BA-based Cardon is one of Argentina's fashion retailers recommended by Lucire for their quality.

Buenos Aires has long been synonymous with fashion, so it seems only natural that Lucire, the global fashion magazine, would pay a visit to Argentina. With Town & Country, editor Elyse Glickman gives Lucire readers a sweeping travelogue of two of the country’s most fashionable destinations: Buenos Aires (Town) and Mendoza (Country). From Recoleta’s boutiques to Palermo Soho to high-end malls like Patio Bullrich and Gallerías Pacífico, Glickman is impressed by the low cost/high quality of the clothes and shoes she encounters. She describes Cardon garments as possessing “workmanship that would make Ralph Lauren green with envy,” and declares the local shoe stores “particularly fabulous, not only for the quality-to-price ratio but also the shopping environments, which are part-tea salon, part-walk-in closet and part-couture boutique.” When it comes to fashion, Mendoza doesn’t play second bandoleón to Buenos Aires, although Glickman confesses to being taken by surprise. “What makes Mendoza—state and city—so memorable is that its charm and sophistication sneak up on you.”  She comes away impressed with the “seemingly endless offering of (more) leather goods, sweet shops doling out divine ice cream and sorbet, unprepossessing clothing stores and craft boutiques that are refreshingly un-kitschy.” Mendoza, she later discovers, also offers professional shoppers a picturesque place to unwind and raise a malbec toast after a stressful day of credit card swiping. In the post-shop analysis, she says, Argentina leaves you “with a sense of pride and the memory of sensory pleasure.” At least until the AMEX statement arrives. (Full Story)