When Fashion Dreams come true

Happy New Year everybody!

I love 2009!!! If you put aside the freezing cold, the people who all look like they are hibernating within themselves in a city of sleep-walkers, and the end of holiday late-sleeping, the beginning of the year is a time for renewal and fresh starts!

I am not talking boring resolutions, no no no: new years’ resolutions only serve to remind me how weak-willed I am, so it has been a few years since I have taken any.

But there is a little something called Fashion sale, which is the key to a much more exciting renewal: wardrobe resfreshing!

In short and fast because I need to go and buy gloves and a scarf, or two or three: I’d be quite happy to pile them up at the moment.

Two words: luxury superstores! Harrod’s, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges have an amazing selection of designer clothes, and the discounts are to die for. I bought a Diane Von Furstenberg dress for £130 at Harrod’s, dress that I had been eyeing and checking out every other week for the last two months, and that I ended up buying in black instead of the original red version I wanted, but it is still FITted. Harvey Nichols have lots of AW08 clothes at discount prices, but they also sell a few SS08 leftovers at unbelievable prices, so if you are not afraid of wearing last season outfits this summer, have a look: some designer clothes are timeless style pieces.

Selfridges finally: it is a strange store because contrary to its very organized competitors, everything that is on sale at Selfridges is stacked in a completely anarchical order. It is a maze, a mess, a puzzle, you don’t know where to look or what to look at, so that when you have the luck to find something good in your size, it seems like a proper miracle, and you understand the banners that hang from the ceilings everywhere to their full extent: ‘I didn’t find it, it found me’.

First a £90 Moschino silk and organza dress found me, and it put a very wide smile on my face, but when I went to the shoe lounge and discovered my dream stiletto boots (same style than the ankle boots above, but closed-toe, mid-calf platform boots with silver stilettos in patent black, £700 at Giuseppe Zanotti, 80% off at Selfridges), I thought I would keel over. I believe I kissed the salesman when he brought me the other foot. I had strutted in these shoes for 45 minutes a few months back when the Giuseppe Zanotti AW08 collection had just come out, because I have a friend who used to manage one of their stores and who allowed me to try them on… I almost cried when I had to take them off, I thought I would never wear them again, so to actually OWN them!... These boots are the coolest, most beautifully designed, most perfectly balanced, most original and of the best quality in the world: they put all boots, booties and ankle boots to shame. There is NO comparison.

And ok, I have gone a little overboard in terms of budget, but each and every single article I bought was a true find, a true sale, and will last me for years. Not to mention everybody –men and women- gag at these boots and since I am quite shallow and self-centered, it is a real pleasure and a marvellous self-confidence booster: which is really priceless, isn’t it?

Champagnista V