Hi everyone! I’ve not fallen into a food or shopping coma…yet. I promise to circle back to continue the Lanvin story in a few days, but for the time being, I’ve been hosting my Belgian family here so we’ve been on the go nonstop. Who knew LA was so big! And who knew there was a thing called the Central Market or Angel Flight downtown? But more on that in days to come.
Tonight I cooked an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner consisting of crab eggrolls and seafood crispy fried noodles, followed by lunar cake. Not at all your turkey and pumpkin pie combo, but Thanksgiving is just about getting together over a home cooked meal, regardless of content. Am I right?
As I am writing this, it is 9.30pm and the Belgians have been asleep for over an hour. They’re getting all the rest they can get so they can enjoy the real American Thanksgiving tradition tomorrow: Black Friday. The euro is still strong against our currency and they’ve been drooling for the sales since we looked at all the ads in the paper this morning.
My alarm is set for 3am. If you don’t hear back from me in a couple of days, please send a search party after me at the Grove. I’ll be the one in a Chanel peacoat and bunny slippers 
.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Tags: Thanksgiving
Turns out I didn’t get too much sleep; woke up once at 2:45am then again around 4am, waiting for the alarm to go off. Right before I finally got up at 6.30 I had a dream that I was inside H&M and found a tuxedo in my size and a ton of Lanvin bags for my friend in KL. It was purple. She had told me yesterday that she’d wanted me to grab any bag I could find for her. What can I say, all the TV commercials and write ups all over the web have left a huge Lanvin impression on my subconscious!
So on a drizzly and decidedly cooler Saturday morning, I’m at the Americana at Brand shopping complex around 7.30. Not a single soul, except for employees still unloading boxes, is in front of the door. Did I get my dates wrong?! Am I still in a dream?
Silly wabbit, the line is over there…
and I mean all the way over there…
A few minutes after I get to the end of the line, security comes out to give us wristbands with our designated time:
We’re to queue up again in front of the store right around our time slot, and once inside we’ll be given 15 minutes to shop. And it’s limit 2 per item. I’m thinking there won’t be anything left by the time my group makes it to the front door. But as we’re all shivering outside in the rain, mall security brings out coffee and pastries…hope is revived:
So if we’re all given a specific time to check back in, why are we all still standing in line? It’s like we’re terrified to lose our spots! Anyway, to kill time I spot a few Chanel bags in the mix–hehe:
About 40 minutes after I first get in line, we are moving. Word gets back to us that after 8am, we’re allowed to go into the store to buy menswear only. If we want to buy womenswear, we’d have to wait according to our wristband. And the line starts to move past the signs, food truck, and lovely grounds:
Finally the end is near…I can hear DJ music inside the doors already. People are pumped!
Then all hell breaks loose. H&M staff announces that we can now go to the front of the door if we just want to shop in men’s; the main line is for womenswear. So a bunch of us do so. I still have 4 hours before I can shop in women’s so why not kill time in menswear, right? Anyway, I am third in this new line at the door and I can smell victory…
but NOOOOOOO! The two women in front of me get in but I’m stopped dead in my track by the security guy with a stopwatch. He tells me they’ve exceeded the number of people they can let inside the store and that I’d have to go back to the end of the line even just to shop in the men’s section. Uh uh, no way! So I negotiate for a few minutes and he allows me and the people now behind me to stay outside the door until he could let more bodies inside. So close and yet so far…
Then some loser shows up and starts yelling at security to dismantle my line. He accuses us of lying about going to the men’s section only to get in and weasel our way into womenswear. Geez. It’s only shopping, people! But he doesn’t stop shouting so I have a Norma Rae moment and break out in an impromptu Lincoln-Douglas debate against him right in front of the store. The people behind me are cheering me on, but extra security comes out and tells us that, for the moment, only MEN could bypass the line to shop in menswear. Believe me, there are now a lot of unhappy people behind me.
So that’s what I did this early rainy morning. Did you have a better start to your day?
But really, you just want to know what happened to the rest of my story, right, because obviously the first photo is a picture of a shopping bag.
I’m heading back to meet my noon group for womenswear now and will continue the story later. Let’s just say I always have a backup plan. They don’t call me Miss Plan B for nothing !
Tags: Americana at Brand, Chanel, H&M, Lanvin
I know you’re all out there, the legion of fashionistas who have been counting down the hours for the release of the Lanvin capsule at H&M this November 20th. I was right there with you months ago, trolling for spy pics and any info I could get my grubby hands on as soon as word leaked that the fabulous Alber Elbaz was collaborating with H&M.
I’m a huge Lanvin fan but do not have a single RTW item from this label! I’ll wait for your collective gasp . But I do have a stack of those lovely blue shoe boxes in my closet. I adore their ballerina flats in the most sumptuous of leathers, and I even went for the sneakers that Michelle Obama made famous while gardening at the White House. OK, OK, so we fashionistas knew about those sneakers way before Mrs. O, but you know what I mean…
Anyway, I called the H&M near me and it turns out that they are one of the lucky ones to be getting the Lanvin collection. They told me doors will open at 8am on Saturday and we’ll be allowed to line up at 10pm the night before. So Lanvin-loving fashionistas out there…have you your sleeping bags handy? Am I nuts to be tempted by this idea? I haven’t camped out for anything since concert tickets back in ninth grade. And even back then when I was young and silly, it sucked.
So what to do…fight the masses Saturday morning and pray there’ll be something left in my size? I’m not good sleeping outdoors and am not sure I can “hire” someone to camp out for me?!! But heck, who needs sleep when there’s Lanvin. Right?
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PS: it seems I have a thing for Lanvin and python
Most of my friends know about my Tom Ford crush. It’s huge. After all, he’s the man who made me a Gucci girl. And the man who made the exquisitely melancholic movie A Single Man last year. Since his heartbreaking (for me) exit from Gucci in 2004 I’ve been not-so-secretly hoping that he’d circle back to designing womenswear again. So imagine my thrill when this article on Vogue.com popped up today about his latest collection.
Today’s photos are of two favorites out of several Gucci bags I was lucky enough to get during his tenure at Gucci. I love the juxtaposition of velvet or canvas against the crocodile trims….not to mention the fantastic faux gems inside the dragons’ and snake’s mouths. It’s all about the little details that make my heart flutter each time I reach for one of his bags (or shoes, jackets, dresses…).
Of course it doesn’t hurt that he’s also quite easy on the eyes. Too bad his boyfriend thinks so, too!
It’s early Friday evening here, an end to a really hectic week. If you’ve had a tough week you’d know why I don’t have much left to say in today’s entry. Sometimes your mind is so overworked, leading to physical fatigue, you just want some eye candy to relax the brain. So sit back, do a little mental yoga, and enjoy these photos. I don’t (always) need a martini to unwind. Sometimes this is all any fashion lover needs, courtesy of you know who…
Have a great weekend!
Tags: Chanel
