Part I: My Hermès Christmas… Something Old and New
The story I’m about to share, in many ways, is deeply rooted in my Canadian upbringing and winters in cold weather. Every year, I challenged myself to improve my snow angels to perfection. I wore snow shoes at school recess. My childhood bag-obsession extended to the snowmen (or women) I created with matching totes hanging from their branched arms, in the same way that mama would whip up a handbag for me, literally, to match homemade dresses.
With love for winter also comes a flair for boots and coats. My memories of outerwear date very early to one of my first trips to Disneyland. I recall walking through the beautifully lit gift shop that lined the entrance of Main Street and seeing a yellow zip-up cotton poplin jacket with a big embroidered Minnie Mouse exactly over my heart. I must’ve been about five years old. I wore that jacket so proudly for as long as it fit.
I’m dating myself here, but in high school, there was a K Way trend: nylon windbreakers that converted to hip sacks that I must’ve collected in every color. Moving on, I fondly remember a hooded houndstooth Adrienne Vittadini coat… and then my beloved Donna Karen red fringe suede cowboy jacket, then a Christian Lacroix Couture red cape with black velvet embroidery that reversed to a hot pink (I still have the latter two). And then, of course, came my love for Chanel, and I have several of those statement pieces … And then, in this last chapter of 10 years, more so the last three or four years, my interest in Hermès ready-to-wear peaked. I am a winter baby, always have been. Yes, I am an anomaly, but I like boots, coats, and bags.
