one thing i truly miss about living in portugal (excluding the obvious) is european zara. when i was first bamboozled by the shopping opportunities in porto, i was indeed overwhelmed. it occurred when i discovered, during my wide expanses of free time to explore the city all by my lonesome and deplete my limited european currency, the shopping mecca that is rua de santa catarina.

located in the heart of the historic city, this pedestrian only road is jam-packed with businesses and is a real shopper's delight. while there may have been some serious gems to be unearthed in the realm of fancy boutiques (particularly those featuring european-made leather shoes) i could not afford such luxurious splurging. and being the bargain hunter that i am, i am proud to say that i even located what seemed to be the city's only vintage clothing shop in an entirely hidden locale. it is there where i purchased my favorite jacket; a brown leather, fox-fur collared number from the 1970s.

although there were surprisingly a variety of reasonably priced shopping options on rua de santa catarina, it did not take long for me to shake off the initial fever i had for all things foreign; upon closer observation one could easily distinguish the poor quality of shockingly cheap pieces per the ill-fitting shapes, fraying seams, starchy fabrics, and faux-leather stank. and so i learned things aren't always what they seem. i should have trusted my instincts with the incipient deterrence due in full to the over abundance of harem pants seen worn in the city. forgive me, but i have never been a big fan of the just-crapped-my-pants look. this being said, this street also offered the best zara store i had ever come across; the boston location, and even the fifth avenue spot in manhattan, are significantly lacking in comparison. boasting two spacious floors of perfectly arranged, color and size coordinated displays, this place was a dream. the upper floor itself was sufficient, comparable to but far superior than the more youthful line sold at H&M; edgy, unique, well-made, and fairly priced. the store also included a full-on shoe section, and not just mismatched pairs haphazardly strewn on the bottom shelves of displays as per the norm.

i am permitting myself to have some blatantly girlish and materialistic moments these days, and in taking a gander at the special zara casual line for fall 2010, suffice it to say that this is one of said moments. i lurve these looks. always a hippie at heart, i'll never shy away from the ways in which bohemian looks emerge resurrected and evolved and fresh. chunky over-sized knits, military pieces, florals, ethnic prints and the mixing and matching of everything; accented by thin belts and fringe and toughened up slightly by a good old lace-up boot. all this talk makes me want to watch hair. so i'm partial to homeless lady chic and unafraid to admit that each time the tabloids came down hard on mary-kate olsen for looking disheveled, broke-down and cracked-out, i was always secretly swooning.