ATINA (moderator): So you think that people in the countryside have a different approach to clothing?

TSETSKA: Yes, brands are definitely more meaningful there — fashion, you know, the way people are wearing it. A person may like to dress like a folk singer, or imitate someone else, but you definitely cannot wear one item there from one year to the next. The wardrobe is replaced annually. You cannot wear the same shoes for one year.

ATINA: But you said there is countryside and countryside, people and people…

TSETSKA: Yes, I am talking about smaller towns like Plovdiv and Sandanski…

RAYA interrupts: In Plovdiv they are so vain…

TSETSKA: I am indeed not talking about villages…

ATINA: And why is it so?

TSETSKA: It's normal. You drink coffee outside there. You stroll on the main street, the local place to watch and be seen. The whole town passes by and watches you, and if you go one day like this, the next day you will have to go like that. You have to look different. I myself have noticed recently that people don't go shopping where they live. It's important for them to come to Sofia to do their shopping, so that they can be different.

This excerpt from a group discussion with five middle-aged women about fashion in Bulgaria illustrates not only the importance of clothing for people's identity, but also the relevance of spatial categories and dichotomies (such as between town and countryside) in practices of social distinction and stratification.