Y’all, I can’t believe we are nearly DONE with our Fashion Fridays summer series telling all these wonderful fashion memories.
It has been so nice to have a little break and get fresh ideas while at the same time reading how certain outfits or items are etched into your memory as part of a moment in time. I may share a couple of my own favorites next week, or I may just launch back into random fashion ideas. I was wandering through an Anthropologie this week and was enraptured by the textures and patterns on display (I really can’t wear most anything in there yet I love it so much).
If you missed any of the Memory Series, just search for it in the little box there on the right and relive them all. Today, my friend Sarah is visiting to share a fashion memory from her Italian adventure. I love her even though her picture from 10 years ago and now look exactly the same – I mean seriously, she has NOT aged one ounce! Welcome Sarah to Fashion Friday.
My fashion memory is tied to my favorite, and maybe only, true fashion item: an Italian leather jacket purchased in Florence exactly ten years ago.
The girl who purchased this jacket had no kids and no job, she had yet to attend law school or meet her husband—and even still, this jacket still remains fashionable and special.
The week after graduating from Ole Miss (May 2006), two sorority sisters and I left for 17 glorious days in Europe. Our travels took us to Amsterdam, Paris, Monaco, Nice, Cinque Terra, Florence and Rome. Other than a month long road trip to Canada with my brother and grandparents when I was 9, this was my first trip out of the country. Maybe my first trip without my parents or an adult, as well.
The trip was filled with so many magical experiences: the tulip farm in Amsterdam, mass at Notre Dame, dinner among the cliffs and yachts in Monaco, The Cannes Film Festival, hiking Cinque Terra, The David, the Sistine Chapel, and the ruins in Rome. It is also during this time that I fell in love with red wine, a love that still endures today.
Florence came during the last week of our trip, and by this time we had all but run out of money and energy. We went to the leather market our first day in Florence, and one of the girls on the trip purchased a leather briefcase (she was starting at an accounting firm the following month) and a leather jacket. I debated and debated whether to purchase the same jacket but decided not to for fear I would run out of my allotted money, which evidently happened in Rome. Instead, I purchased a leather journal that first day.
We spent the next day and a half enthralled with the city and all its beauty. On our way to meet our train for Rome, I found the store front of the leather dealer, and after endless internal debates and rationalizations, I came to the conclusion that I would forever regret not purchasing this jacket.
Ten years have passed, and I still love wearing this jacket. It represents a different time in my life, one that I hold dear.
I have always loved fashion—magazines, articles and shows—however, this love very rarely translates into me actually being fashionable. I am much more plain Jane, but when I wear this leather jacket, a part of me feels fashionable. And even a bit younger.
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