This week work cranked up a notch as I continued more urgently to chase up the buyers who I had oh-so-politely extended invitations to last week. Queue ENDLESS phone calls, emails, re-emails of invitations to buyers and their assistants who had foolishly deleted the first one and a lot more time spent ‘on hold’ listening to inane music and beginning to go a little mad. Still, I have never been happier than I am trotting around Paris drinking lots of strong coffee and making urgent ‘work calls’ (I LOVE being able to say that) to buyers from Printemps or Galerie LaFayette.
Last weekend was absolutely FREEZING! I spent sunday sightseeing with my boyfriend looking like an absolute bag-lady wearing every piece of vaguely well-insulating clothing we had between us. Unfortunately monday was no different. I have now come to terms with the fact that despite its many, many outdoor wine bars, picnic perfect parks and stalls selling delicious glace rafraichissante the sun does not always shine in Paris. Finally deciding that I could no longer sacrifice my circulation in the name of style, I decided to dress for the weather. Obviously, in my excitement about coming here I did not contemplate the fact that it might not be 24 degrees and glorious every day, so my selection of warm clothes is slightly on the limited side.
My buyer stalking mission continued, now branching out to London. I figured that this was really where I could come into my own as BaronBaronne’s ‘Sales Assistant’ (yes, the novelty still hasn’t worn off) because if there is one thing I know, it’s London shops. So I got on the case of Matches, Browns, Feathers, Dover Street Market etc. Basically anywhere I thought might be interested in a little injection of French avant-guard style. Now I say this from a totally unbiased perspective, but one thing I noticed was that the English buyers were, on the whole, rather friendlier to deal with and significantly easier to get hold of that their French and American counterparts. Maybe the stereotype of us Brits as all being terribly well-mannered is not such a myth after-all..?
Seeing as Wednesday was the day before Paris pre-collection fashion week started, all the buyers from London to Tokyo had long forsaken their offices. Instead they were all happily in Milan or Paris enjoying the many perks of their extremely covetable jobs. As you can imagine this was pretty frustrating as assistants tend to refuse point blank to hand out buyers mobile numbers. It also made me even more certain that being buyer really would be dreamy… Spending one’s working life swanking about the worlds fashion capitals, staying in lovely hotels and having your presence fought over by every designer from London to Tokyo?…I think I could live with that!
Love Ella. X
