Sometimes when we are travelling we find unexpected treasure, and this was true of our trip to Brussels.
Rootling about in one of the guide books I discovered a shop called "mais il est où le soleil?" Now, I am not much of a shopper in the clothes department but the description intrigued me. A collection of 170 designs in five colour families. Each garment is thin, I didn't see anything heavier than 4 ply wool or lightweight velvet. The idea is that you choose a selection of garments and layer them in any way you choose. The clothes were arranged in colour blocks rather than by size or type, all the deep olive greens together, leading into anthracite, doodle, gold, brocade, ochre and so on. Skirts with frills beside long draped overgowns beside soft ruched knits beside silky trousers.
It was a real thrill to feel all the textures and admire the pleats and ruffles and assymetric hems.
I didn't buy anything. You can see the website here (and ten minute catwalk show), worth watching all the way through.
It reminded me of an unstructured Nitya - Click on Collections, turn the sound on, and then navigate with the big arrows... and admire the age range of the models too.
After I had drunk in the colour we headed across the city to visit the artists equivalent of a sweetie shop... I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, if you've looked at Ousolieil and Nitya you'll have been here for a while already!
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