Grandma Britta

Heading to New York City this weekend and I am so excited!!  Of course lots of my thoughts swirl around the eternal question -- what am I going to wear?  My mother reminded me that Gudrun Sjöden has a shop in SOHO at 50 Greene St.  I will definitely try to go there.  It's funny when I clicked over to their site I found this page on Grandma Britta.  We too had a Grandma Britta, or Mormor as we called her (which means Mother's Mother) and she was a fashion inspiration as well!

But her style had nothing in similar with Ms. Sjödens eco-concious, hippy feeling prints and big sweeping styles.  My grandmother wore tailored suits, turbans, and leopard print.  She had a raincoat lined with fur (cheetah I think) and loved polyester pants for their practicality.  She always wore diamond studs and loved to show off her gams, which everyone agreed were her best asset.  Well I didn't inherit her legs sadly but I did get her love of fashion.

My mother inherited her fur and handmade dolls which are hysterically funny. Britta had a great sense of humour and loved to entertain.  Her dolls, which were basically puppets on sticks were fashioned from left-over fabric and bits and bobs, like maybe one earring, some lace, etc.  Maybe my mother will send me a picture so I can show you their faces.  The poor guy with the snaggle tooth always made me laugh!

Mormor loved to crochet so we typically got a beret from Christmas, a hundred krone note, and something else from their local outdoor market in Spain.  It could be been a pack of underpants or a leather belt.  You never knew but you knew Mormor haggled for it.  I loved that woman, vilken "krut gumma"!  (Power lady.)  I miss her.

So anyway I digress, it's off to NY I go and I will pack my sundries later today.  I need to bring something fancy so we'll see what the wardrobe holds... maybe a turban and some leopard print pants will do? ;-)  Look forward to seeing my sister and father in the Big Apple!