So for those of us on a budget, there are a few places to go to get clothes before bigger brands purchase them and put their nametags and pricetags on them.  Chances are that you’ve heard of Once, the district where you can purchase everything from curtain fabrics to jewelry, underwear and articles of clothing in bulk for discounted prices.  But Once is actually just part of the larger barrio called “Constitucion” that is expansive and if you don’t know where you’re going, and exactly what you’re looking for, you can easily get led astray.

However, there are several streets near the intersection of Nazca and Avellaneda where you can find great deals on clothes, shoes and underwear for adults and kids.  It takes time to find what you’re looking for sometimes, but it’s totally worth it in my opinion.  It’s a lot easier to go through than Once for me.  The trick is to go early on a Saturday morning (we’re talking 8-9am).  Catch breakfast at one of the cafes on Calle Moron or grab some fruits to go at one of the Korean Supermarkets in the area (that actually have a large selection of turnips, fyi) and start walking up and down the streets. By noon, it gets so crowded that you can barely move – with 5000 other (mostly) women perusing the stores looking for good bargains.  Each store has a minimum number of articles of clothing that you must buy for them to sell it to you at the discounted bulk price, but usually you can find stores on Saturdays that have a minimum of 1-2 articles only.

Imagine camisole for 10 pesos, jeans for 70 pesos.  Today I went there and found 3 shirts and 4 undergarments for a total of 73 pesos.  I was too tired after that and went home before I could find some stretchy pants but if I have time next week, I’ll definitely go.  It’s just perfect for me in that in between time right now where it’s getting uncomfortable to fit into my regular clothes, but I think maternity wear is going to be too big for me yet.

Last year, I went there and found a little in between seasons jacket for 40 pesos and the following week was walking on Honduras and saw the exact same jacket for 240 pesos, I kid you not.  So you have to get there early and have patience and you can find the stuff you want without breaking your piggy bank.

I started off 2009 in Villa Crespo with our friends.

i started making snazzy cakes.

we went to mendoza and saw some lovely historic incan sites just on our side of chile.

and went to the bodegas and drank some delicious wine. (had to try the grapes first)

made my first chocolate whiskey cake.

and so began the palermo cupcakery.

meanwhile i also went out with friends!

and met new friends! (that’s gidget!)

and while other friends were here, we said goodbye to an ex-president.

and got our hair done.

and made more cupcakes…

and made some deeeelicious chocolate pudding…

and ate quite a few asados with friends.

and taught them how to spell….

then i went shopping..

I got treated to great food on my birthday…

and then my friends came over and we had a quiet little party with champagne… thanks friends.

and i learned to make empanadas…

and had a few romantic dates..

we went to mar del plata and saw “jesus shrugged”…

and ate squid in it’s ink.  yu-u-u-u-u-u–uuuuuummmmmyyyy

and saw touristy stuff…

and posed with jude.

people were coming in for a very special occasion!

i got married!

and went to a cactus festival.

i threw a cupcake party!

and met up with the girls one last time before the holidays…

and happily said goodbye to 2009, and hello to 2010.

I hope your 2009 was wonderful, and hope that your 2010 is even better!!!

Then there was the other “Recycled Buttons”  stand. ’nuff said.  It looked like every one of those buttons was purchased.

Or the worst possible idea ever… bookshelves made out of cardboard.  I understand that it’s recycled cardboard, but imagine you have a dog that isn’t quite yet potty trained and he accidentally pees on your bookshelf.  Then your books fall all over the place because the thing that didn’t look so stable in the first place is even less stable, and worst of all, stinky – for life.

Anyhoo, when I think of sustainability – I think of my friend Stiven who writes Sustainable Day.  I see that blog and I say, “Hey, THAT’S what sustainable design is about”.  I just wish he would translate it into Spanish so that Latin America can see what they’re missing, cause when I went to the sustainable design fair here in BA, I thought I would see a lot more of the kind of stuff that Stiven writes about.  Instead I saw a lot of tired old concepts and a lot of people trying to take advantage of the word “sustainability”.

When I think of cool sustainable stuff, I think about things like this: Sustainable Salmon Leather.  It’s leather, but it’s renewable. It takes the salmon skin that would normally be disposed of and turns it into usable, durable products. Imagine that.  One day, I’m totally going to get a bikini made out of that.

Bahrein’s Address: Lavalle 345 – Downtown

Check out the “Uniform Project“.  It started out in May where this blogger decided to participate in an exercise for sustainable fashion.  She takes the same dress and has committed to “reinventing” the dress every day for an entire year with layers and accessories. 

She’s also doing this for a wonderful cause – her project is also a fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation – providing funding for educational expenses and uniforms in the slums of India.

It’s a great idea, a wonderful cause and fashion inspiring all at once.

I went with her last week on one of her Palermo Fashion Tours and honestly – four hours passed in a flash.  We started out meeting Kirsty and the rest of the small group of girls also on the tour at a cafe in Palermo.  We enjoyed some coffee and really just broke the ice.  As part of the tour, Kirsty gave us complimentary tote bags filled with a tailor-made itinerary with addresses of all of the stores for our small group, one of the latest style magazines, discounts and V.I.P. cards as well as some great suggestions for spending your time in BA.

As the tour began, I noticed right away that Kirsty was really speaking and most importantly, listening attentively to what each of the girls in my group had to say.  To me, that’s all she had to do to sell me that this was going to be a fun time.  Also something really important to know from the beginning was that she doesn’t work on commission, so I didn’t feel any kind of pressure to purchase something that wasn’t right for me.

Since this particular tour went through Palermo (she also does tours in Recoleta and San Telmo), I figured that I would have gone to at least some of the stores that she led us to, but I was totally mistaken. She took to these hidden gems that I’ve passed walking the down the street probably 40 times and said to myself, “Hmm. That place looks cool-” but never had the chance to stop in there or was too intimidated because I thought it would be too ridiculously expensive.  I was so pleasantly surprised and proven wrong about the prices each time. As we went from store to store, Kirsty would introduce us to the salesperson, explain to them what we were looking for and in each case, learned so much information about the products and people behind the design that each person in the group felt really connected to them.  I walked out of each place saying to myself, “I didn’t realize that this place that I passed up so many times was so interesting!”

Most tours end up with a luncheon at a chic new restaurant in the area and a chance to rest your arms from all the bags you might be carrying.  Tours are open to the public and rates are very, very reasonable considering all of the energy, effort and organization that Kirsty has put into her programs.  I highly recommend the fashion tour if you’re here alone, with friends (and this is NOT just for us ladies…) and even if you live here as a local, you’re guaranteed to find some new and interesting places (like I did!).

For more information on her Boutique Fashion, Photography or Garden Tours, go to her website: BA Boutique Tours.  Her contact information is listed at the bottom of her web page.

Nueva coleccion Guapa Gloria Sobres

Originally uploaded by rakelchavez

mmm.. no I want them all…

http://www.guapagloria.com

I so want the Daft Punk purse.

Anyone seen these around here? This designer is from Venezuela but has some sort of connection to Buenos Aires… I WANNT!

Defo going on the HOT list for this month!

check!