Italian Window Shopping

While I’m no fashionista, I do love clothes. And so, on our recent trip to Italy, I had a glorious time window shopping and snapping photos for you. The windows of Florence and Rome boast the best of Italian fashion. Love the slicker above. Great color! Not so sure about the fuzzy bathrobe-look of the coat below, but it’s spirited, to say the least

Lots of the dresses struck me as fifties or sixties retro.  I often find myself telling a young woman, “We wore dresses like that in the sixties.” (And sometimes I get the feeling that’s not what the young woman wants to hear.)

Smocking for big girls!

Which reminds me of my granddaughter Emerson in her smocked dress.

Most of the windows are fairly simple set-ups. This one is more elaborate.

Wow on the hair!

Late one night we saw two guys working in the windows below.

We stopped to watch them for  a few minutes.

Back to the fashion.

I could skip the hat, but how festive and elegant are these birds?

Italian women may be sporting jumpsuits this summer.

I wondered if the watermelon  on the striped suit below would disguise my stomach.  Don’t think so.

Where in Florence would you wear this outfit? Concert? Dinner? Evening stroll?

When shopping with my girls, they encourage me not to buy anything they deem “boxy.” But I got to say, I like boxy!

I’m fond of polka dots, and I’m a sucker for navy and white.

Lots of windows featured purses. Great colors!

Time to move away from the windows of Florence and Rome. Here are hats popping out of a shop on the streets of San Gimignano.

And look a the jaunty hats on these Italian policewomen.

Note the colorful uniforms of the Swiss Guard at the Vatican. You do wonder what this guy thinks when he gets dressed for work.

Check out the brilliant, beautiful shade of Mary Magdalene’s dress below. Bible fashion at its best! I was moved that an artist in the 15th century portrayed Mary in such a stunning gown.

Also moving, is the simple robe of St. Clare of Assisi, who founded the Little Sister of the Poor.

And then there’s Venus, keeping things simple. A drape works for her. Course why not, with a body like that?

But the real answer to any fashion woes may be to go au naturale just like this lovely lady does.

Back to window shopping.

As I walked by the windows, I thought of going into the shops, but I never did. We were usually headed somewhere, and also, I felt a bit shy. Of course now I regret not checking out the rest of the store as well as the prices.

But in many ways, window shopping is the best shopping of all. We can envision ourselves in the outfits and not spend a single cent, which, in Italy, leaves a whole lot of money for gelato.