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The Mall
Entry 23 of 35 | show all | print this entry |
Our bus took us to Prada first - that store was so confusing! I didn´t enjoy the bus ride too much so was a little disoriented when we arrived. I also thought we were going to the mall first so when the outside of the building looks like a huge warehouse and there isn´t a Prada sign anywhere I didn´t know what was going on and for a moment started to think we booked a bogus tour. So we walk in the front door and are promptly told to go back outside to pull a number - is this a deli? The sign next to the ticket machine says if we do not appear when our number is called we will have to go out and pull another number and wait, I guess this place gets pretty crowded - and mind you I still think we are at the mall. So in we go - again - and I immediately notice how warm it is in there. All the purses and shoes and everything is on display as if they were pieces of art - for me not to think so is blasphemy but who am I kidding, I shop at Target - so there are lights of all shapes and sizes everywhere. Another item found in abundance, mirrors, I was about a foot from walking into one and had Laurie not gone into the restroom first and told me what to look for I never would have found the door disguised as a mirror. This whole time I am thinking "there is sure a lot of Prada, it´d be nice if I could find something else to look at", Aunt Khristina was able to straighten me out at this point, finally! :)
Now that I knew where I was I started to enjoy myself and began to look at shoes. She came over a few minutes later to show me a purse she found and was having a hard time believing the price, neither could I, 35 Euros! There had to be something I was missing, ok so the bag wasn´t Prada, it was still by a company owned by Prada and yet there it was very clearly printed "35 Euro". After standing there and talking it over for a minute I noticed the bag had a long leather decoration attached to it and it all made sense - this was thirty five Euros! Looking inside revealed the bag was 310 Euro (about $475). We were both very relieved to figure this out so we went to look at shoes again and laugh at ourselves. Some really were small pieces of art, never meant to be worn; others were like any other pair you could get for 400 dollars cheaper somewhere else. So while it was tempting to buy something because I am in Italy and it is Prada it was easy not to spend the money. Plus I had already decided were I to buy an expensive pair of shoes they were going to be Ferragamo because his shoes are well made, classic, and he´s Florentine. We got back on our bus and went to the mall about 45 min away.
Now in the states outlet malls have a few defining features: Large spread out areas with lots of stores and a few major brands usually in matching boxes of peach color stucco, no parking, and Vitamin World (this last feature is mandatory and I have never understood this). So a variation on this is sort of what I am expecting but because these are the "designer outlets" there is a chance there won´t be a vitamin world. The Italians do it a little differently: only 20 stores or so, hardly anybody there, and except for the price tags everything was the same as you´d find in the regular priced designer locations. Oh, and there was a gourmet food shop and a wine bar. We had about 2 hours and I knew that I wasn´t looking for anything but I wanted to look at everything so I went into Burberry, Marni, Valentino, Gucci, YSL, Armani, Balenciaga, Botegga Venetta, Pucci, and Ferragamo - there were a few more stores but I don´t quite remember what they were (guess they really had stuff I liked!). My favorite was the Balenciaga store because it one section devoted to Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney - I bought a purse by the latter (Khristina and Laurie liked it so much they followed suit). Once we all had our bags we got back on the bus and came home.
*note: I can´t believe I just wrote an entire entry about something as pretentious as designer shopping, while it was fun I feel a little guilty - but I still love my bag!
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