Post-Albuquerque: The Festival Fashion Issue

Ok, I realize it’s not quite as elaborate as it sounds, but I was still pret-ty excited about my festival purchases. Check it out, my fellow flamenca fashionistas:

The Ensemble

The festival boutique had some gently used dresses, skirts and tops at great prices. The pattern of these coordinates is what caught my eye: I love royal blue and white, and something about the polka dot/mosaic print reminded me of things my grandma made me when I was a baby in the ’70s. I’m not usually a fan of this style of skirt and top for my body, but at Nick’s urging, I tried this set on. And loved it. It just feels fun!

The Shoes! The Shoes!

I knew the Menkes lady would be there, but I nearly wet my pants when I saw the stack of random pairs of Gallardos in the corner. The festival folks called Gallardo and ordered whatever they had in stock. I saw these red ones first. Now, mind you, this is my favorite style of Gallardos and I was already planning on ordering them in red. And here I find them in Albuquerque in MY SIZE. And at a considerable savings, if you look at the retail price with shipping from Spain. Clearly, they were my density (yes, I know, it’s destiny). My beautiful red babies. You’re a bit snug, but you’ll loosen up with all the dance lovin’ I’m ’bout to give you.

Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea hitting that damn boutique every day because it only made me find more things that could be justified as needs. A couple days after purchasing the above, I found these:

Apparently some other flamenca had been holding on to these but ultimately decided against them — to my delight! I had a brief moment of reasoning, where I tried to talk myself out them. Then I texted Nick the above photo and asked his opinion, and he assured me I’d be crazy to NOT buy them. I swear, he’s the devil. But they sure are lovely and green is my favorite color.

The Accessories

A flamenca can never have enough flores, no? Originally I was going to buy only the red one, but the other colors screamed out for me, too. Aren’t they pretty?

The Handbag

(er, tote bag)

This is great because it wasn’t a purchase — all festival registrants got one! They were available in gray, blue, orange, lime green, and hot pink. Originally I picked the gray one — until Nick looked at me and said, “Really?? GRAY??” But I hadn’t seen the pink one. When I did, I opted for that. Because pink and black is muy punk rock. I dig.

Y Mas

Nick and I also bought Festival T-shirts, and Nick picked up a cool gray T with an image of Carmen Amaya on it — similar to the tank I got last year with Camarón on it (it’s hot pink and black, of course). Sorry, no images of any of these at the moment.

I could have easily done more damage with some of the pretty skirts and shawls they had there, but I managed to somewhat keep my head. I’m happy with what I got. What do you think?