Day two in Rome, day two of the epic struggle between fashionista and scholarista: fashionista definitely won out. Whereas on day one, the monumental silhouettes of familiar columns and Colosseums warmed my slowly hardening academic heart, day two, with its agenda of hitting Via Governo Vecchio, i.e. Rome's vintage epicenter, kind of blew the dusty old Forum out of the water. So sorry Vergil, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and given that no one does leather and fur like the Italians (needs love the traditional Roman penchant for the submitting of animals to our own vanity) and vintage in Italy is something of an accessories tour de force...the needs do is SHOP.Via Governo Vecchio, situated just behind Piazza Navona, is bustling with vintage gems. Sixties jewellery-laden cases, a delight for the eyes, hats, shearlings galore, boots, boots and more boots--the shops' tasty contents literally spill out into the street, tattered Converse beckoning you in.
My two prize finds of the day?A full length double breasted black coat from the 1950s which negates (at least for now) my burning need to splurge £550 on a glorious little Westwood number I've been lusting after for months. AND. Full on fur shag boots--the kind my mother had in white Yak for pottering about Vail apres-no-ski (i.e. apres-putting on ski bunny outfits and sipping tea and shopping in town). I always had an eye on those boots, but as soon as I was old enough to brave the wide world proudly in them, my caucasian genes spurred on the growth of my quarter Scandinavian feet whose size soon outstripped their Japanese maternal counterparts, and, poof, no boots. Furrier than Butters, at least twice her actual size, at 60 Euro, these were a bonafide gem of a find.
Forget that people stared as a I skipped happily down the street like a dancing bear upon slipping into my purchase and that my friends chuckled. Guess what I saw whence I popped into Fendi the next day? Oh, I'm sorry, an 800 Euro version of the same. COUNT IT! I'm still patting myself on the back for that one. Just goes to show, even if you know a certain purchase will elicit stares and snickers from the fashion incognoscenti, if you love it, if it tickles you--ROCK IT because somewhere out there, in some fashion house, some power designer has done so too.
Pony skin boots and shearling, oh my!
Crazy 90s velcro platforms! Yes!
My friend Meryl scores some boots
These boots are made for...EVERYTHING!
The Fendi variety
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