Milan Power Shopping

Before coming, I polished up a couple shoes and a belt that'll find a new life and took them out of rotation. We dropped off some ten year old suits (am I even allowed to say that?) at the drycleaners... will give those away too. I try to keep 10 going so they only get worn once per two weeks, but still, ones since university I've finally pulled the plug on even after saying I would for the last 2 Christmas's.

Guy shopping is easy. We stop into a store that is the vendor of my favourite suit in my rotation at home. Coincidentally, it's Italian, and a giant store is a block from our hotel. I've got new space for a grey/blue/black after retiring some. Their tailor works sundays... so I get three cause it looks like it'll work out to about 25% less here per suit, and less if we can get this VAT refund going in the morning at the airport, which I think gets over another 10% back. The tailor measures for totally minor pant length as I'm off the rack proportions generally. On top of that, I grab a pair of jeans on their holiday sale. 55 minutes from walking in to check out, including a tailor whom I've never seen put pins in faster, like darts! Instructions are to pick up half hour before close which is easy given proximity to hotel.

Then we do Cindy's stops, but first get snacks by the Duomo. Women don't get three suit colors to pick from. The permutations and combinations are infinite. We sort of have a hit list of things to look for, but each store has about a 30% hit rate of what works from shelf to changing room. There's a marked difference in "niceties". At "my" store, Cindy was offered water, coffee, a nice chair, chocolates and a magazine. In the girls shops I range from being run over by Italians/tourists/girls/ladies rummaging hard, to acknowledgement that my presence could perhaps warrant a chair, to a couple places that were pretty nice to chat with. It's funny to watch - universal across the stores they want Cindy to put on tighter stuff. Italian style is fitted. And they could be partly right if we can cut back after the pasta bingeing. But I think too they're not picturing actual sitting and work being done as much as just walking around and looking good.

All in, if you're looking for clothes in addition to sight seeing, Milan is a great place to do it. The selection is unbelievable. The competition it produces is apparent too.