spruced by marlene

So I totally wanted to do this post in October. Remember October? Freakishly warm weather, lots of sun, happy days.

But then other things keep moving to the top of the to-do-list and now it’s the end of November, which means it would make so much more sense to write about winter boots.

Except I’m crap at shopping for winter boots, as I am with most items of clothing that are a necessity (you should see the inside of my underwear drawer. Better yet, you shouldn’t.) I don’t like looking for shoes that are practical in the cold, because I don’t like the cold, so by the time I’m ready to concede defeat to winter and run to the shops, everything’s either sold out or too heinous to consider.

So, please, if you have an tips on where to find a good pair of winter boots, tell me.

In the meantime, here are some amazing loafers, and a few reasons why I decided to write about them now.

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„Why don’t you come along“, my friend Miriam said last week, and so we sat at Berlin’s Huxleys Neue Welt on Friday evening, waiting together for Miranda July to talk about her new book The First Bad Man. It was a fabulous reading, that July deftly steered away from the self-indulgent interviewer, and we could’ve stayed for another few hours to listen to that wonderfully weird, honest and empathic woman. Afterwards we headed to a bar, one more drink, then home ot our families. Just as we ordered, I got a text from Okka: „Are you watching the news?“

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It might be my genes, but visiting Copenhagen makes me feel like I’m going home, even though I’ve never lived there. I met Cecilie on one of my last trips when we worked together on a story I wrote. Once we got chatting, I knew that I wanted to ask her for her personal city guide to Copenhagen.

She works as the head of PR for the Danish Fashion Institute and is dressed as I-want-everything-she’s-wearing as you’d image. She’s just as unassumingly cool to talk to as she looks and I hope I managed to catch her charme in our interview. When I suggested we meet up at Granola, she replied: „Perfect! It’s basically my living room.“ Turns out that her boyfriend is one of the owners and she lives just around the corner with him and their daughter.

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Arlo started kindergarten last week and today is the one of the first days he’s staying there without me for a few hours, so now I’m sat at the café around the corner, with loads of time.

Time.

For myself.

What am I going to do?

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Looking back at my fall favourites from last year, I was a little surprised to see that I still love every single piece. Surprised, because nothing makes me feel more like ‘I’ve got nothing to wear’ than October (and November, December, January…) The cold, the wet, the grey, they take all the fun out of getting dressed.

Except I think that clotheswise I’m actually a winter person. I’ll always take trousers over a dress, I can get into layering up, I love a good coat. When I found that camel wrap coat at ZARA last year, I might’ve done a little victory jig right there in the store (they do a updated version in grey this year, in case you feel like breaking into spontaneous dance at a ZARA).

So while I feel more like shopping when it’s warm – summer makes me want to buy sundresses and peasant blouses and frilly things that are as insubstantial as a fling in July –, I’m more focused on finding pieces for winter that I are so special I’ll not just want to wear them right now, but in six months time.

Which is a great excuse to spend more money.

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