Of Shoes and Showrooms

The shoes are marvellous, the girls and I spent a whole day in Hackeschen market looking in all the upscale shops for the perfect pair. All the good ones are of course Italian and about 300 euros per sq. inch. Holding out for German made shoes we did find an amazing boutique, but with no prices on anything – this seemed to insinuate a cost of 600 euros per boot. We were scared to start trying them on, as that’s a definite commitment kind of like getting dinner bought for you. They were ultra stylish “get to know me boots” so we browsed the catalogue over lunch and discovered the prices were only moderately high and may warrant a return trip. The ultimate shoe has so far eluded me – but worry not, they shall be found.
Speaking of shoes, we went yesterday to look at sexy skirts at this boutique that we have walked by a few times – but until today had not been allowed to dally in until our art quotas had been completed. It turns out the shop is run by twelve women who all make and design their own lines. Several seem to use old clothes as the bases. One designer “Stoffrausch” shone above the rest, and both Lilla and I tried on her gorgeous $129 euro jackets and myself this ultra cool 70 euro skirt – that has a two way zipper down the front and fit me perfectly, only to find out it was a cash only arrangement. Not having the hundred or so euros cash handy that would have been required, we bought socks. To quell our disappointment and after receiving a lecture from Lila “that I would have bought more if you took credit cards” the staff sent us on our way down the street with a catalogue to see the showroom. This proved tricky to find, but we finally finagled our way into what looked like an apartment. We walked up three flights of dark winding steps to what looked like someone’s front door. We knocked and Stoffrausch herself let us in. Turns out this was not a showroom but her tiny work space and you could barely walk in amongst all the boxes of fabric and clothes. We climbed over into her back room where she showed us her latest designs. In bungled German and English we admired her work, turns out she makes by hand, only three of each item i.e. only one in each size of SML. We were very impressed by this concept. She was very nice and asked us to email her some stores in North America who may want to represent her label.
So as the new North American rep for Stroffrausch, I should really own at least one little skirt, don’t you think?