I arrived home over the weekend after a month abroad in Europe (a few days in Milan, two weeks in Prague, and a 170-km backpacking trip -- the Tour du Mont Blanc). The area where I live has just been hit by epic rain and flooding, so I've already had to cancel/postpone plans to meet up with friends and family I haven't seen in weeks. Barely back two days, and already feeling stir-crazy; what a way to come home!

As promised, here are some style notes from quite a varied trip. I'm sure my observations are completely biased and say as much about my particular lens as they do about the people/places themselves.

Milan: very style-conscious city, as expected! The first thing that struck me was the fact that jeans and sneakers are de rigeur even in 27°+ heat. Plenty of full suits in the business district as well. Black denim seemed to have a slight edge over blue, despite it being mid-summer. In fact, monochromatic outfits (black/white, black-outs, and white-outs) were everywhere. Sometimes with a pop of colour, sometimes not. Colours, when worn, tended to be very bright, bold, and saturated. Hot magenta/fuchsia was especially predominant. White sneakers were the most widespread footwear, but I definitely saw lots of women in heels (notably stilettos), all comfortably navigating cobblestones and even biking in them. On younger women, crop tops and wide/baggy pants seem to have become a uniform (late 90s/aughts flashback for me!). I noted a greater degree of variety and creativity in the way older generations dressed -- a stark contrast to US culture, where all the experimentation seems to happen in the younger set. I'll also say that Milan seems to have a huge number of hair and nail salons, and they always seem to be busy! Make-up tended to be pretty subtle but polished, part of an overall emphasis on looking "done" IYKWIM.

Prague: In the areas with the highest concentrations of tourists (Old Town, Mala Strana), some global trends were very apparent: 1) bold jewel tones, especially jade green, saffron yellow, and fuchsia, are everywhere; 2) so many tiered floral dresses -- cottagecore seems to have reached peak saturation; 3) looser bottoms and longer hemlines (this goes for pants/jeans, but skirts as well); 4) shoes are chunky, chunky, chunky! Whether sneakers or sandals, people are all about thicker soles and platforms right now.

Locally, Prague tends to have a pretty sporty, casual/pragmatic vibe. Lots of activewear, tons of people taking advantage of the city's extensive greenspace to run/walk/cycle. Tattoos are huge -- it seems like almost everyone under age 40 has them; elaborate full sleeve designs on arms/legs are especially popular. I love how many Czech dads I saw babywearing, pushing strollers, and playing with their kids on playgrounds -- there seems to be a more engaged model of fatherhood than you see in North America...

As I noted previously, I felt a little out of place with my wavy, layered hair cut, because it felt like the prevalent style by far is a long, heat-straightened blunt cut with a center part (no fringe). It was a relief to run into a group of French women all wearing their hair layered, loose, and wavy! I feel like the US right now is all about enhancing natural hair texture, curly girl philosophy, etc, and I've been immersed in that long enough that I'd forgotten there are other ways to think about hair.

The Alps: This was maybe the most fun for me style-wise, because I love observing global variations in how people dress for the mountains. We spent nine days hiking through Italy, Switzerland, and France, plus a couple extra days in Italy at the end of our trip. Some things I noted: 1) Hokas are absolutely dominating the footwear game (especially in France, where they're based, but really everywhere). 2) Euro trail style tends to be a bit more sedate and serious than in the US -- lots of black, fewer prints. For the past few years in the US, bright retro colours, funky prints, and having weird "signature" items on the trail has gotten really big, and you don't see much of that at all in the Alps. 3) Japanese and Korean hikers have the best sun protection gear -- big brimmed hats, sun sleeves for arms and legs, face masks, etc. I was really impressed and sometimes a bit envious.

I'll add some street style photos later, but I have a lot of photos to dig through, so it might take me a bit!