It all comes back to Heidi...

In Europe, in all the places I have been this fall and winter, their are a couple of trends that everyone seems to get on board with and I kinda like it too. The first...scarves. Since September everyone has had a scarf around their neck and all seem very fashionable. The next major trend for women is tall boots (without a heel, more than with a heel). People wear anything with them and most of the time it works, but most wear skinny jeans inside of the boots. This could be a smart trend too as winter here seems to mean wet, and this is a great way to save the bottoms of your pants and have dry socks. Okay so, I have never been a skinny jeans kind of girl, but I need them here, so a whats a girl to do besides to go shopping. And the story begins...
I have gone shopping before, but I can't seem to find jeans that fit me well here and the brands are not exclusive of what you would find in the US, example: no Joes Jeans. Also, just go ahead and figure you might be a size bigger here in certain stores. This especially goes for short girls with a small waist an hips and muscular legs. Any way, I was told by a friend that I should go to the top of one of the department stores in the Zentrum as they have some designer brands that I would recognize...the down side is that I would pay for it. So my thought was I will go and try on a brand I know and then have TJ pick me up the same jeans in the US for much less. Good idea, right? The shock value of the price of 7 jeans about made me fall over. At Von Maur, I can get a pair for 140-150 USD...here I can them for around 190-200 EUR-conversion is 246-260 USD. I know, ridiculous! And then some of you might think it is ridiculous to pay the US rate, and now it should be said...designer jeans are more expensive because each pair of the same size fits differently and when you find a pair that fits perfectly (which is rare) you can never put a price tag on that. Oh yes and I can tell you that I bought my first pair circa 2002 and I still have them and wear them.
So here is what happened in the store...My sales associate spoke fluent English, which is very good, and knew what I wanted so she brought me a bunch of different brands of jeans. BTW, the only two I recognized were Citizens and 7s. So I find a pair that I fall in love with of a brand I have never heard of, which thankfully are much more inexpensive than the brands I knew. So I am done and going to purchase when she brings me another pair to try on. So I take the pair of jeans and look at the brand and price. I ask her, "Do these jeans sell in this department?", and confused she replies, "Yes, of course". People, she handed me Jordache jeans for 120 EUR!!!! Come on, Jordache jeans are far from designer unless suddenly all things sold at Kmart appreciated by 500%! So because I was stunned and a little embarrassed I tried them on. Apparently Jordache jeans sold here are made for children as I could barely get my big toe in them. And not quality denim...you know what I mean when I say they could stand up by themselves. Okay, so it gets better...She comes back and I am ready to check out with my other jeans and she asks, "My manager and I would like to know how much you could buy these jeans for in the US". Quickly I apologize to her and play the I am an American so therefore I am rude and unpleasant role. She presses on and I tell her, "I am not for certain, but I believe that if you have $50 you may be able to buy 2 pair at the discount stores in America". I am honest, and was not bitchy in the least. She about fell over and said, "Well these are new to this department as Heidi Klum redesigned the entire line". Of course I told her how much I loved Heidi and hoped the line would become more successful because of it, and offered that Americans (which there are a lot of) would not pay almost 150 dollars for Jordache. I also said I thought they were cute, which they kind of are. The result...I think that those jeans may be relocated in the store.
It was certainly an experience! The moral of story...during this awful time of financial crisis, if you need a new pair of jeans and you only have about $25, just remember you can run to Kmart and pick up a pair of Jordache and be perfectly fashionable in Germany!
Auf Wiedersehen