Tuesday 16 April 2013

Haute couture à Paris

15/4/13 Monday
Although many shops in Paris are closed on Mondays, the high fashion houses of central Paris are not. And I've been longing to spend a day just strolling from one to the next - why? You may well ask, it's a "girl thing", a bit inexplicable I guess. Anyway that's today's plan. And my wonderful and very considerate husband, who just wants me to have the best honeymoon I can possibly have, is going to accompany me today when I know he'd rather be hunting and photographing motorbikes in the streets of Paris. Well maybe we can do both :-)
We start our stroll on Rue Cambon, the home of Chanel. The store is enormous, and the merchandise is beautiful as expected. The staff are very friendly and polite, they're clearly trained to enamour the customer. These shops all have a doorman who opens the door as you approach, greets you and welcomes you, and never looks with disdain at your Target jeans and cheap trench coat (no matter what he's thinking)!


The price tags here are phenomenal, and I wonder if I was naive to think there would be anything I'd be willing to consider buying in such a shop. If I was then I've been very quickly relieved of that fantasy!!! I tell mon amour that he's lucky he married me because I could never justify spending 350€ on a pair of pumps even if they do have the Chanel logo ostentatiously imprinted onto the dainty leather toes. And if they don't, and the evidence is only printed on the soles so that I either have to goose-step so everyone can see my famous label or "name-drop" their origin to anyone willing to listen, then that just makes me a very sad "wanna-be" indeed. Quality I can appreciate, and I do, but a leather pump is still just a flat shoe made from cow hide at the end of the day, and it doesn't deserve a 350€ price tag in anyone's language.


As for the crocodile and python skin sacs à main (handbags) with their price tags more than ten times that of the plain old leather ones (a bargain at a mere 1000€) I'm lost for words. At that price I'd feel obliged to make a career out of ensuring that everyone knows I'm carrying a 12,000€ Chanel handbag, otherwise I'm sure I'd feel like I'd wasted my money. I wonder aloud to my husband whether anyone can really tell the difference between the genuine article and a cheap Bali knock-off at first glance.
I do adore some of the elegant high heels in Chanel, Jimmy Choo and YSL, but again it's that whole "it's still just a leather shoe" thing again.  Oh well, it's fun looking and stroking and admiring and imagining my foot in one of these shoes. The assistant in Jimmy Choo, clearly fooled into thinking I'm a serious purchaser ;-) assures me that if the heel is too high for me there are 12cm and 10cm options if I'd prefer. I want to ask if there's also a discount of, oh I don't know, at least 80%, for getting less heel, but I refrain........ :-)


The real crunch for me is the Hermés scarves - I love scarves, and I love silk, but really, 600€ for a little square of fabric? It's a good thing that Hermés is way too horsey for me, or I'd be completely and utterly devastated :-)
Despite the ridiculously extravagant prices though, there's just something about being in Paris, the undisputed home of haute couture, that draws visitors to these streets with their exclusive shops and their "elite" clientele, even just for the shock and awe experience. And clearly I'm drawn, just like the rest.
My patient and lovely husband has this to say about our day:

Paris tip - if you're going to visit the 'in' shops, make sure you take the right attitude. Practice walking with one hand at ear level in Dior, put a little dog in your handbag, two if possible, cross your feet over when you walk, and make sure you expect that dude at the door of YSL to open it for you.  Look with alternating contempt and delight at successive pairs of shoes in Chanel. Pretend that shoes with heels high enough to give you an altitude-induced blood nose are passé, coo over python skin pouches with 12,000€ price tags in Givenchy, then tut tut about them being the wrong shade of puce, soooo yesterday darling.......
Don't ogle celebs.
At least the last point is easy for me - I don't seem to know any. In  Hermés we're passed by an Australian actress (instantly recognized by ma belle femme) and her French bulldog, all I can manage is a heartfelt horror over her sack of a dress/nightie thingy. Perhaps I'll fit right in after all... :-)

As for me, it doesn't take long for the novelty to wear off and I find myself becoming more interested in the motorbikes mon cher mari frequently points out. Seems I'm destined never to own a Chanel pump, or Jimmy Choo heels, or a Dior bag............... sigh..............
Truth be told, if I had a spare 12,000€ I'd rather spend it on a motorbike (just don't tell my husband......) ;-)


We wander off to somewhat cheaper and far more relaxed parts of town, the lovely and interesting Passages Couverts............



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