Lisbon Meringue

Standing in Rua Augusta, before the Arco da Victória Lisbon is a pretty city. Its buildings are like pastel-coloured wedding cakes, iced in white marzipan in thick loops and curlicues. Pistachio, apricot, strawberry, coffee – you’ll see them all, but it is the glorious lemon meringue of Praça do Comércio that takes the prize.

This enormous square is surrounded on three sides by 18th century colonnades, dripping with lemon butter and white frosting. The fourth is the riverfront, and everyone arriving by boat in Lisbon would disembark here and was greeted by this dramatic sight. Pass through the triumphal Arco da Victória and enter the city lying beyond the square.

In keeping with my mission to collecting the traditional dress of countries I holiday in, I had been looking for a Portuguese costume in Porto and Lisbon. As in Barcelona, I hadn’t had much luck: the only costume I found was not only prohibitively expensive (€250), but it was incredibly heavy. I could not possibly cart it through Portugal and Morocco.

Traditional Portuguese dress – the costume I saw was made from heavier fabric, with simpler embroidery

I tossed aside this scheme and thought of another: some kind of pretty, macaroon-coloured dress, preferably trimmed in guipure lace, was in order. I actually find one in my favourite boutique on the Rua Augusta – and yet I didn’t want to pay $120 for a scrap of polyester. I decided to find something else that evoked the Lisbon ambiance at home.

I knew I had a 60s lace shift in mint green that had a matching coat, but this wasn’t quite right. I hankered after yellow. Not just any yellow – it had to be the same golden colour of that enormous plaza.

It took me a year to assemble this little confection of an outfit: an embroidered skirt by Anthropologie; a lace top by Karen Millen that I already owned; and the perfect awning-striped knit on eBay. I already had yellow strappy sandals and the pearl chandelier earrings too. The antique silk ribbon, from the turn of the last century, I found on Etsy. I originally intended to wear it as a sash, but an enormous floppy bow atop my head seemed the perfect finishing touch to this lemon meringue outfit.

So sweet it makes my teeth ache, but I love all the yellow. A pretty outfit to greet spring with – minus the bow!