European Fashion/Royal Fashion

[gogm]

Unless age deals her a bad hand, I don't think Letizia will ever be "boring!"

 

[lisamaria]

Well from my observation, it really does depends on "where" they come from. For example, all European women are much better dressed than Americans. In both work wear and casual wear. Spain, Italy, in

It's very nice of you to think so, but somehowI don't find it true. I hate to say this, but women here in Finland aren't overally that stylish, at least not like Italian or French women are. I have observed that you can almost always tell where people come from by their looks; Italian and Spanish are stylish in a very formal way, the French are more relaxed but still very chic, even in stuff like green jeans Here in Finland there aren't that many labels around, nor much of those leather goodies or great bags. We do have a high average living standard, but high taxes keeps the real income too low for even most of the professional women to go for those Louis Vuittons. Sort of sad really.

I also found that most if not the majority of European women wear shoes with some sort of heel which in turn gives everything a more polished pulled together look. Rarely have I seen a European lady wear a pair of tennis shoes!

Not here. We have extreme weathers here, and that dictates a lot of what we wear. The winters used to be like -35 C. I own about 50 pairs of shoes, mostly heels (and some are red or purple in colour), and everyone thinks I'm crazy for wearing those every day. But I'm only a short girl

There was a poll in Finnish some time ago, I think after king Carl Gustav's 60th. It basically asked "Do you admire/copy the style of the royals?". About 90% answered no; reading the comments I realised two things: we are still in here a very far away from the rest of the Europe, in our inability to recognise the importance royalty hold in the continent. And, in here, we have an extremely relaxed, loose dress-codes. The only royal woman who scored points in the poll was Madeleine, who in here is mostly seen in bikinis. The royal women were seen are marmish and matronly in their heels and suits; quite possibly because we don't have that kind of culture of more formal dressing. That is probably why Madeleine is so big here.

Somehow I think that reflects the novelty of our culture, just like it does on the US. Without the whole history of self-created etiquette and formality the Europe has but Finland - and the US - lacks, there is no sense of need for it.

I have noticed that many of the royal women dress quite similarly; the British are an obvious streak apart, their royal ladies dressing in a way that is more distinct to the British women - or maybe the ordinary women have just picked up the cue from the royal family That could be the case elsewhere too - the women of certain age in Sweden look a lot like Silvia. Royal women are obviously tied into patronising their native designers. Mary wears a lot of stuff by Danish labels, which are sold everywhere in Europe. Letizia's most outfits are bu Iberian designers, and have a certain flair to them...

...and I'm blabbing away. You hopefully got my point