Moving to the US

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

This conversation sure is entertaining. My fiance is a petite woman. As most of you have noted, Russian woman do want to dress sexy but not slutty. I do agree that you can find good quality of clothing here but you pay for what you get. In russia some of the clothes were not of great quality but were on the more expensive side of things. I do wish we had access to more european styles of clothing. I agree that Bebe and express will be great places for her to shop. I have sent her some clothes from here and she did like them and they fit her frame just fine. Not sure how my question of how to ship turned into where to shop lol. Obviously we are not going to ship anything but clothes and shoes. Yes she loves shoes. I do believe she will enjoy her time in Nordstroms for shoes. The only issue we have had with Russian post is when I sent her stuff. At times there seems to be longer delays when she ships something to me. One of the great things about Russian woman is their constant desire to look great. I am confident she can do this in America as well. We certainly will not be shopping at target or Walmart to achieve it. Nothing against those stores, but I will not have my lady shopping for her wardrobe there.

It always turns into where to shop.

Alla will wear only attractive clothes but is NEVER overtly "sexual" in her dress. The thing is a beautiful woman does not need to dress "sexually" to be sexy or sexual. She likes her sexy stuff "all underneath" and on top is very attractive, stylish and in a way "sexy" but there is nothing inappropriate threatening to fall out and I seriously doubt she would ever have a "wardrobe malfunction". Yet she will never go un-noticed and that is intentional. Damn, an FSU woman cannot be unnoticed! They know how to be noticed in a crowd of beautiful women.

[baron555 934]

They know how to be noticed in a crowd of beautiful women.

They dress to impress the other women....maybe more than to attract guys.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

They dress to impress the other women....maybe more than to attract guys.

True, but they love attention from men also. Alla loves to dance and can do so continuously for many hours. When we go there is always a lineup of men that want to dance with her. She loves this. (It is social ballroom dancing, not some meat market c'mon-I-wanna-####-you club)

There is no doubt they want to impress women not only with themselves but their husbands have to look good also so the other women will not think they are bad wives.

I am constantly amazed how incredibly sexy she looks, yet when you analyze her clothes there is nothing really "sexual" about them. I see these younger girls who wear a skirt that is 1 cm below the playpen (and wonder how it stays there) or perhaps most horrible of all, the girls who wear their jeans in some sort of "plumbers butt" fashion. Are you kidding me? Am I supposed to drop coins in there?

Incredible really, she is totally uninhibited by sexual morals pressed on them by someone else, perfectly comfortable to sunbathe naked or skinny dip in an appropriate place, she craves looking HOT, smoking hot, but has no need to dress like a ####### to be smoking hot. Like a lot of FSU women, they know how to be women! Women, generally, are not sluts and sluts, generally, are not attractive

[Chuck and Diana 1]

I have a Russian wife from Moldova. She works at Ross Stores and gets a 20% employee discount and loves it. It is her favorite store for clothes, a lot of name brands and good deals.

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

Victor just shipped his belongings he didn't want to take on the plane by "avia" or air mail through the Russian Post. They got here surprisingly quick and everything was fine. I think it's more a problem to get things to Russia than from there via their postal service. I sent him a letter once that got lost in the mail. Everything he ever shipped to me made it just fine.

Clothes are one of those things that people can be very particular about, so I don't blame someone wanting to bring them. A wedding dress is also a pretty personal thing. I don't blame her for wanting to bring one she got at home. I got a pair of jeans in a boutique in Russia and being pretty short, jeans are always too long for me. I was really impressed by how the store was equipped with a seamstress who would alter them for you on the spot. It was awesome! I've always had to do it myself here in the 'States to avoid paying a lot for a tailor to alter them.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Victor just shipped his belongings he didn't want to take on the plane by "avia" or air mail through the Russian Post. They got here surprisingly quick and everything was fine. I think it's more a problem to get things to Russia than from there via their postal service. I sent him a letter once that got lost in the mail. Everything he ever shipped to me made it just fine.

Clothes are one of those things that people can be very particular about, so I don't blame someone wanting to bring them. A wedding dress is also a pretty personal thing. I don't blame her for wanting to bring one she got at home. I got a pair of jeans in a boutique in Russia and being pretty short, jeans are always too long for me. I was really impressed by how the store was equipped with a seamstress who would alter them for you on the spot. It was awesome! I've always had to do it myself here in the 'States to avoid paying a lot for a tailor to alter them.

Factory made clothes and other products are quite cheap here, it is true. But manual labor is crazy expensive compared to Russia. Alla's handmade wedding dress cost a fraction of even a factory made dress here. She still brings clothes and shoes and purses to Ukraine for repair when we go, she sent several pairs of shoes with Pasha on is current trip to Ukraine. Repairing a coat zipper here was going to cost $45 !!!!!!!!! we bought a new, even better, coat for $59 and brought the other one to Ukraine to repair for $4 FOUR DOLLARS! "Almost free"

There are a lot of "lost arts" still alive and well there. Shoe, handbag, leather repair, clothing repair, seamstresses, knife sharpening. We take our kitchen knives to a guy there in a kiosk downtown who makes those knives scary sharp for a very cheap price. (bring them in checked baggage ) Alla says "Please makes my knives normal again"

We consider this, and the dental work, manicures ("normal manicures where they cut the cuticle")to be a form of valuable cultural exchange

[eekee 182]

Getting things repaired just isn't a part of the American mindset anymore, I think. The zipper on my purse broke and I was just going to get a new purse. My friends told me I was crazy and that I should just get it repaired. A guy in a little booth on the next block fixed it for 3$ in under an hour.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Getting things repaired just isn't a part of the American mindset anymore, I think. The zipper on my purse broke and I was just going to get a new purse. My friends told me I was crazy and that I should just get it repaired. A guy in a little booth on the next block fixed it for 3$ in under an hour.

It isn't about mindset eekee. Without becoming too political, it is about mandated stuff that costs money and demands that a minimum price be charged just to cover all the mandated stuff, and THEN the guy doing the work needs to make his wage on top of all that AND compete with cheap imported goods from China and VietNam.

In order to live and have a piece of bread to eat, the guy working in the United States needs to charge $45 to fix a zipper in a coat you can buy new for $59.95...$29.95 in an after Christmas 50% OFF sale. Add in the BonTon coupon for an additional $25 off any purchase over $100, add in a few sweaters at $7 each and you get to the "almost free" level Alla is still amazed at. The coat was made in China. The sweaters in Vietnam.

It is not a mindset issue, it is a practical impossibility issue. There are exactly two shoe repair places in our STATE. Alla took her shoes to one of them. $20 for heel tips, wait 3 days for the shoes to be done and the heel tips fall off the third time she wore them. They went with Pasha to Ukraine where they will be fixed in an hour for $2 or $3 and last for 2 years. When we go, Alla and I go out for a walk, drop her shoes and purses at the kiosk and go walking. On the way back we pick them up and pay the small fee. The differences in economy and practicalities explain many of the cultural differences. Their are many more bakeries making fresh bread and delicious pastries there, than here. When I was a kid, my friend's family owned a bakery. Who knows anyone that owns a bakery now? One of my friend's father was the "milkman", drove the milk truck that delivered our milk. In Ukraine there are many more butcher shops selling meat. When we shop in Donetsk, we stop at the butcher on the way home from the market, there is a bakery selling pastries and bread at the market, farmers selling baskets full of fresh eggs and pouring milk from metal cans into your jars and bottles. That stuff is ILLEGAL in most states here! We can get the fresh milk and eggs gere which is one of Alla's reasons she can "adjust". Guys sell fish they caught in the Kamilus river (no thanks, they have three eyes!) We actually can do that here in winter with perch and whitefish and Alla always wants me to go out on the ice and buy fresh perch in the "fishing villages". I do not ice fish because then I would HATE fishing.

There was a time in this country we had TV repairmen, shoe repair shops (such were common in Texas where I grew up because you could make a good pair of boots last for 10 years with minor repairs)and even guys fixing toasters!

I am not saying it is a bad thing. Is it good that a toaster costs so much money you cannot buy a new one? Is it good that shoes need to be planned and budgeted for rather than bought for an afternoon of entertainment? Maybe it is a very good thing we take such things as shoes for granted, or throw back "free food"...fish...in the lake when we catch them (an action that nearly caused Alla to have a massive heart attack when she first saw me do it)

But there is something to be said also of the guy who takes pride in his craft and has a talent to fix things...GOLD hands. At any rate...we get the best of both! Buy stuff here, cheap, take it to Ukraine and get it fixed cheap...and get a vacation to Ukraine

[ONA 133]

Weird... Russian women, who move here, can't find decent clothing in the US, yet I know TONS of women in Russia, who order stuff from American stores online.

I am petite myself and while finding pants and jeans that fit can still be hard, it's a lot easier than it used to be when I lived in Russia. Every single thing I would buy there had to be altered, cause it was way too long.

I bought my wedding dress in the US too and it was perfect. I was looking for something simple and fit. Dresses in Russia had too much "decorations" on them - I hated that.

However, I've been having a hard time trying to find a decent pair of dress shoes or boots. One of my American friends said, "I feel your pain... they make them either for strippers or for grandmas".