I was wearing:

Easy Wear coat
Vintage dress from American Bijoux Vintage
Louis Vuitton red scarf
DIY Gucci inspiration brooch
Lightinthebox shoulder bag
Bata rain boots
Mise en Dior earrings

Ah holidays. That time of the year when streets fill with tons of Christmas markets, and there're sweets and amazing food no matter what country you live in, and cold and chill stays the whole day... Well, that's about to come very soon! For the first time in my life, I will be "coming back home for Christmas" this coming December, and I'm sure everyone will expect of me to go back to Spain not only with tons of experiences, fun facts and a bit of italian in my tongue but also, loaded with new fun-tastic outfit ideas and crazy wardrobe changes with some florentine flavor attached. I can't wait!

So, now I can finally assure you that Firenze belongs to northern Italy, and that means that it's a much colder città than I ever expected. I was warned long before the chill arrived, because every single window in every single shop downtown was filled with fluffy fur coats and cozy sweaters I would have never imagined wearing back home. That should have given me the idea of what was about to happen in late October/beginning of November. But, as innocent as I am, I didn't trust those first signs and kept going out every day with my light sweater and blazer jacket because, "it's OK, it's sunny outside and the birds are singing around". WRONG. It's cold, deal with it. Even in this amazing pictures my friend and I took at the Tepidarium Roster here in the Giardino dell'Orticultura while being sunny and lovely.

That's why, my advice is... Why let cold beat you instead of battling it face to face with a warmer outfit? It's precisely in holidays and festive Winter days that one of the things I miss the most is pairing a cool, flowy maxi dress with just a pair of sandals and a nice purse. Well, with this green velvet dress I got from Lightinthebox now I can achieve that without freezing while staying super in-style. Velvet always feels so cozy, so classy and kind of glowing that it doesn't only travel me back to holiday memories, but also makes me want to show everyone that fiorentine je-ne-sais-quoi ligated somehow to amazing fabrics worn for centuries here, and that I'm trying to acquire every single day I spend in this city. So, a velvet maxi dress might be one of the best ideas I've ever had when picking a Winter-proof outfit that will also help me get through a long flight and crowded lines at the airport. Coming back this holidays is a perfect excuse to rock a great outfit!

Right aside our townhouse at the beach, there's a pedestrian street which is ah-mazing to install my tripod and camera everytime I come back from work in early evening, when the sun is going down and light is great to take a few shots of my daily outfit. The townhouse where I've spent most of my Summer seasons is your typical Spanish town house, with a patio, and a terrace, and impossible staircases covered in handpainted tiles. It belonged to my grandpa, and before him, to his grandparents. We live on a neighbourhood downtown where we all know each other, and neighbours have seen me grow up as I have seen their children.

I was setting my DSLR, the tripod, the remote and all the stuff when I saw my neighbour's girls walking their fluffy dog. They live in the house right in front of us, and they are the cutest children to which I'd given my toys once I became a grown up, or even taught some maths support lessons. They looked at me with curiosity while I was putting everything into place in the middle of the street, and I started asking them about school and how their grades went at the end of the semester. After a while, I waved goodbye as they looked as they were coming back home and, after just taking one or two pictures (blurry and out of frame, of course. It's still a bit tricky to figure out the whole tripod-auto-photo-blogging thing) they asked if they could join me with the pictures and help me, which of course I agreed to. I then explained briefly what I was doing, how I focused with the remote control and how to pose (well. Sort of) and they just didn't stop asking me questions and helped me to fit into the camera screen. It was very fun, and I think the pictures also ended up looking pretty good!

That event made me think about when I was 9 to 12 years old, and what were my expectations of myself, my role models and who I truly wanted to become. Now that I think about it, I'm not exactly what I expected or who I wanted to be (I just took another path), but, if I would come back about 12 years, I think the past Amanda would be glad of who she's become and what dreams she's pursuing. Until now, I didn't realize I have achieved a lot (I'm a young woman almost finishing a technical career where women graduates' rate is still low; I've been writing and taking the entrepreneurship path in a complete foreign language since I was 16 year old; I've already published papers in a couple of conferences, won several architecture prizes... And still hanged out with friends!) and that maybe, I'm trying very hard to be that woman role model I missed have when I was a child. Because, we're constantly told that we can become whatever we want to; that we have to work hard to achieve our dreams but... Where are the examples of absolutely regular people chasing their goals? Where are the stories about women breaking their glass ceilings and overcoming every difficulty in our very own quotidian environments and close to us in time? I think about the role models I didn't have as a child, and whose history and achievements I hadn't heard of until very recently: Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo, Lina Bo Bardi, Katharine Hepburn. And then, I think about the girls with their fluffy dog wanting to become a vet and a physio doctor, and I can't help but wonder if they have any role model to look up to, and if any day in the future I could be close to being one myself with the little but steady steps I'm already making.

That said, what or who did you wanted to be when you were younger? Did you exceed your expectations? What would your younger self think of you if you were a child?

Chopping my hair before summer was the best idea my silly, messy brain could ever have. Although having the need of ironing and taking care of it quite regularly (but as much as a regular length haircut), it's quite comfortable and easy to wear. However, there are those days when you don't feel like wearing it loose. Or it's just as hot as hell out there that you feel the need of wearing a ponytail, bun, or whatever just to feel a little breeze on your neck and shoulders.

That's the story behind this outfit, and how I ended looking a little bit like this "typical Spanish flamenca" women with my low bun and loop earrings. But, why not? They looked just too fancy and perfect matching this floral tail dress with all its tropical motifs dancing around (here's another way to style it). Sometimes you have to take risky and last hour decisions, and that's what I did here. Soft makeup, comfortable shoes but it ended like the most colorful outfit ever.

Sometimes, the simplest and most unexpected things can flip a whole outfit, isn't it?

VOGUE & Swatch 30th anniversary project. I was really unsure about publishing these pics or not until I know a bit more about the contest's deliberation. I've been keeping them since really late July, when I got back from my trip to Ticino where I really knew about this project on the Italian VOGUE while traveling around Milano and Switzerland.

It was about to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Swiss watch brand Swatch, and all you had to do was take a picture or send a video featuring one of their pieces, vintage or new. I went to the pictures as you can see, and as I had no Swatch on my jewelry case, I decided to get this super curious translucent, golden limited model launched to commemorate the date. Then lights, camera, action! We improvised a home-made photo shoot on the beach place with this bright puffy green dress, and set my best ''antique mood'' on. No accessories and really strong makeup as we used the watch as the center of the shoot, changing its place on my outfit (as I did with LouveDeNordneg's scarf).

The mere fact of having the opportunity to participate in a contest like this has allowed me to open my mind to participate on more projects related to fashion and which I could show you here, like more dynamic things to do and write about.

Who said changes had to be bad?

Friday, 10PM at Centro del Carmen, Valencia. Yay, can't believe I have been all the week wishing Friday finally arrived, not only to get some rest but also for the emerging designers/fashion event organized by Circuito de la Moda from Valencia and it has already passed by!

Circuito de la Moda Valencia is a national fashion platform which features young emerging creatives and every month looks for new faces for this designers' presentations and catwalks. They do some events on Valencia, and this time we were invited to meet the collections by Anna Vicent, Yana Oblap and Fashionart, which is a crew of young designers based on the Valencian College of Fine Arts. The event had an unique placement downtown, on a former convent converted into a XXI century museum. Imagine what was running through my mind when entering there and see that pure-awesomeness-piece of archi-culture.

Circuito de la Moda is an independent, non-profit organization that works with the new designers to develop their presentations and shows, so getting a proper space for developing the events might be a little bit tricky. That's the reason why I feel like I must write down my critic about the event, as a constructive review. Although the whole space was like the perfect scenery, the catwalk was held on an available exhibition hall, pretty narrow for the over 400 people who attended to the event and taking pictures was a total ordeal: everyone was in front on me or had to peek to see when the models where coming, and therefore half of the pictures I took have publics' heads, or hands or backs everywhere. The evening ended quite well although my feet almost killed me, and I ended a little grumpy because the few pictures I could take without everybody in the middle of the frame... 

Anna Vicent collection ''Peonía'', which features a really feminine shapes and soft fabrics reminding Spring and flowers. Delicate and super stylish:

Crochet. After lace it's a fabric I really like, which gives any outfit that sweet, vintage touch. This dress is actually really old, not vintage at all because I bought it new from a local store, but it's been a lot of years since the last time I wore it (maybe the last time was when I was 12?). These dresses are really fun to wear with sparkly makeup and some accessories, as it has a really simple and repetitive design. So I experimented a little bit with my white and green eye shadow palette.

These pictures were actually taken in town during summer holidays, just a few days ago. Now that classes have already arrived there's a few time for posting, for traveling, and even for sleeping. And weather has changed very drastically and quick, so there’s no more time to wear light tops and dresses like this. Anyway, winter has something I really like too. Cold weather allows me to put lots of layers on and play with textures and different fabrics on the same outfit, which is fun. I’m missing scarves and winter hats too!

What about you? Do you prefer winter or summer when it comes to clothing? When do you think it’s easier to get dressed?

Last New York post. On our last days around the city we kept visiting museums, as well as we went for some thrifting and shopping, which was really fun. I was really excited but also surprised to find things I wouldn’t be able to find here, and much cheaper (Levi’s jeans which are my MUST HAVE EVER, just as an example)!

So, shop-by-shop we stopped on the Metropolitan Museum, especially for the ‘’Punk’’ exhibition, which made me realize how fashion and trends change over the years, and how what it's trendy now couldn’t be cool tomorrow. Fashion is culture and a way of life, so every time I see any exposition related to it I get to take a look and take some notes.

At last but not least, I must talk about this outfit. Example of dressy (maybe too much), comfy and still very cheap outfit. The dress is from a local store, it's a bit heavy but made from a great quality fabric in a really bright green color. The espadrilles are super comfortable and perfect shoes on the go, and they didn’t cost me more than 20$. And the necklace was actually a gift!