Shoes / Clothes, Barcelona

According to our travel guide even Cathrine Zeta-Jones buys here the espadrilles ... now me too :-)

Cathrine wasn't in but several old elegant Spanish ladies buying new ones for the summer to come.

After finding the correct size it starts to get difficut. Which color should I choose? Yellow, no turquoise or maybe orange ... just black would also be beautiful but isn't it to boring? What about light green or olive, maybe purple? Difficult, difficult ....

Finally I bought a pair in orange and on in light blue.

What to buy: espadrille, espadrilles and more espadrilles

As the online guide barcelonastyle.com says: "A fashion shop for people with a youthful outlook".

What to buy: Urban fashion for women and men. It's one of the few places you can find t-shirts from the local brand "Divinas Palabras", other brands as Franklin & Marshall, Acupunture.... and some items from its own label.

I should admit I'm addicted to these shoes. They are not cheap, true... but they last for ages! Comfortable, excellent quality and unique design. As they motto says: "walk, don't run".

In the pic you can see my little "collection": 8 pairs that I actually wear, including summer and winter seasons. 2 of them from this season, others are pretty old but still on use. Recently I decided to trow away a few more pairs... a couple of these were more than 10 years old!

What to buy: Shoes, shoes, shoes.... I like specially the "twins" series, why your right foot should feel the same than your left one?? :-)

Barcelona has the best Zara clothing store right on the main drag of downtown. Zara is an internationally known brand for giving the customer high fashion at high street prices. Also,the tailoring is particularly good and I have seen all ages shopping here.

What to pay: High fashion at affordable prices

Barcelonian style is sooooooo hip. I've been to Rome (okay for elegant), Paris (what a disappointment), London (expensive)--but Barcelona was fresh, interesting, young, and creative. This was one of the stores that hung all their graphic t-shirts upside down in the entryway. Just a kick of an experience. It is a younger crowd for this store, but even the stores for the more mature buyer were quite interesting.

I just loved going into the store--it's a great adventure.

What to pay: A little pricey because of the euro, but such interesting stuff.

If you've been shoppping in Barcelona, chances are you've gotten your fair share of Zara and H&M. But for something really original, head into El Raval. Take a right on c/ Bonsucces or c/ Tallers. The latter, in particular has one incredible, nameless vintage store with an incredible selection of boots. It's on your left a few doors down. There's purchases to be made for every budget, and the area is an exciting, eclectic change from your typical shopping experience.

This pedestrian street is full of popular spanish shops. Amongst them few Zara shops, Massimo Dutti and Mango. There are also few shoe shops here and another El Corte Ingles, with library, music and IT department.

If you're looking for great shopping, Barcelona is the place. If you're in the Placa Catalunya area check out Placa Angel. It's right off Catalunya with TONS of stores - Most of the clothes you are looking for can be found here - If you have specific questions send me an email and I can find out for you

What to buy: Fashion is very important in BCN so the trends are ahead of the US and after returning to the states it was obvious to see - If you see local women wearing it, BUY it! You'll regret it if you don't get whatever it is you're looking at in barca - I studied over there and was broke buy the end so I wasn't able to buy all the stuff I wanted to - next trip over there is strictly a shopping trip, and I'm not really a big shopper in the states

What to pay: Due to Euro/$ conversion you do lose a little money but most prices are fair - you can spend a lot though if you want