Bags from recycled materials

My friend Ioana just came for a quick visit to Lyon. I took her to an aforementioned store in the pentes (slopes) of the Croix-Rousse that sells bags made out of a variety of recycled materials. After examining the ones made from fire hoses, she found this one made from bicycle inner tubes. The subtle purple line gives it an added touch of color and brightens a dreary rainy Saturday...

To Milan and then Rome and then back to Milan by train

One of the many piazzas in Rome                                                           poster in Testaccio, the hipster up and coming neighborhood 
                                                                                                                                                   "Rome is not for sale" 

I had a few days of vacation in mid April during which I decided to go visit a friend who is living in Rome this spring. I decided to take the train from Lyon rather than fly, first to Milan where one has to change train stations in order to go on to Rome. It's a long day of travel, but the four hours in Milan in both directions gave me a chance to discover a city that I didn't know. And what a lovely surprise that was.

But first, the train journey. What a pleasure to take in the scenery from the comfort of one's seat, indulge in a long novel and arrive in the center of town rather than at an outlying airport where one has to find one's way to ground transportation. With security taking longer and longer these days, sadly, airplane travel is becoming a bit of a hassle, and train travel remains fast, clean and convenient. 

The view of the Alps was so beautiful, I spent much of the first leg of the trip staring out the window.

                                                                                                    The speed in the train from Rome to Milan: 290 km/hour

The view of the Alps, Lyon-Milan

When I arrived in Milan in the middle of the day, at the Garibaldi Station, I didn't realize that I was about to walk into the annual interior decoration trade show which attracts people from all over the world. And, of course, they dress elegantly but in an original way. This woman for instance: 

The first thing you notice of course is her bag. But I loved that she had a shirt (a sweater wrapped around her waist?) hanging slightly down below her jacket. I also loved that she was wearing FLAT shoes. Yes! But these people walk a lot, you are foolish to attempt walking the city in heels. I was also happy to see that she was bare legged. There is so much discussion right now about women's need to be free to wear what they like, but in reality, women - I mean western women - have a tendency to conform to certain dress codes. For instance, in Lyon, women are still wearing tights with their skirts, even on a warm day. Apparently, a local friend said that it's because once the tights come off, it's very difficult psychologically to put them back on. I understand that one wants to be sure that the cold weather has passed for good, and the warm days are here to stay. Italy has a warmer climate, so the legs go bare sooner. I don't know, it's all so confusing and complicated. 

But let's get back to the Milanese spottings. At the piazza of the Duomo

I spotted this  woman, whose outfit was so understated yet elegant. She is even wearing leggings! I only noticed that little detail when I was uploading the photos. It's such a relief to see somebody else wear them, and with such an elegant outfit! (I prefer leggings to tights because they're so much easier to put on and you can roll them up a bit if you're feeling hot). She is also wearing a colorful bangle on her left wrist, showing that just a little touch of color pulls together a whole outfit. And again, the flat shoes. 

           Rome shoe shop

                                                                                                                                       Vintage store in the canal area in Milan

Italy is famous for its shoes, and they combine elegance with comfort in a way that you don't see anywhere else. 

Italy is also famous for its jewelry. All around Campo dei Fiori in Rome, there are small family owned goldsmith shops. The earrings that were shown to me in Francesca's shop on the Via di Monserrato were made from an old necklace. 

One more Milano spotting:  this elderly gentleman for instance, whose bike has a leather saddle, leather satchels, and he is wearing subtly striped orange pants with a red jacket. I also love the absence of fear of wearing bold colors.

Finally, again, uploading the photos, I realized that the colors of the bikes in the bikeshare system (known as "BikeMi") matched the trams. It doesn't get more elegant than that!

Ultimately, I sensed a freedom of style in Milan and Rome, an attempt at expressing one's inner self without torturing one's body with clothing and shoes that are too tight, too short, and very uncomfortable. This shop name sums it up for me: 

(I don't give a fuck)(in French) (the use of foreign words is a whole other story)

Santa Maria delli angeli delli Martyrs (near Termini, Roma) (talking about things that endure!)

Lyon in the spring

After a four year hiatus, I am back in Lyon, France, where it is spring with a vengeance. I've never had allergies quite like what I am experiencing at the moment, and whenever somebody sneezes in the street or in a store, I give them a quick look of sympathy.

I arrived around the time of the Brussels bombing, thus with some apprehension. It's amazing how the media can distort the everyday reality. As awful as it is to fear public places packed with people (excuse the alliteration), I agree with somebody who posted somewhere (the blogosphere can become one big blur) that the world is too big and beautiful to miss. I paraphrase.

That is certainly the case for Lyon. I've been in this city many times before, so I know it pretty well. This time, when the free time opens up, I know where I want to go. First stop is the neighborhood known as the "pentes de la Croix-Rousse," a neighborhood that consists of narrow streets lined with nineteenth-century buildings whose big windows were meant to let in the natural light for the silk weavers working inside them.

 Now the weavers are all gone and have been replaced with hipsters, musicians, artists, and the bobo. Of course. Plenty of well meaning stores selling environmentally correct wares such as this store which had bags made out of old firehoses, inner tubes from car and bike tires, and discarded leather from luxury brands.

The traditional vintage stores abound in the pentes, like this one  located on rue Romarin with the cute name "Carrie Bradshop."

(In French, "brader" means to sell something at a very low price.)

                                   At 94 rue Vendôme, in the more bourgeois 6th arrondissement of Lyon, a consignment shop that has friendly staff a good variety of shoes and bags in addition to clothes

Markets are a must, and Lyon has plenty of them. This morning I went to the one at the top of the pentes, on the boulevard de la Croix-Rousse, where, on one side the stalls sell food, while on the other, they sell books and records. I bought a bit of both!

I now have quite a line up of reading to keep me busy until early June when I head home.

*****

Back at the apartment, I read about this blogger whose images of older Russian people are wonderful.
My senses may be a bit overwhelmed, but indeed the world is too beautiful to miss. Here's to beautiful reality!

Everything is political

Back in New York City in mid March. Bernie Sanders just lost a whole bunch of primaries. The id of too many people is being let out by the superego of Donald Trump.  I walk the streets of Lower Manhattan. The weather feels normal for this time of the year.  Although, who knows what normal or hot or cold weather is anymore. We didn't really have a winter. Rich people, spoiled people everywhere.   Shops selling sweet things like cupcakes and candy seem to have popped up all over the place since my last visit. Along with plenty of coffee and animal care. People need soothing, and energy. So they eat a lot of candy, get a pet, and drink lots of coffee. The thrift stores and consignment shops are still providing me with a much needed feeling of escape: there at least I can focus on the colors, the patterns, the feel of the fabric, the cut, and maybe try some stuff on, just for the fun of it. No obligation (I went into Barney's out of curiosity: that was a mistake. "Hello how are you doing today? Fine thank you. Anything I can help you with? No thanks, not for the moment." There was nothing exciting in there. What happened to the old Barney's? Wasn't it edgier?) So back out into the street I go. I do find a cheap Thai place where I can sit for a moment, eat some healthy spicy food, and just chill. Back out I go, and head to Beacon's Closet, where I spend a good amount of time looking for summer tops. I end up with a nicely cut black tee-shirt. To add to the tee-shirt with a map of New York state inside of which there is a bear (?). I found that one at a thrift shop on Columbus Avenue the day before. The Housing Works also on Columbus Ave was filled with gorgeous stuff that felt like it had been cleaned out of old people's apartments. Young people want new stuff I guess. Out with the old, in with the new they say. So after Beacon's Closet, I pop into the Film Forum (thank goodness that's still around) to see an Iranian film. The story is pretty old hat: a maid watches a husband cheat on his wife (spoiler alert, sorry). But those women had such beautiful faces, and their headscarves only made their faces look even more beautiful. The innocence of that young, soon to be married housekeeper, who still clings to the ideal of love, the wife who is miserable because she thinks that her husband is cheating on her, these straightforward emotions made me long to be with people who are not (yet?) cynical, jaded and spoiled. Maybe I should go to Iran?

Skirt from the Goodwill in South Burlington, Vt, suede coat from the Pink Alligator in Hanover, NH

Sherry Levine installation, Chelsea Gallery, Manhattan. The refrigerators are manufactured new in Italy to look retro.

Goodwill, South Burlington Vermont (top and bottom)

Housing Works, Columbus Avenue, NYC

everything is political

Coats, Museums, Color

Several trips to New York City in December and January and I look obsessively at coats. This one spotted at MOMA was a real eye catcher. 

And this one was spotted at the Whitney. I love the little shoulder bag. 

For a Whitney performance I wore a jacket from Revolution and a skirt from Des Habits et Vous  (Lyon, France) along with red boots I found in Montreal and one of my Côté Lac scarves from a growing collection (made in Europe).

This skirt I picked up in Burlington at a consignment shop on Main Street. It's Christmas Day so the colors are a bit over the top. I tend to avoid color in my wardrobe. A dab here or there, but certainly not an entire piece of clothing. In the movie "Paddington" which was playing on the bus from NY back to Hanover, NH, I noticed that they had dressed the mother played by Sally Hawkins in Reds and yellows, two colors I really love together.

What a great outfit! 

wearing only used clothes

I wish I could do this for a year:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/ive-worn-charity-clothes-every-day-for-a-year-to-raise-money-for/

I figure that the purchase of a used item of clothing is a form of recycling. But this is going an extra big step.