Top Coat, Top Designer and Top Tailors….

Been a while since I blogged. I don’t like January but it’ll soon be over, tomorrow in fact.

I am quite busy with my writing at the moment doing a memoir writing course with Fish Publishing…watch out friends and family, you’d better be nice to me or else! I’m also trying to keep up with the Writers Bureau course that I won last November, there’s tons of it and it may take me the whole of 2014 to finish!

A little story about a coat…

In Petritoli there is a euro shop, we call it that because most clothing sold in there costs a euro. The shop is housed in the old cinema, a massive building and the place is crammed upstairs with clothing and downstairs, in the stalls where the seating used to be, is crammed with items of furniture, costing a little more than a euro but not much more.  We have taken advantage of both departments. I’m not sure where the money taken goes, I don’t think it’s a charity shop. There are very few if any   charity shops in this part of Italy. Correct me please if I’m wrong but I’ve never found any.

A couple of years ago I entered the shop to look for a winter coat and found a lovely brown hairy thing for which I duly paid my one euro.

I wore it to travel to our friend’s house near Cortona and when I took my newly acquired coat off she (Linda, sorry, she doesn’t like being called she) exclaimed,

‘Oh you have a MaxMara!’

I was unimpressed, because I didn’t know who that was. I’ve never really been interested in designer labels so haven’t kept up with who’s who. I know about Chanel, D&G and a few others but that’s about it. However, I took great delight in telling her – sorry not her but Linda – that I’d bought the coat for only a euro!

The lining was a bit worn and this year I thought I’d do something about it. Now, here’s the thing, in this little town of Petritoli we have a pair of tailors, husband and wife. So, I went to Fermo to buy new lining material, which cost 6 euros and then took the coat to the shop and asked them to please make a new lining, making sure not to lose the MaxMara label, because now I proudly show everyone my MaxMara one euro coat…not to labour the point.

They did a fantastic job.

When I went to collect it they said…

‘Mama mia! Molto difficile, maniche, tasche, tutti difficili da cucire e tagliare, molte ore di lavoro necessarie.’ which roughly translated means it took ages and we’re going have to charge you a LOT of money.

‘How much?’ I asked.

‘Venticinque’ she shrugged her shoulders and looked apologetic.

Only twenty-five euro! Brilliant. I went back the next day with the money.

‘Trentacinque’ they said, upping the price by 10 euros, I must have looked too pleased the day before.

I think thirty-five euro or should I say thirty-six is a great price for a MaxMara. I’ve googled it and the winter coats retail upwards of £400 each! RESULT!