PORTUGAL FASHION

OPORTO!
(well, this in the picture is Gaia, which is on the other side of the river, but i was standing at the Porto side!)

Such a lovely romantic little town! Well, I am not really sure if it is that little, apparently there is a metro and it's the second biggest after Lisbon.

But it seems so small, and time seems to go soooo slow over here...comparing to London, of course.

I could be taking pictures of each and every house.

They look so cute: each one has different colors, shapes and patterns, small balcony. But somehow one by one they are not as pretty as all together.

As one of the girls said: " I love those grandma-under-panties-houses" LMAO.

Literally, it's true! Underwear hanging out of every window.
SO romantic!

"Grandma-under-panties-houses" with "old-men-bars" underneath!!! These two figures of speech made me laugh for hours...

Because they are, in my opinion, both true!!!

And then come the tiny little streets, that make you feel like in a maze...

...And then you notice all the ruins all around you, which is kind of spooky and makes you feel like the only survivor in a ghost town...

But the combination of all that is extremely romantic!

I am not sure if I went into the center...

I probably didn't, but this looks a bit like more central zone

Casa da Musica by Rem Koolhaas






















But I DID go to the museum of wine!

The entrance fee is 2.10 euros! When we walked in, three people were sitting on a desk at the entrance, we took out our wallets in order to pay. They looked at us and asked: "English?!"
We nodded: "Yes, English".
Then, the one obviously responsible for the tickets said: "Students?!?"
We looked confused at each other. But he kept insisting: "Students?" We thought: "Well, ok then, seems like we don't really have a choise!"
And confirmed: " Yes, students!". He sighed with relief: "It's free!". So we put our wallets back and walked in. NO student's ID...no any further questions
Well, don't get too excited. This beautiful white hall with amazing ceiling is pretty much all there was...

And, NO, we didn't get to taste any PORTO WINE!!!

So, now it made sense why they didn't charge us! First of all we were two blond girls, so it would have been a sin anyway; and second of all, there is nothing to see in there, so they know the 2 euros are not worth! I am sorry to say that, but it's kind of true.

Speaking of blond girls and blue eyes or red heads: Anything that is easily recognizable as foreign...is stared at! Even if you just stand at the edge of the pedestrian, but not really stepping a foot on the street, or having any intention to cross, cars will stop, as if to make you way to cross the street, no matter that you had no such intention and the people inside will just stare at you undisturbed!

So, at some point you just stand there thinking: "Go ahead, keep driving, I don't wanna cross this street, I am just standing here wondering where to go!"

And this is a market close to our hotel...

As most of the girls pointed out: fruits in Porto tasted differently from what we are used to. Namely: the orange tastes and smells like orange, it is juicy, fresh, and really tasty. Similarly the strawberries taste like strawberry, not like plastic or like nothing or like any other fruit packed in palstic in threes for 3 euros; and don't cause allergy to your tongue; the kiwis, the pineapple, the pears: everything tastes as it is supposed to. Sadly, many people had forgotten what that was like or never had the chance to try real fruit in their life, rather than supermaket fruit!

As to fashion: Well, models are good taken care of. Models' life as it should be! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, transfer hotel-show location-hotel! No Running around to castings by buses or metro, just because there are NO castings for the shows! Alld direct bookings! Wohooo! Only fittings.

Edificio do Alfandega

Main entrance decoration












Cafeteria

As to make up and hair: Well, I must say, they are taking their time with everything. A simple hair-do, that would normally take 10 min to every hairstylist back in London, took them about 30 min and 3 different people taking turns in trying to pin my hair up. And the shows don't start before 9pm...the last is at 11pm..so it's kind of different rhythm. And this is not criticism! It is just an observation how different culture can affect so many things. The make-up rooms backstage are obviously much calmer than those of LFW.

...A window
(in case anybody wondering why am I posting a picture of a window: I don't know!)












The catwalk


















...and all the hype around it!






















The closing night: Fatima Lopes













The bar












And last but not least: the view we got to admire for those 4 days:

Last night after the shows my roommate and I were lying in bed, really tired but still kind of
overwhelmed and not really on a sleeping mode yet. This is how our conversation went approximately:

her: I am tired but I can't sleep.
me: Yes me too. Let's think about something nice to relax.
her: All I can think of now is breakfast.
me: What are you gonna have for breakfast?
her: Fresh fruit, yogurt and cereal. First, I put the fresh fruit, then I put yogurt and cover it with cereal on top!
me: No! First, you take the cereal, put yogurt on top of that and fruit at the end.
her: No, first fruit!
me: No! The cereal is on bottom, then yogurt and fruit on top! And then you mix it all!

So, eventually we almost got into a fight trying to define what is the best sequence. But we both agreed that it doesn't really matter, if you mix it up at the end.
I don't agree that fruit is on the bottom though! Never! Fruit is on top, so that the fruit juice mixes up with the cereal and yogurt. If you put in on bottom it will just stay there. Fullstop!
Anyway, none of us had that mix for breakfast next morning...

And off to Lisboa we go!