I've bought some very nice good quality clothes at Steinmart. Things I would never have afforded at their original stores. I went to a snazzy Christmas party at a concert hall here in Moscow and wore a sapphire blue stretch velvet dress I bought at Steinmart a few years back. It's a lovely dress but....

American styles look squareish and conservative here.There is definately an American style that is different from other western countries. American clothes tend to be plainer, squarer, less body conscious. Most of the clothes I've bought in Russia are much much cuter than the standard clothes available in America; stretchy fabrics, clingy, with a more feminine tailoring. Less *utilitarian* than American clothes. Women here dress to look like women, wear clothes that flatter women's shapes, be they large or small, young or old.

One of the worst problems I'm having is shoes. In America I wear a 9 1/2, a hard size to find just about anywhere. That translates into a European 41 or 42 which is bigger beyond the range of women's shoes here (I'm only 5'4"!). When I bought my glitzy stiletto Roosky hooker boots I must have gone to, seriously, 30 or 40 shoe stores. Russian women's shoes stop at size 40. And these Russian girls, half of them are 6 feet tall. Where ever did they get such tiny little feet?? I have big honking American feet. And I cannot get shoes here. It has been a real problem.