Dress as the Spanish Do
efore going abroad, we received a packing list along with a page of advice from past American students who had traveled to Spain. The advice that appeared on the page not once, but three times, was don’t wear workout clothes. In other words, forgo the Under Armour shirt. Ditch the Adidas running shoes. Leave the Lululemon leggings at home. As we searched through my drawers to begin packing, my mom turned to me and asked, “Alex, what will you wear in Spain?”
I must admit, I do love my workout clothes as much as the next American college student. Why go to math class in jeans when I can go in my running leggings? Why bring an extra pair
of clothes to go to gym after class when I can just go to class in a giant sweatshirt? However, coming to Europe, particularly Southern Europe, I realized I would have to step it up a bit.
It’s been an adventure. Granada itself is unique because it definitely has two sides to its fashion scene. While it has the more traditional European side—business casual everyday, as a friend once put it—it also has a very hippie feel to it. Actually, Granada is known for the backpackers and hippies who come live in the Sacromonte, a neighborhood famous for it’s gypsy root. This freer vibe means that the other side of Granada fashion includes loose pants, colorful t-shirts and outfits that look like they would fit in at Woodstock more than Madrid. In fact, when my friend was visiting from Madrid, she asked if these people were all just lost American tourists and I explained that no, they weren’t. They were just the other side of Granada.
After all, that is the quickest way to spot a tourist: clothing. This double side of Granada fashion makes the game even more fun. I love sitting at my favorite café—where the waiters now know me and sometimes slip me a free a hot chocolate—and play Spot the Tourist. While mannerisms and facial expressions are giveaways—all tourists have that lost look about them—clothing is the first indication. Leggings and a short shirt: American. (Actually, pretty much any outfit with leggings means American.) Baggy sweatshirts: American; sandals: American; short skirts: American. In fact, I love wearing short skirts at home, and given how short my legs are, the skirts are not even small on me. Yet I didn’t realize how much I stood out until one day, I was walking down the street, and an older lady was staring at me. In Spain, people have a tendency to just stare, so I thought nothing of it as we walked toward each other. However, when I was no less than five feet past this lady, she turned around to
face me and exclaimed, “ay dios mio!” I was so taken aback that I stopped in my tracks. Only then did it occur to me that this skirt broke the fashion rules here, and that I’d better go home and put on some tights. Since then, I’ve begun to pay more attention, and I’ve noticed that everyone here sticks to pants or tights, even in seventy degree weather. This is true for boys too. Shorts—especially basketball shorts—are the emblem of American boys and no matter how many times Spanish people try to explain this to the boys on my program, they will not relinquish their basketball shorts. Go Bulls!
While Americans have a tendency to wear too little clothing in the sun, Spanish people perhaps wear too much. It’s particularly amusing seeing Spaniards in coats and hats like it’s winter. On the beach in Barcelona, people were even wearing their puffy winter coats because it was only sixty degrees. Given that it gets up to one hundred and ten degrees in the summer, it makes sense why sixty is cold for them, but after living in Chicago and Boston, that is basically summer. However, perhaps the Spanish are onto something because they know that, the minute the sun goes down, all the Americans with their sandals will be missing their coats and hats very, very much.
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