Home. With a story. From the last leg of my travels.
I was wearing my old Chanel jacket, a pair of dark wash Seven jeans, black Aerosole flats, and a generic black v-neck cashmere sweater my mother gave me. Carrying my Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis bag. In Amarante. Confession. I did have Manolo quilted ballet flats on earlier but after walking all over Princeton they hurt my feet. I changed. I did not want to slog my way through Newark Airport with a blister. Even a glamorous blister.
Now, as I carried my lovely bag, the buckle of the lovely belting leather straps kept catching the underside of my Chanel jacket sleeve. The jacket is tweed, nubbly, loosely woven. This means strands of black and white wool were torn free. Repeatedly. No matter what I did, how I held the bag, how I pulled the suitcase. See?
But wait. Did you hear what I just said? “My Vuitton bag is snagging my Chanel jacket.” I can’t even say that with a straight face. Those words could maybe come out of someone else’s mouth, but not mine. Let me try again. My Vuitton bag is…nope. Can’t do it. Sorry guys. For all I love style and I love sparkly purple things the whole thing struck me as really funny.
I mean, we’re talking luxury. Donned precisely so that I could feel invincible, impeccable, unassailable in the airport and on the airplane. So that I would be wholly free from envy or style anxiety. And we have tweed snaggage. I called my best friend in Belgium and told her. These moments cry out for sharing.
Luckily I am almost as fond of irony as I am of Amarante. And really glad to be home.
33 Responses
Maybe this is why expensive things cost 'an arm and a leg': their makers assume it shouldn't snag on an arm that you don't have any longer?!
glad you're home safe and I laughed too at the LV/Chanel statement, as frustrating as it all is :(
kHm
I so feel your pain!
That's a heart breaker.
That's really funny.
I try and break out the "good" stuff for traveling, so I'll feel Invincible, like you said. But traveling definitely has a way of being the "great equalizer," doesn't it?
Tho it sounds like a fabulous outfit…
I'm sure there were mini violins playing concertos for you all over the airport!
:-)
If it's any consolation, it can happen with non-luxury items as well. My Dooney and Burke purse rubbed against my $10 thrift shop wrap dress and made it pill on the trip to Germany.
But for what luxury purse cost, shouldn't they be able to design them so they don't ruin your other clothes? And for that matter, isn't there a way to make a cashmere sweater that doesn't pill?
(PS Buying the nice stuff keeps people employed. Those $12,000 sinks at Kohler? Keeping Kohler manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin and not in China. Thank you, people who buy $12,000 sinks. http://class-factotum.blogspot.com/2009/06/fish-for-friday.html)
Oh Gosh – just love it!! It did make me smile although NOT the fact that you have snaggage – hope it can be fixed without too much of a problem….
In the difficult matter of the ethical choice, I would save the bag.
This is priceless!
A glamourous snag indeed . . .
I once traveled to a client in Princeton wearing heels that I thought were walkable. They were not. After meeting with my client, I was in so much pain I walked across their parking lot barefoot, hopped in the car, and went to one of those little shoe boutiques on Nassau Avenue and bought a pair of flip-flops for the plane. I looked silly. Ah well.
The jacket is great, and I love an upscale jacket worn over jeans.
Hi everyone! I am surviving the trauma, phew. Even my idiomatic arms and legs:). Flip flops on planes would have been another way to go. And the ethical choice ha ha ha ha. Perhaps I will try to broker a diplomatic settlement…
I want to be you when I grow up, LPC..the mocha version;-)
Sometimes I catch myself complaining on a Thursday after work because I want to go straight home and crash, but the woman who cleans for me will still be there, often until 7 p.m.
What does this have to do with your snagged Chanel jacket? Just that I catch myself mid-complaint and have to laugh at how unlikely I am to elicit much sympathy. Poor me, the cleaner is in my way . . .
Actually, my complaint sounds even less sympathy-worthy next to yours. Not many of your readers can fail to be sorrowful confronted with a gorgeous jacket that's been hurt, no matter how elevated the name of the hurt-inflicter.
mater I knew you would have a sense of irony. Did I ever tell you that my father's 15 seconds of fame came on NPR when he was interviewed about what is irony? Because of the Alanis Morisette song? True story. And TBS, you can be me any time you like. Can I be you? Blogalicious sounded like a wild rumpus.
It is so disturbing when luxury goods behave badly. I had a Miu Miu shoe lose its heel and I was MAD at it for letting me down after all I had spent on them. Sorry about your lovely jacket and I am very cross at your ill behaved bag. I am so cross that if you want I will give it a time out.;-)
Ah yes, that Alanis Morisette song, sullying the name of Canadians and our understanding of irony forever more . . .
So frustrating! I would be pulling out a crochet hook and trying to put it back and grumbling the whole time.
oh no, horrible. Could this be Label jealousy? Sometimes I wonder when my clothes work to destroy one another…best on getting this fixed!
At least you looked very chic indeed!
As Mike Nichols said "The champagne is flat and the caviar has run out – will it never end?"
Welcome home.
Are you sure you aren't from Orange County???
24! No! LPC has lineage – people of lineage don't live in Orange County.
Um…that didn't come out the right way…24, I'm sure your pedigree is impeccable…
*pops foot out of mouth*
So, LPC – is the jacket a total goner now?
Oh my. I know it's not polite to laugh at the misfortune of others … but I'll admit to giggling at how you cast this particular bout of misfortune!
I wish I could crochet but my fingers rebel. Label jealousy, perhaps that was it. I know I am not from Orange County, I am v. glad to be home in Norcal. However, I've seen 24's view from her pool and a High WASP would be pleased and proud to live there:). The jacket is old, so now it's just older. I will still wear it, probably until it's in shreds. Or I buy a new one. Hmmm….laughter is absolutely the right response.
Your LV attacking your Chanel is totally unacceptable.
Inter-designer aggressive among your wardrobe is always an unfortnate situation.
***
I never end up using my more expensive bags. (I don't have any in the LV/Hermes range, but my Longchamps, for ex.
Designer bags seem designed to be impractical for daily use.
I have one whose straps are too small to sling over my shoulder and stay there. Another has two criss-crossed straps that make the bag tip open awkwardly if I try to get someone out of it quickly. Most are too small for my daily work stuff. Don't get me started on clutches. I have one made from the material of an antique kimono, and it's useless.
My best bag was a freebie from Philippe Charriol, a French-Hong Kong brand. It's a big mint-green canvas tote with dark leather detail.
I used it every week for five years till it was unacceptably dirty.
I've just brought it to Jeeves, Hong Kong's high-end specialty dry-cleaner. They're charging me HK $580 (US $70) to hand-clean it, but it'll be worth it.
Glad you can appreciate the irony in the situation…the fact that I want to share my sympathies with you just goes to show precisely how silly "luxury" problems are. Nevertheless, I'm sorry your jacket got snagged! I hope you had a great time in Princeton, blisters and all!
I can crochet. You should send me the jacket and the bag (for testing purposes only, of course) and I'll wear them arou, er, fix it for you!
Comments are closed.