2ndhand shopping with Nadra

Nadra 

This is Nadra. Besides being the wife of Fra's brother she is also one of the most beautiful women I have ever met and she also has an amazing, playful, chic and adorable style. So when Nadra called me last Sunday to ask if I want to join for some second hand shopping, I was so up for it!

Nadra always have fun scarves and nice cuts on her tunics.

très chic.

How can an Italian woman, with parents from USA and Tunisia, look like something out of an amazing Eskimo-fashion-magazine on a beach in America? :)

In Finland I used to go almost every Sunday to the flea market "Valtteri" at Vallilan Makasiinit. It happens to be the biggest flea market in Finland and there is even a weekly a tv-program about it! They have inside about 200 tables and outside about a 100 and you can easily book them through Internet. I have also been selling my old clothes there several times and you actually make fast money! The good thing about the place is, that people seldom come to sell something valuable (nor something with sentimental value...) and you can easily find a few times worn jeans for 5 euro, last seasons summer dresses for 3 euro and a bunch of jewellery for 50 cents.

I told you Valtteri is famous! :)

In Finland we have also another great flea market, but that one is active only in summertime. It is called Hietalahden kirpputori and takes place on a market square close to the sea. There you can also spot celebrities selling their stuff, I have spotted some Finnish models and designers at least.

Hietalahden tori

I wear my clothes very much according to my mood so I like it if I can get a bunch of new colours and patterns to my wardrobe and not spend much at all. Don't get me wrong- if I find a piece of cloth that costs a fortune but is perfect for me, I can easily eat porridge every day for a month to save up to it and buy it. But I have absolutely no need to have an Armani sign on my ass or a Burberry tag on my trench coat. I like more what it looks like and how I feel in it than some kind of status symbol.

A woolen sweater and a top I bought for 2 euro (together) and wore almost every day for a year, because I loved the combination of the dots in the ribbon and the stripes in the top...

What if the clothes I buy do not fit me? Well, then I ask around my friends and my mum if they want it or then I sew something out of it... like this top I once did of a flower dress and this top that was originally meant as linen curtains for my kitchen :) :)

The jacket I bought 2 weeks ago in Finland on a flea market. 10 euro.

So, what I have really missed living in Austria has been the Flea Market Sundays. The flea markets that I have found here are mostly smelly and disgusting (except the big yearly thing in the exhibition centre!) and when I ask around people seem to hate the idea of used things. In Milan there is a few 2nd hand shops but they are also much more expensive to what I am used to.

In the village in Austria I live in I find some used furniture though :)

But Nadra took me to a place called Di Mano in Mano where was also the stylist Nadia Gozzini. Nadia makes all kinds of changes on your old clothes, so that they feel new and exciting. She had also a few pieces there to show and I got very inspirated. Nadra had also taken Nadia's sewing course and told that it was great!

A top from Zara. I'm loving the colours.

small purse.

Nadra and I walked around slowly and found all kinds of fun stuff. I bought a skirt to wear on our motorbike trip to Corsica next summer (No, I will absolutely not sit on a motorbike in just a skirt, I am not suicidal, but to wear to the beach. If it gets dirty or broken, it doesn't matter as it cost 5 euro), a top from Zara in 3 colours, another beige top and a small bag/purse.

 The other top

The skirt.

So re-inspired by Nadra, I will visit some webpages and search for some patterns and start to sew something fun :)