Chanel Dream Jacket

It started with this, a blurry view of a jacket hanging forlornly on a rack at a Chanel SS11 trunk show on February 17, 2011. But that was all it took. A gasp was silenced in my throat by my pounding heart. The SA and I scurried off into the dressing room with a few other items in hand. She meticulously lined up the pieces on the rack, served me some sparkling water, then left, but all I wanted to do was put on that jacket!

The sample was two sizes too big (albeit cut down to fit the tiny but tall models), but in that moment I felt about as close to wearing couture as I ever could. It was hard to believe that this jacket was considered Ready-To-Wear. How many nimble hands did it take to apply all those beads on the trims? Is it really possible to mass produce this kind of workmanship? I can’t really describe the fabric to you except to say that wearing it was like being gift wrapped in a sheath of fantasy ribbons that I was scared to unravel. But Chanel being Chanel, the real fear was the sticker shock. So I removed the jacket and mentally added it to my Holy Grail List, which is different from my Wish List. The Wish List is actually a list that I start at the beginning of each season then whittle down to an usually much shorter Buy List to keep me from impulsive purchases. The intent behind the Buy List is to wait till sales…Intervention 101, as it were.

Months passed and editorials (courtesy of style.com and Hirshleifers) crossed my path to the point of fueling my obsession with this now called “Dream Jacket” into a small flame. I searched for it everywhere, including while overseas, but never found it in my size. The operator at the Chanel hotline (yes, it does exist) told me it was sold out.

Almost exactly four months after my first encounter with this jacket, the fashion gods toyed with me. While randomly looking through the racks at a boutique for presale intel, I found the jacket, in size 36. Alas, it was still one size too big, and certainly the alterations on this jacket would wipe out any savings on it from the sale. I tossed and turned that night, thinking it was silly to spend money on something that didn’t fit and possibly couldn’t be fitted properly. The old me would have bought it anyway; the new me walked away.

That’s how it is to be a mere mortal in the fairy tale world of fashion. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And most of the time you’re just pining away for a piece of that fantasy.

But would I have told you this whole story if it didn’t have a happy ending? Well, dear readers, at this blog, we are all about the sappy Hollywood endings. Let me just cut to the chase and say that after those fashion gods were done playing with me, they led me to the prize in a rather uncomplicated way, in my true size 34. ON SALE. And today, exactly 126 days after that first glance, I can finally be in my own private editorial. Now, I love me some Vanessa Paradis, but I think I can rock it even with my gym shorts!

I’m calling it my Michael Jackson jacket because of the bling. I’m not sure where I can wear this jacket to, but for tonight, I might just sleep in it. Isn’t that what a fashion fantasy is?

June 23, 2011