This photoshoot is part of Researchista_fashionista story.
# 1: Lage Barakken street.
p.s. Before anything, this is not how Researchers dress for work. I do not want to make Research sexy, neither do I want to promote a distorted image of people doing Research. I just want to make sure to remind that Researchers are creative people 🙂 About the Research story of Researchista you will hear in that last photo-shoot of this project, till then… get to know my other peers and their Research quests and findings.
This is Maastricht (by summer) Wyck district, Lage Barakken street, which in English translates as “low barracks“. Here is what the “Dutch Review” says about it. 
So, here I was out of my place, walking through one of the shortest streets in Maastricht, Lage Barakken, in search for some history… to find it right at the corner. Few minutes away from the train station, hundreds of people pass daily by this exquisite hotel behind my back, disguised in a white fortress.
It’s facade is still echoing the “Belle Epoque“…
… can you hear the music?
Every day, people enjoy peacefully their meal at these wide opened windows, while observing the passers by or gather loudly in group meetings in conference rooms. Buses and taxes are crowding in at the main entrance when things are happening in Maastricht.
It is a family business that started in 1912 and is currently carried out by the 4th generation of family, a very creative family probably :). I could not not share with you this Christmas wish, how great to preserve the sense of humour at all times :).
It probably hosted many notorious people that visit Maastricht with various occasions until now. The polite waiters and room organizers take a break to inhale some fresh air or fresh cigarette on the Lage Barakken side to restart their work briefly after, and this what others were doing for years and years since 1912.
Ten years after, at its opposite corner, which at the moment happened to be a shoe shop (really nice one), one of the first cinemas in Maastricht, Cinema “Palace” opened.
I only know from two friends of mine who went there when they were small that the cinema was very big at that time. 
At the moment, Maastricht is having almost 4 cinema houses.
That was a little tour for you on the short street of Lage Barakken. Well, I also missed on telling you that this street is cut in half by the Stationstraat, that as the name suggest, it is the street of the station (main train&bus station) that leads you directly into the city center. I missed on capturing it’s clock in the middle, it’s postal office where cheerful people work, the bar opposite to the old cinema and the new student building arising that will probably bring even more dynamics to the area.
Now that we are done with the tour of the street, and since we are on the street where I live, I would like to invite you at the terrace of the building house where I reside, for a final little chat. Wearing these Sergio Rossi shoes, it all feels a bit different 😀
Ok, I have to admit that the most difficult thing for me since I launched Researchista is to keep my excitement down!!! 🙂 I have met so many interesting people and did things that I have never done before, that sometimes it makes it difficult for me to stay calm.
I am a Researcher, but above all, I am a woman, who feels comfortable in her own element. I am a feminist since I was in my first university year in an environment where feminism is still a very fearful word. In some villages of my home country the expression “an unbeaten wife is like an uncleaned house” still holds, if you know what I mean. With these pictures, I do not aim to promote beauty through expensive shoes, although, I have to admit these are the most fancy shoes I probably ever wore. I do not aim to objectify the image of women or promote a false image of the Research community.
I simply do not need excuses to wear red lipstick or enjoy a beautiful dress with a pair of high heels. It is a choice. It is my self-expression.
This week, we are opening up an important topic and that is Fashion in Research. It must be difficult to avoid buying clothes from big chain brands (e.g. H&M, Zara), this became so habitual, but at the same time, we are also in charge for nurturing the dangerous treatment of workers in clothing industry and there must be an alternative! See what is the solution proposed by our Special Guest, Hasmik Matevosyan, a specialist in this area. By the way, the shoes and the bag I wear here are not part of retail fashion industry.
Call: Are you a Researcher? Do you live in Maastricht? If you want to join me next time, leave me your letter at researchista@researchista.com. Let’s expand the horizons together! 🙂
With my partners in crime:
Photographer, Peter Mullenberg from Photostique.
Ms. Ecaterina Onica, usually an interior designer, but this time, my make-up artist.
And since it’s fashion month, and you got to have a statement bag or a pair of earrings-statement, I picked a statement pose instead. Now waiting for my invitation to the Vogue Netherlands 🙂 and I am not joking 🙂
Photography by: Photostique. All the pictures here were painted by the master in picturing, Mr. Peter Mullenberg. Thank you!*****
Credits: I would like to personally thank very much Nadja van der Borgh from Kymyka Shoes and Bags, who is the official distributor Louboutin unforgettable shoes that I am wearing. Also, to thank Sanne Pieters and Bart Kramp from Stijl Fashion Group, who are in charge of these wonderful outwears from Danish designers.