canadia

i made a whirlwind trip to vancouver, bc this weekend with The Boyfriend, another friend, and the pups. my main objective was to get a shot at the jimmy choo for h&m collection. secondary objectives included meeting up with some canadian friends and browsing my favorite shops. oh, and to make canadians understand that “tim bits” is a branded term for donut holes (another story for another time).

i think i got to the h&m in pacific centre around 1pm (after waking up late and dropping my credit card at a gas station in burlington on the drive up) and was immediately accosted by a visual overload from the crowd of people watching the line of people trying to shop the jimmy choo section. honestly, that crowd watching the jimmy choo shoppers was more intimidating than the line itself. i mean, at least the line was contained within the store. i was ill prepared for the cold so i was grateful that i didn’t have to wait in line outside like i heard the lines were in new york; i had only brought my cute floral raincoat (which earned me many a compliment north of the border) to fend off the rain. a lil less than an hour later i finally made it to the front of the line only to hear, “mumble mumble size 8 and 9!” from the staff. i couldn’t tell (or was hoping in vain) if they were saying that sizes 8 and 9 were out or the only sizes left. i think if we’d been pretty much anywhere else in north america, i could have relaxed because sizes 8 and 9 are the most commonly worn shoe sizes. but no, i was in vancouver, where there is a huge asian population. asian women with their tiny asian feet. damn them all for taking my size 7s! so yeah, the staff had been saying only sizes 8 and 9 were left. boo hiss. regardless, i went in when i had the chance in the hope that the shoes ran small and i could fit a size 8. however by the time i actually got into the shopping area (which had a purple blockade set up around it and every time they finished rushing about a dozen people through at a time, they would move the blockades in even further to reduce the jimmy choo area. because they actually had enough inventory snapped up with every round of people going through that they didn’t need to keep all the floor space cordoned off) even the 8s were gone! i ended up just getting the heavily crystaled and chained necklace and bracelet because i just couldn’t walk away empty handed! actually there being practically no shoes or clothes left was a blessing in disguise because i didn’t discover that my credit card was missing until i went to pay so i didn’t end up completely draining my bank account by putting my h&m purchase on my debit card.

my missing credit card situation was resolved about 45 minutes later thanks to the helpful people at nordstrom credit services and the nice people at shell so i returned to my optimistic disposition about the weekend. spent some time wandering down robson street (oh, how i missed thee) and since i had missed out on the aggressive jimmy choo heels, i started looking for other aggressive heels elsewhere. i can’t remember the name of the shoe store we went into (it’s one of three that are practically all in a row with a couple of american apparels breaking up the store fronts) but i saw these awesomely decked out jeffrey campbell for ibiza (i think) heels. i would have asked The Boyfriend to get them for me if i had been able to get the damn things buckled! it was just the last part of securing the strap flap down that i spent five minutes trying to do before i gave up. but oh so pretty…if anyone has suggestions on how to work around this problem, let me know, because i want these shoes.

lastly, i rushed over to zara before they closed and found a wonder brown leather jacket with (faux?) fur lining but i couldn’t find my size and the staff was less than helpful. i also wanted these dusky lavendar snakeskin print heels but again with the size issue. i did end up getting this waist-nipping military-inspired coat in black. very hot. oooh, right now i’m picturing the coat, (p)leather leggings, and those jeffrey campbell heels. oooh! if only i: 1) had those shoes and 2) were a lithe model type who could totally pull it off. if h&m is supposed to be launching their e-commerce store next fall, i wonder how far behind zara is?

i feel that i should also mention that The Boyfriend bought 2 coats and 5 pairs of shoes on this trip. we are now tentatively planning on heading back for the boxing day sales.