As you may have read previously, I am an american fashion designer living in Italy. I used to live in New York when I was attending the Fashion Institute of Technology, and now 6 years later, I find myself in a small town in tuscany. It may sound like a dream to you, it may not. I would fall into the latter category. I can't say that I SHOULD be complaining, seeing that live in a place where the sun greets me almost every morning, and where I can arrive either at the beach for a swim, or in the snow capped mountains for a cup of hot chocolate in less than an hour. I quite frequently DO complain.
Well, not so much complaining, but comparing.
Yes, I COMPARE a lot.
While, neither America or Italy are perfect utopias, I quite often feel a nostalgia for my home country. Which is ironic because if I think back to when I was younger, I probably secretly wished I was european. There is an elegance and style that is connected to europe, which I have always admired. How is it possible that now I long for the over-the-top comforts of America?
Soon I will be returning home for a visit, and it is always around this time that I have the most wonderful dream. I dream that I am in New York City and I grab a grande vanilla latte from Starbucks and head over to the Anthropologie store in Soho, where I literally pass hours looking at all the clothes and home accessories. I usually hem and haw about choosing one object to buy, and then purchase it. That's the whole dream. But I wake up feeling like the happiest person the world. I live in a country where I can get a cappuccino for .90 cents made by a barman that actually studied at a "coffee university", and yet I long for a passable coffee in a to-go cup made by a high school student.
Ahhh, just one more week.
