least a thousand. The doors had not opened yet and since the place was an industrial building,we thought it would be able to host us all. I lost all hopes for buying anything, but wanted to see the Sample Sale. Well, the door opened and just as if your life depended on Uggs, girls started screaming. Children (yes, parents do these kind of crimes to their kids) were 'stage diving', people climbing cars.

I stood there for 10 minutes, I believe. I am a shoe lover, a fashion lover, I spend hours thinking, writing, talking about fashion. But this, never again. Seriously, it's shoes, just shoes. I think most of the sold shoes are now on Ebay. Sad, I rephrase, pathetic.

Maybe I should have thought about the kind of poeple that would kill for real Uggs at half price. I refuse to elbow for shoes. I even hate normal sales!!!

why did I go? I wonder...

Barcelona and fashion bussiness

 

On a previous post, I mentioned I was going to Barcelona with my mother in order to buy the collection of Summer '08 for Armani Jeans, Ermenegildo Zegna and Belstaff (see Mediterranean plans). Last Wednesday I took a plane to BCN at 6:20 excited to see the fashion world from a different angle, a more real angle if you like. Terrified as I am for flying (yes, I live abroad) I had to fly twice in the same day but I think I was more excited than anything, which helped me control my fear. Once landed, the fun began. We first went to Belstaff, beautiful building hosting other brands like C.P Company (which I simply love). The collection is fairly small and my mother and I seem to agree on everything. Belstaff mantains its motorbike culture and its known styling. It was fairly fast, we were done in more or less half hour. I checked the women's collection a bit and fell in love with a short sleved, tiny leather jacket...sorry, no pictures were taken. After a short visit to E4G, we headed to Armani Jeans. I have never seen so much denim, jeans, jeans, jeans. I am still wondered at how my mother seemed to be knowing what she was buying whereas I was lost in models and colors and washes and lenghts and amounts. After that, T-shirts and jackets. I am not a very big Armani fan in general, but to be honest, I thought the collection was very nice and sober. No big logos (finally) and a lot of blue, navy and gray, lovely. After 3 hours of Armani, and a 10 minutes 'lunch', Zegna's car pickep us up. Zegna has its own building, all very modern and minimalist. The building is divided into offices, a big showroon and the 'factory' where they make the tailored shirt for all over the world. I could take pictures, so you can have a look. This is the showroom and where we bought the collection:

   

  

Some of my favourites:

 

  

We also had a look at the factory, and saw patters and machines under the loud music of Wham (I think someone was doing the cleaning :S )

   

Conclusions: i. This was business, nothing to do with the romantic idea of fashion, but I still loved it. ii. Next summer seems to be sober and lovely and Armani is coming back to his terrein. iii. Wollen ties are coming back and I love it! iv. I hope that my influence will translate into good sales for my mother's business!