This Friday, Virginia the Architect, Danny the Perpetual Foreign Exchange Student, and I all went to Porta di Roma, which is the mall on the outside of town. Two hundred and twenty (220) stores. And not one of them was Eddie Bauer. Can you believe that?A quick travel pointer: Roman malls, or just this particular Roman wall, is only accessible from one side, and that side only from a foot bridge crossing over a depressed freeway. My party circumnavigated all two hundred and twenty (220) stores, as luck would have it, and got to see all three other sides before getting to said foot bridge.
Our main goal was H&M, a Swedish clothing store that has not made the transition to the U.S., most likely because they think they are too cool for school. H&M is the kind of store that makes stretchy shirts out of recycled pants from decades past, and then sells them for the price of the original pants, if the pants aged like good wine. On Friday, however, they were clearancing all their undesirable pieces. That's my game.
So, for thirty five (35) euros, I purchased: two white dress shirts, two thick ties, a Christmas sweater, and a checkered blazer. That amounts to a little over five (5+) euros an item. Take that, European fashion. I'm sending the above picture, where I model the sweater and one shirt, directly to H&M headquarters (true story: that photo shoot took fourteen (!4) takes to get that look; I call it, "How I Long For the Wind to Carve Across My Nose, Or, Illium, NY.")
I add these purchases to another five (%) euro tie and a fifteen (!#) euro vest, canabalized from a three piece suit, making my new wardrobe worth over 55 (*@&#) euros. I only say this because the only other thing I purchased was an Italian leather notebook worth 55 (*&#$^!!!!) euros. Don't tell my mom. After I bought it, the right part of my brain said, Cass, that was very foolish, but then the left part of my brain said, you know what, for once, you're right (ZING). But then I said, at least I have the courage to do the foolish things. At least I do the foolish things right. So take that, logic.
2 comments:
There are H&M's in the U.S. Just not anywhere around here. But, you are right. H&M is awesome.
My sincerest apologies for leading you astray. H&M (according to their website) has stores in the following states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Clearly not Arkansas or Washington, however. But perhaps that is why perpetually staying on as a foreign exchange student is so appealing: overpriced fashion. The gelato and pizza was good though.
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