Ill admit it is a cute cut on the jacket and I would buy it in a color for skiing but not slick enough for the city for me.I have a dusty blue squarish one for skiing.What I want to know is what everyone is doing for this summer....I hate to have to cover up my shoulders and knees in June and finding it hard to assemble a (summer)small travel bag with mix and match...the nights can be cool can't they? Im having trouble paring down and the only black I'm taking is capris.

Liz Claiborne? Yikes! That jacket is downright ugly. Talk about hip expansion. I can't imagine anyone in Paris being caught dead in a Liz Claiborne or a jacket that ugly. Thanks for the chuckle, Scarlett.

I had a fluffy black jacket for 4 years, but last winter I bought a new tweed-style one. Fluffy is nog longer 'big' in Belgium, but you're right, I was in Florence late February and people were still in the fluffy stuff.
Anyway, as for shoes: ballerina flats rule! And the Birkenstock slippers are high fashion this summer! So nobody should ever complain about painful feet again!
Otherwise it's colour, colour, colour this spring, and no pastels, but everything BRIGHT! If you don't want to change your entire wardrobe, a few bright pashmina's are a perfect solution to look fashionable. And yes, do tie them the way described before: fold the pashmina double, put it around your neck, put the 2 ends on one side through the loop on the other side and pull as much as you want.

okay i've read seaurchin's and stardust's scarf-tying instructions several times and i'm still clueless (no reflection on SU and SD's writing ability, i just happen to be both fashion-challenged AND following-directions-challenged LOL). can any patient person pleeeeze walk me thru it step by step? thanks!! :)

Hi, jgg, can you say what you mean by 'moccasins'? I used to love wearing them with jeans; they were suede and laced with no real sole to speak of. yes? no? Thanks.

The black puffy coat thing is funny. I spend a lot of time at a University here that has a lot of foreign students. Several of them have worn long black puffy coats all winter. All along I've thought they were looking pretty out of style, since I recall puffy coats being in style here several years ago!

Also, I am more determined than ever now that I will not be bringing any scarves to Europe (not that I own any). Just strikes me as trying way too hard.

nutella, for the long scarf, fold it in half, lengthwise, wrap that around your neck both ends in front, you now will loop the side with two ends into that fold on the other side.

http://beauty.ivillage.com/accessori...865g75,00.html

I half my Hermés into a triangle and tie the ends around my waist over my cropped pants or skirt.

NYC...re; "Talk about hip expansion" europeans dont have hip or weight problems do they? There are a loads of people living in Paris and Italy that either have no sense of style or dont care..some of them not from those countries anyway..

<i>&quot;europeans dont have hip or weight problems do they?&quot;</i>

I try never to generalize, especially with such broad strokes (every pun intended). Frankly, any tall, young, waif-size nubian with a pretty face (and an eating disorder) can wear a potato sack (still filled with potatoes) and make it look chic. Typically (though not always), it's the young, thin girls who start such fashion trends. Problems arise when everyone else tries to jump on board, whatever their reasons for doing so.

It's seems VERY clear to me, unless you're tall, with no hips, and shaped like Twiggy (am I dating myself?), this so-called &quot;puffy&quot; coat will make most average women look like a walking igloo. Top it with an ordinary haircut, Docker's khakis, and an ugly pair of flat shoes...well, you get the picture.

<i>&quot;There are a loads of people living in Paris and Italy that either have no sense of style or dont care...&quot;</i>

I suppose that's true. But in a thread about fashion, why should they count? The fact is, the Italians and the French, with millennial history, have been paying much more attention to (clothing) design for a much longer period of time.

In America, art education and access to great style is getting better. Given that our country is over 3 million square miles and still a relative baby, dressing like &quot;Europeans&quot; (French and Italian, that is) will remain a foreign concept for most.

Just for clarification, since I took no photos of ladies in their puffy coats in the streets of Paris , I just googled a coat and got that one.
Although it is much the style of several I saw in Paris..But I am sure if Prada/Armani /whomever sells puffy coats now- someone might find them online also, if they care that much.

&quot;It's seems VERY clear to me, unless you're tall, with no hips, and shaped like Twiggy (am I dating myself?), this so-called &quot;puffy&quot; coat will make most average women look like a walking igloo. '
NYCFoodSnob,
Do they not wear coats similar to this in the parts of Italy that you visit? Since jgg and others have seen them in Italy and Paris, I would think travelers such as yourself would be familiar with them.

Scarlett, of course I'm familiar with them. I owned a long, black, &quot;down&quot; one back in the early 80's, as referenced by someone earlier, and I wore it to death.

I never doubted you seeing them. I fell so out of love with mine (I guess the &quot;rage&quot; got to me and then died), I can't help but find most of them unattractive and unappealing. My eyes don't linger on things I consider ugly. I prefer to smile upon things that don't remind me of &quot;been-there-done-that.&quot; I confess, it's getting tougher to find originality as I get older.

it was fun goggling &quot;Puffy coats&quot; several were criminals wanted, described as wearing black puffy coats.

thanks cigalechanta, think i got it now!

Scarlett -- we saw the puffy coats all over Florence. The woman that I bought my leather jacket from was wearing a long black one, and looking quite chic in it. The fact that she was petite and had that Italian flair, and requisite scarf, didn't hurt.
((c))

I think I know what stardust and seaurchin are trying to describe, so let me try and they can tell me if I'm right:

You start with a LONG thin scarf, say 4', and pick it up in the middle so you have approx. 2' on either side. Drape the doubled scarf around your neck so that you have the loop in the middle (where you picked it up) around the right side of your neck and down your front, and the two loose ends (not to be confused with Toulouse's end) around the left side of your neck and down the front. Tuck Toulouse's two ends into the loop and pull through until you can't breathe. Then loosen to a fashionable looseness.

Next project: where I can buy those perfect Italian leather shoes that will fit perfectly and feel wonderful that I can't get in Nordstrom's: Florence? Rome? where, exactly?

Cassandra -- by George, you've got it!
((c))

Seriously, I think fashion should be fun and not taken as any one way.
About black puffy coats: In early March, massagediva had a wonderful trip report about her time in Italy and mentioned all the Italian women in their long black puffy coats and said they sold for only 39&euro; as I recall.
Someone on slowtrav also mentions the coats.