My Swiss female friends are very good at wearing scarves.
Simply tying a scarf around your neck over a white blouse or a cashmere sweater is a standard style that everybody knows. I don’t recall exactly when, but once I saw a woman simply spreading a large pink Hermes scarf over a dark brown jacket, which really impressed me with the interesting color combination. It matched very well with her blond hair.
Although I know it will cheer you up when you wear something in vivid color on a cloudy day, I always tend to pick up something very dark.
As we are expecting a long winter now, I went through my closet to find some colors for accent.
There is one scarf that has been left at the same place since last year. Although it is true that I have been treating it as something special, it has become difficult to put it on once you lost a good timing. So it has never been outside my closet.
There is one nice shop that deals with good quality textiles along the lake. I casually drop in each season as they carry or produce something unusual.
That was surely one afternoon of early winter. The antique room must have been at least 150 years old. When I was talking with the designer at one corner of this room, I just realized this scarf was simply placed by the windowsill.
It was a mysterious lace that revealed many colors though the light. When I got close to it, it was a cloth just like the wind.
When I picked it up to take a look, she happily smiled at me.
She said, “It is a lace from St. Gallen. I, myself, found it. It is really a great piece of work. I believe how you use it, is just like how you wear a piece of jewelry”.
St. Gallen. If you hear this place name, a meddeval town comes to your mind right away.
It is located in the east of Zurich, about 1 hour train ride. Up to the area around the monastery, which is believed to be the masterpiece of baroque architecture, the town has a splendor scenery and is designated a World Heritage Site. While it is well known as a town of academics, it is also once a prosperous town with long history of textiles, laces and embroideries.
A lace of winter color sent from such a town.
There were enough reasons to purchase that.
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Close to the Cathedral, there is one shop I drop in occasionally when I stroll on the stone-paved streets of the old town of Niederdorf.
Stefi Talmam.
While she is considered as a Swiss designer who is capable in the wide-range of fields from architecture to typography or industrial design, she is also a well-known cutting edge in the fashion field.
Her collection is interesting and has surprises in the color variation, mainly in the shoes and bags as well as small items and accessories that decorate the windows. Especially, the combination of the leather used for the base and colorful unborn calf. It is amazing to see the well-thought combination balance of humor, intelligence, and functionality.
Since mid 1920’s, most of the people who have been innovative in the design world of this country are those who had moved to Switzerland from overseas. Stefi is no exception. She is a cosmopolitan of European and Asian origin.
While incorporating sharp and simple conventional Swiss design, targeting to the working women with borderless sense is probably, I believe, very Zurich like.
She has established popularity among assertive Swiss women, and has many fans in USA and Asia as well. http://www.stefitalman.ch/