Bonjour lecteurs!
As the year is coming to an end, the good intentions' rite takes promptly place, with the only guarantee that those good intentions will be proved wrong a few seconds after the midnight, c'est la vie. On my 2013 Top 5, among others, there's the purpose to learn how to speak french (mmh...we'll see), and the desire to add the word updated to the list of words that describe my blog. Solution found: it's time to set up a column, at least one.

So, here it is, for the second time ever on your computer screen, Shopping tips.

Since the last time I chose a slower version of shopping, abducted by the romantic side of street markets (you can find it here), I tought it was about time to focus on a huuuge issue: shopping at low cost chains.

Halfway between an art and a tough battle, it needs first of all a great amount of theoretical notions, long practice and mind focused, abilities that could be taught by Mr. Miyagi actually, that if he were at Zara with his pupil Daniel-san, he would probably repeat him: know fashion, ignore fashion, know fashion, ignore fashion...

Despite the fact that I don't have any intention to put on his clothes, too shapeless and gray, and even less his bandage tied on the neck, I'll try to be as pragmatic as he has been.

The first step is, without doubt, to make a serious assessment of your tastes, which turns useful anyway. Are you mad with jolly clothes, those easy to manage, that allow you to adjust your outfit without a lot of moves according to your day? In this case, maybe, H&M is the right place for you. Do you really like (as I do) structured clothes, with clean lines? Just one word: COS. A low cost chain that winks one eye to current trends? Mango. One eye and a half? Topshop. Both eyes? Zara. Neither? Primark, you don't need your eyes with such low prices.

Second step: keep clear in mind your priorities' list. As it often happens you can't get everything, what could you not give up? An original touch, great fabrics, the chance to put your own stylistic effort on your outfit or, on the opposite side, to use ready-to-wear matchings, to the wellbeing of your credit card?

Done?

If you think you have successfully completed both phases, you are certainly at a good stage, but be careful, a threat hides among the latest arrivals and the special sales corner: the army of runway clothes' clones. Entities that walk fearless during the day and which dominate after the twilight, brrr. In this case the boundary between good and evil is so unstable that even if you pay attention to the traps, you risk of falling down with both shoes, and not only with the shoes.

My recipe? No clones, if possible, unless they really worth it, low cost items mixed with the best pieces of my closet, two or three more or less, the ones kept since many years and never thrown away, no hesitation on accessories.

Have a nice shopping day!

*kisses*

Giulia

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There are tones of reasons why you feel the need to buy: for necessity, for pleasure, because you think you never have enough (here the mantra is sooner or later I'll need it for sure), to fill small and big lacks.

Countless reasons, countless ways of purchase. Some people prefer to go to tried and tested stores where most of the times they know quite well what they are going to find, where to find it inside the store and in which day of the week, a kind of ritual consolidated over time. Some others rely on online shopping, because you know, nowadays time is the only true luxury, and when it dramatically lacks, you need to find a solution in some ways, so laptops set distances to zero and credit cards cut out cash desk queues.

I must admit that, while I'm quite good at the first option, I'm not that good with virtual shopping: I don't think I'll ever be able to give up touching objects' texture, fabrics in particular, before the purchase, I think it may be due to the same principle that makes me say that ebooks will never be as fascinating as paper books.

Trying to find a remedy, I will recover my handicap with some good advices on street markets, true stress free oasis where you can find both war relics from the First World War and brooches made of bouncing balls, plus all in between. Undefined space and time, neatly shapeless paths where the only duty is to get carried away, with some little tricks:

- Do not start the reconnaissance having a clear idea about what you would like to buy: the point is to be able to grasp the right thing in the right moment, it's a matter of belonging and predestination. You might think that we are the ones that find each piece of our booty but I think that, on the contrary, they find us;

- Pay attention to easy baits: since you are moving through a no lords' land, don't waste time and efforts trying to find the perfect copy of the item you saw in that beautiful shop in the city center, first of all trust me, you'll never find it, second of all you'll throw to the wind the chance to discover something new, not so conventional;

- Be patient: sometimes it may happen to come back home with a skinny booty, below expectations. Since unpredictability is part of the game, don't get upset, fate keeps turning and probably the next time it'll turn in your favor;

- Wear comfortable shoes: it might seems trivial but with just three words I said it all.

Before I started to write this post I thought to end it up by giving you some information about my favorite street markets, a kind of Where?, When?, What?, but then I reminded the circumstances when I shot the picture up there: it was sunday afternoon, one of those almost summer days in the middle of autumn and I run by chance in Brera, Milan. Why should we make a list of events not to miss when the case makes it for us anyway?

*kisses*

Giulia

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