Hyperventilation
I woke up bright and early Monday morning and headed down to breakfast with a plan. This was the first day when I did not have to be somewhere by 9 a.m. or earlier. I decided to take this opportunity to spend a bit of time in the hotel gym. My reward for a few miles on the tread mill? A trip to the Dries Van Noten store.
I use the term "gym" loosely when describing the workout area of my hotel, which I should mention is lovely. The concierge has saved me many a time when I've had Internet issues, including once letting me crawl behind his desk and work off his computer. Anyway, the gym has one treadmill, one bike, one elliptical trainer, a few hand weights and one of those machines that is supposed to allow you to weight train your entire body with one pulley and a bench.
I hopped on the treadmill, cranked up my iPod and zoned out, staring at the tropical fish tank built into the wall.
And then it was time. I went to the Dries store. My colleague at the Los Angeles Times was supposed to accompany me to the store but had a conflict. Her job was to keep a paper bag handy in case I started hyperventilating when I saw all the mouth-watering clothes. I blame my recklessness on her and plan to send her my Amex bill.
Dries Van Noten Collection (Maria Valentino for The Washington Post)
I got to the store, started checking out the racks and, I'm not even kidding, I started sweating. Maybe I hadn't cooled down properly after my sprint to the imaginary finish line during my time on the treadmill. Maybe I was just overcome with Dries-ness.
The store, which opened last month, houses only the women's collection. Sorry, boys. It is two floors of gloriousness with chandeliers, eclectic furniture, roomy fitting areas and a friendly staff. I walked through the entire store and then I prepared to focus. My salesperson was patient and a good stylist. (She immediately declared pink not my color.) I settled into a fitting room, she offered up tea and coffee. I could have happily tried on everything in the store, but I was too embarassed -- I also didn't have enough time.
I finally made a few decisions: dress, sequined tank top, cardigan, pants. Now here's a bit of Dries brilliance. The dress, which is sleeveless, is cut very low on the sides. It has straps wide enough so that you can wear a bra, but the sides of it would be visible. Dries makes a handy-dandy tube top-like piece of knitwear that hides the sides of the bra in a decorative manner. This piece of fashion brilliance is only 175 euro, which, ok, I know is a lot. But I've been in denial and have convinced myself that the exchange rate is $1 = 1 Euro. (I can go deep, deep into denial.)
I had a splendid time at the store. I will not tell you how much I spent. My father might read this posting and he would be appalled. I can hear him now, "Honey, are you saving for a rainy day?" No, but I'll look really chic in the downpour.
For anyone interested, the exact address of the Dries store, which is beautiful, is 7 Quai Malaquais, Paris 75006
The phone number is 33.1.44.27.00.40. I believe the hours are Mon-Sat., 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. I recommend shopping with a friend who can keep you from swinging from the chandeliers in delight.
By Robin Givhan |
February 26, 2007; 7:14 AM ET
Paris
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Posted by: Fatima | February 28, 2007 2:38 PM
I am almost ready to swoon reading this and have not even finished todays reading. I'd be grateful for a few hours in your shoes - your "disconnected" shoes (I've written the "s" word twice). Keep writing and, what the hell, spending because what could be better than great clothes.
Posted by: Catherine | February 28, 2007 5:54 PM
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lol, I don't have friends like that! Probably subconciously on purpose... :D
When I was shopping in Paris I managed to convince myself of the $1=1eu too - worked great! But see about opening a store membership account or something of that nature - because I was shopping with my grandmother (who was swinging from the chandeliers with me) and I don't know what she said to the salesperson at this one store but anyway they opened a store membership for her and because I was a traveler I got 50% off my entire purchase! I fainted right there because I was certain it was like a sign from God or something - you have no idea what my total would have been otherwise :D