Thursday, May 28, 2009

Madrid Blog--The Calle Serrano Look

One of the first things I noticed is the way people dress here, in this up-market part of Madrid. Spanish men, especially, stand out compared to their American counterparts. The men here seem to take particular pride in their appearance. The other day I saw a man in what had to be the height of the Madrid "pijo" (preppy) look--cantaloupe-colored cotton slacks with a Kelly-green linen blazer. Now that summer's arrived, sherbet colors abound here--lemon, lime, orange, raspberry, pink has always been popular, for men. Shirts come with loud stripes and checks, and everything is always impeccably ironed. Los Pijos also seem to love labels as much as their American preppy counterparts. As my sister-in-law put it, when Izod and Burberry came back, it wasn't a problem, because, in Spain, they never went out of style.

My father who was an American child of the fifties grew up with (and continues to wear) a vibrant color-themed wardrobe. If you saw "Wedding Crashers" and the outfits that Owen Wilson and Vincent Vaughn borrowed from their hosts (I think some patchwork pants might have been involved)--you get the idea. However, for later generations of American men, it's primary and neutral colors only, scruffy dressing, absolutely no ironing except for the dry-cleaned work button-down. For a man to take any interest in his appearance and grooming immediately labels him as homosexual, although, lately, in the generation younger than mine, this has expanded to the more inclusive "metrosexual."

The children's clothing in Spain is very classic and beautiful. Think Liberty prints with color-coordinated cardigans and stockings, and Mary Janes for girls--cotton dress shirts, pull-overs or cardigans, shorts, knee socks and loafers for boys. People also take pride in dressing their children in coordinating or matching outfits. It's possible to find these sort of tasteful, coordinating clothes in very reasonably priced, mass-market stores. In the US, my complaint is homophobia-wear only for boys--see description of US menswear above--add massive truck or professional sports logo and, once your girl is older than six--and you don't want to dress her like a tart (hello JonBenet Ramsey) good luck. No I don't think little girl's party shoes need to have heels, nor do I think I should have to pay a premium to buy my children tasteful undergarments and sleepwear aka the type that does not come in heinous colors and is not emblazoned with the latest movie or cartoon themes.

For womens' clothing, I can't say much because I "don't got the look," (nor did I in the US). In contrast to the men, I would say that colors are darker or neutral and there are less patterns or large prints involved. Except for the long tops, pants and skirts are more tailored-fitting. They wear a lot more jewelry (costume and real) and accessories than their American counterparts and, if they go out, it's usually with make-up and their hair "done." Absolutely no sportswear anywhere outside the gym. They look at me with disapproval when I walk out the apartment in sweatpants, or jeans and schleppy t-shirt with barely brushed hair and no make-up. So now, I don't do that so much. I smooth my hair, wear dressier clothes, grudgingly put some powder and lipstick on my face--as some sort of armor against the disapproving stares of the neighbors.

The women my age are not so much judgmental as curious. My Spanish women friends ask me, Nathalie, how is it that in the US, with so many stores selling nice (and cheap!) clothing you Americans dress so poorly? I tell them that depends where they go in America, but they probably are right, in general. I say I don't know, I think it's because we have a car-based culture, where people drive everywhere and generally aren't walking in the streets (at least in "real" America :) Yes, we're an overweight nation but we do try to work out. So, if I am driving my car to drop off my kids at school, go through the drive-through at Starbucks, and then go to the grocery store, and trying to get a run in before the day gets too hot, it doesn't matter how I'm dressed, because nobody sees me, or if they do, it's just other mothers like me...

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

And what here to speak that?

Anonymous said...

[u][b]Xrumer[/b][/u]

[b]Xrumer SEO Professionals

As Xrumer experts, we possess been using [url=http://www.xrumer-seo.com]Xrumer[/url] fitted a large fix now and recollect how to harness the massive power of Xrumer and adapt it into a Banknotes machine.

We also provide the cheapest prices on the market. Assorted competitors will charge 2x or temperate 3x and a end of the term 5x what we responsibility you. But we believe in providing prominent mending at a small affordable rate. The whole point of purchasing Xrumer blasts is because it is a cheaper variant to buying Xrumer. So we aim to stifle that bit in cognizant and afford you with the cheapest censure possible.

Not solitary do we have the greatest prices but our turnaround occasion for your Xrumer posting is wonderful fast. We drive pull someone's leg your posting done in the forefront you know it.

We also outfit you with a full log of affluent posts on contrary forums. So that you can catch a glimpse of for yourself the power of Xrumer and how we hold harnessed it to help your site.[/b]


[b]Search Engine Optimization

Using Xrumer you can wish to realize thousands upon thousands of backlinks for your site. Myriad of the forums that your Location you will be posted on bear great PageRank. Having your association on these sites can deep down expropriate found up some crown quality recoil from links and as a matter of fact riding-boot your Alexa Rating and Google PageRank rating through the roof.

This is making your put more and more popular. And with this better in reputation as grammatically as PageRank you can keep in view to see your area definitely superiority high in those Search Mechanism Results.
Traffic

The amount of traffic that can be obtained by harnessing the power of Xrumer is enormous. You are publishing your plat to tens of thousands of forums. With our higher packages you may equivalent be publishing your locality to HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of forums. Imagine 1 post on a stylish forum drive inveterately cotton on to a leave 1000 or so views, with communicate 100 of those people visiting your site. Now devise tens of thousands of posts on in demand forums all getting 1000 views each. Your shipping longing withdraw through the roof.

These are all targeted visitors that are interested or bizarre about your site. Assume how assorted sales or leads you can achieve with this great gang of targeted visitors. You are line for line stumbling upon a goldmine ready to be picked and profited from.

Retain, Transport is Money.
[/b]

BECOME ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT YOUR TWOPENNY BLAST TODAY:


http://www.xrumer-seo.com

Anonymous said...

[B]NZBsRus.com[/B]
Dismiss Laggin Downloads Using NZB Downloads You Can Instantly Search High Quality Movies, PC Games, MP3 Singles, Applications and Download Them at Rapid Rates

[URL=http://www.nzbsrus.com][B]Newsgroup Search[/B][/URL]

Anonymous said...

Someone deleted a variety of links from cobrashare and 2shared ...

From now, we will use www.tinyurlalternative.com as our default [url=http://www.tinyurlalternative.com]url shortener[/url], so every url will be there and visible for everyone.

You can pick out from several great [url=http://kfc.ms]short url[/url] address like:

kfc.ms easysharelink.info jumpme.info megauploadlink.info megavideolink.info mygamelink.info myrapidsharelink.info mytorrentlink.info myurlshortener.com mywarezlink.info urlredirect.info urlshrinker.info weblinkshortener.com youtubelink.info and many others.

They have above 60 different ready domains and the [url=http://myurlshortener.com]url shortener[/url] service work well for free without any registration needed.

So we assume it is good notion and suggest you to use [url=http://urlredirect.info]url redirect[/url] service too!

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Heya i am new on here, I found this message board extremely useful & it has helped me out tonns. i should be able to give something back and help others like it has helped me.

I do take pleasure [url=http://watch-family-guy-free.warlordz.co.uk]free family guy[/url] to help kill a lot of time.

Thxs, See ya around.

Anonymous said...

The Lyford Cay Denomination serves as a community resource for supranational and Bahamian families. Lyford Cay Grammar offers a acme law Nursery past High Alma mater education. Through a multi-cultural territory that promotes reconciliation amongst mixed nationalities, students are provided with the opportunities and resources to ripen into cross-cultural learners and culpable citizens. Lyford Cay Seminary is an distinct, non-denominational, lifetime school. The school is a non-profit-making metaphysics ens governed before a Board of Directors.

http://upyseqa.wordpress.com/
http://womobukynu.wordpress.com/
http://eratenojoj.wordpress.com/
http://ujojeby.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

iphone 4 unlock
how to unlock iphone 4
unlock iphone 4

http://www.shatterbox.com/video/max-and-jason http://www.gpucomputing.net/node/6013?q=node/1280
I have some hard disk errors on a laptop I'm fixing for a friend. There were probably viruses that removed important system and boot files. I tried the Windows XP recovery CD but it didn't work. I'm now running a program called HDAT2 to check and repair bad sectors. However, if I decided to use their option of "wiping hard drive/disk", does the hard drive become useless? Or can I still install Windows on it using an ISO CD?
unlock iphone 4 unlock iphone 4

unlock iphone 4 [url=http://unlockiphone44.com]iphone 4 unlock[/url] unlock iphone 4 unlock iphone 4

Anonymous said...

[url=http://www.ttittancasino.com/]online casino spiele[/url] [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com/]casino online[/url] [url=http://www.playatonlinecasinos.com/]australian online casino[/url]

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online ultram tramadol made - tramadol overdose lethal

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online tramadol and high - tramadol 50 mg reviews

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online tramadol 50mg tablets street value - buy tramadol no prescription 100 mg

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online order tramadol online sweden - how can i buy tramadol online

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye. Thank you very much.

Anonymous said...

generic alprazolam does xanax show up on employment drug test - cost of generic xanax without insurance

Anonymous said...

generic xanax xanax bars your system - xanax side effects on liver

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online where to buy tramadol over the counter - tramadol online doctor

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online effects of tramadol addiction - buy tramadol overnight shipping

Anonymous said...

carisoprodol 350 mg carisoprodol y naproxeno - buy carisoprodol online us

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online tramadol 50 mg images - buy tramadol online no prescription mastercard

Anonymous said...

carisoprodol without prescription carisoprodol soma wiki - order carisoprodol online

Anonymous said...

Hello. Facebook takes a [url=http://www.casinogames.gd]roulette[/url] wager back on 888 casino apportion: Facebook is expanding its efforts to present real-money gaming to millions of British users after announcing a sell with the online gambling companions 888 Holdings.And Bye.

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online ultram tramadol forum - tramadol 200 mg extended release

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online tramadol overdose lethal - tramadol withdrawal leg pain

Anonymous said...

cialis 20mg cialis price pattaya - order cialis prescription

Anonymous said...

xanax for anxiety drug interactions between xanax and lexapro - xanax pills effects

Anonymous said...

xanax online paxil for xanax for anxiety - xanax and alcohol yahoo answers

Anonymous said...

where to buy cialis online no prescription how to buy cialis online safely - generic cialis how does it work

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol buy tramadol dogs - tramadol 100 mg inyectable

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol cash on delivery tramadol 50mg tablets what is it used for - kind medicine tramadol hcl

Anonymous said...

http://blog.dawn.com/dblog/buy/#41639 tramadol overdose amount mg - buy tramadol online paypal

Anonymous said...

learn how to buy tramdadol tramadol 0 1g - tramadol and us overnight no prescription

Anonymous said...

http://landvoicelearning.com/#97734 tramadol 50mg tablets an 627 - tramadol dosage schedule

Anonymous said...

http://landvoicelearning.com/#63987 buy tramadol generic ultram - tramadol withdrawal day 4

Anonymous said...

buy generic tramadol no prescription overdose on tramadol the effects - buy generic tramadol no prescription

Anonymous said...

ativan for anxiety ativan dosage reduction - lorazepam 1 mg beipackzettel

Anonymous said...

http://ranchodelastortugas.com/#58720 xanax generic 2mg - alprazolam er 0.5 mg tablet

Anonymous said...

buy tramadol online can you order tramadol online legally - buy tramadol online in europe

Anonymous said...

http://bayshorechryslerjeep.com/#2902 xanax 2mg tri score - xanax xr generic cost