I just picked up three skirts that I had dropped off at my local tailor (actually I don't even know who to consider my "local" tailor...there are at least 4 within a 5 minute walk of my house). If you didn't already know, Turkey is notorious for cheap and excellent tailoring. I had three skirts that I needed to have taken in (hurray for losing weight), and I dropped them off with a bit of skepticism, as they are VERY cool and unique skirts that can't be replaced (one I got at DC's "Crafty Bastards" art festival, the other two from my favorite online shop, www.boden.co.uk). I paid a measly amount of money to have them repaired (at the current conversion rate $30 USD), and they turned out pretty well. I was a little disappointed that even though Mr. Tailor promised that he wouldn't take some of the artistry off the sides of the skirts, he did, but the tailoring was impeccable.
The reason I was disappointed was that the skirt had 99 red balloons, hand stitched on navy wool. Now if you're a child of the 80's, you're familiar with the German (and English version) of the song 99 Red Balloons, a kind of Cold War "protest" song. Most people don't know the lyrics, and fancily dance along to this fun pop song. However, the words are quite true and universal about the ways our countries (not just the US) can instigate fighting on false pretenses. The song (essentially--both German and English) is about kids playing with red balloons that get released into the sky, and the balloons being mistaken for UFOs or missiles, inciting military panic. The "other" fires, only to realize it's merely a toy red balloon.
80's pop music references aside, my skirt now has something like 94 1/2 balloons... with superb tailoring on the inside.
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