Rome: The Fashion.

Another thing I delight in....fashion!

I think if I could do it all over again, I would have chosen to major in fashion design. Not that I'm any kind of fashion icon, but it is a big interest of mine in limited doses. Maybe not so much that I ever desired to be a real designer, but more because I would love to sew my own clothes. You know, like rip off other people's ideas and then try and do it myself. And girl's clothes would be fun too!

Before I packed for our trip, I googled "what to wear in Rome" and the common theme was: nice pants, ballet flats or retro sneakers, over-the-shoulder purse, and somewhat modest shirt. Showing too much skin could open you up to cat calls. I also read that looking like a tourist could cause you to receive poor service or being exploited.

So off limit items were: running shoes, shorts, flip flops, or jeans.

Well, those four things are pretty much my everyday uniform.

Maybe those blog posts I read about "what to wear" were outdated. Because, I found out it didn't really matter what we wore. Mostly because there were so many tourists, we just blended in. Maybe if we rocked a fanny pack with khaki shorts and socks pulled up to our knees, we would have felt slightly self conscious. But jeans were completely fine. In fact, that's what most of the Romans were wearing. Granted, men and women alike were wearing "skinny" jeans (some men wore jeans tighter than I would even consider squeezing into). I never ventured out in shorts, but I did wear flip flops (with arch support) and didn't feel like I was being stared at.

Anyway, all that to say....if you're going to Rome and wondering what to pack, you're pretty safe to bring what you would normally wear. The only factor is if you plan to visit a church, women's shoulders and knees must be covered.

So here's what we saw in Rome.

A wedding took place one day, and we saw the bride and her father being dropped off:

And we also stopped to watch some of the guests trickle in. It was incredible seeing some of the women walking in platform stilhettos on that cobblestone. It seemed incredibly impractical, yet impressive. 

I guess you might call this Euro Goth. Seemed a tad inappropriate for wedding attire, but entertaining nonetheless:

Another thing I noticed was all of the marketing towards baby and toddler apparell. It was hysterical to see toddler boys running around better dressed than our husbands. (No offense). But really, they were wearing designer-looking jeans with super-trendy Pumas and popped collars. To be honest, it made me exhausted just thinking of all the effort that must go into that. Whoowee. No thanks. I'm lucky if my girls are even wearing shoes when they leave the house.

But the window shopping was fun.

This photo below doesn't do the real thing justice. They were Naiya-size ballet flats. Probably a size 2? I probably would have been tempted to purchase these cuties, but I imagine they were expensive as everything else in Rome. So I didn't even look at the price tag.

So Euro:

So not:

So very Euro:

So very not:

And this? Why, I think it speaks for itself:

To give him credit, he was holding both my cardi and purse as a favor. And I love the confidence with which he posed for this photo opp, knowing full well it would end up on my blog. But I definitely prefer a more rugged man (like my no-frills hubby). I can even appreciate a little bit of effort. But when I feel like my man took more time to get himself together than I did, not such a big fan. 

And that wraps up the Going Euro post!