I was going to put this in the purchases thread but since it got very long while I was typing it, I decided to make it a separate thread.
I went first thing in the morning, a few minutes after they opened and already saw a line. The first on the line was a middle-aged Danish couple, and then the next one is a French mom with her teenage daughter, and then me. “There’s a line for expensive jewelry?” I asked the mom. “Apparently!” she replied, laughing.
When it was my turn to enter, I asked the doorman, “so what’s the difference between this store and the next?”
“This one’s for high jewelry and the other one is for the other collections,” he said. I told him I’m not buying high jewelry so should probably go to the other store.
(The high jewelry department)
“No it’s okay you can also buy from here.”
Entering the Place Vendôme store is like passing through airport security. When I passed the first door, a guy inside motioned me to wait before they opened the second door. There were at least 3 people staring at me while I waited: a male SA, the female receptionist holding an iPad, and the security guy. Everyone is dressed mostly in black. After about 10 seconds, I was finally let in.
When I entered the very quiet store, everyone spoke in hushed tones as if things were solemn. The receptionist asked me if I had an appointment. I said I didn’t, so I was lead to this Asian SA right by the door. She looked very kind, asked me how I was, motioned me to sit down. I sat down by her desk and told her I was looking for a Vintage Alhambra bracelet in blue agate.
“I don’t think we have it. Let me check.” She typed on her computer. She looked up stuff on her iPhone. “I’m going to ask my colleagues,” she told me. And then proceeded to make phone calls. A lot of phone calls.
I can only understand a little bit of French so all I could pick up was “hey, it’s me” and “Alhambra blue”. After a few minutes she said to me: it’s out of stock.
“You mean like this store or?”
“All stores here in Paris. I asked around. We don’t have the blue at the moment. How long are you staying in Paris?”
I said I’m here until Monday noon. I asked her if there would be new stock by then. She didn’t think so. She said sorry as if it was her fault. I thanked her and left.
I didn’t believe her so I walked over to Galleries Lafayette to check out the VCA store there. Again, there was a line in front. I waited for about 10 mins. When I was finally let in I went straight to the point as if I can’t waste more time.
“Hi I’m looking for a vintage Alhambra blue agate bracelet,” I told the Asian SA who was assigned to me.
“We don’t have it,” she said, immediately turning her back towards me and started walking away. I thought, wow that was unnecessarily rude. I looked to the receptionist and saw that she looked surprised. But apparently the SA just went to check the inventory at the back of the counter. She walked back to me and said, “we only have black, yellow, and red. No blue.”
I said thanks and left.
So I thought, I went all the way to Paris to get my first VCA piece and will go home empty handed. This must be what it feels like for all those tourists who purposely go to Paris to try their luck on geting a Birkin, only to get nothing in the end.
I had lunch and tea at Ogata (I highly recommend this place), and went back to my hotel to take a nap.
I just grabbed my first B30 preowned in PLOMB (I had to google b/c I had never heard of this color before) with palladium HW from FP so I'm excited to get it & see it in person!! I'm hoping it will be a good neutral
