Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Destination: Inspiration *Barcelona*

Summer is in full blown effect and Barcelona, Spain seems like a perfect party destination for the season. According to a review by Tara Stevens for TabletHotels.com , Barcelona is a great place not only to suck up the sun on the beach during the day, but the nightlife is what distinguishes the Spaniard culture.  A huge part of Spanish cultural tradition is eating small meals with wine in between main meals, meals known as tapas, which is called the Tapas tradition. "Tapas are more than just finger foods and appetizers – serving a tapa is a way of bringing people together and encouraging conversation rather than simply filling their stomachs" [source]. That type of experience is the type of relaxation I would want to experience with my own friends, forming new memories as we work off what we eat, mingling and carousing about the seaside nightlife. Barcelona seems to me to be the perfect social relaxation destination, for after waking up from a night of enjoying late night fun with friends that generate fun no matter where on Earth we are, it would be off to gather items for a bountiful dinner and enjoy lunch at Cornelia and Co., or another one of their supermarkets known as great social hubs. Stevens reported that to be serviced at the chic supermarket, all one has to do is hand over a grocery list, and all you need will be prepared for you as you enjoy one of their lunchtime dishes. I am a big fan of people watching, and I can imagine that their supermarkets would provide an awesome survey of the sartorially interesting. Considering Spain is the hometown of Cristόbal Balenciaga, the founding designer of the house of Balenciaga who showed his first collection in 1937, I would hope to see the beautiful Spanish women who would appreciate, and emote, his ideals of timeless elegance.

As Bettina Ballard has described him in her book, “In My Fashion”, like Chanel, Balenciaga believed in comfortable clothing for women, “in which they can move their legs, and which they can put on with a minimum of effort…He never has complicated un-get-at-able fastenings...He uses as few seems as possible, [and] adds as little trimming. His suits always fit any number of sizes by some miracle of cut (as was his philosophy on proportion). Balenciaga believes in the unquestionable elegance of black and white, in the color of the Spanish earth and rocks and olive trees, in the red of the bull ring, in the effective accent of turquoise, in the Goya combination of black with beige, gray with black, and in yellow. He believes in lace and ribbon bows—never used in a fussy way but rather with true Spanish dignity. He likes satin that moves with elegance but has no false stiffness underneath it. He likes plain necks, unexaggerated bosoms, a freedom of body under the dress. Hats are his one madness—and yet the little Balenciaga pillbox has been the standard of hat elegance ever since the war. His one word for anything fashion or people he doesn’t like is cursi—a combination in Spanish of vulgar and bad taste which is everything he hates.”
   

Onward from lunch, Hotel OMM, would be another great place to see the beautiful people of Barcelona seeing that their Resturant MOO is said to be this side of chic and avant-garde for those who want to see and be seen. Mandarin Oriental is another spot which is said to have great cocktails which can be enjoyed in its soothing Mimosa terrace, a place one can retreat from the culturally social environment, but of course, who can stay away from the crowd long being that, in my fashion, I would want to see, be seen, and experience all that I could while vacationing in such a beautiful environment. 

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