Thursday, October 1, 2009

flagship follies

An absurd yet bright spot in a foggy day: Victoria's Secret opening! Truth be told, I was not all that excited about the store and had not planned on carving any time out of my day to browse, let alone stand in a two-hour line to get in. 1) I am an enthusiastic and effective online shopper, and 2) I liked that VS was a "mainland thing," something to look forward to on each trip.

But I ended up at the mall for this reason or that, and breezed past the VS store. The doors were closed, and it didn't look all that crowded inside. "Is it open?" I asked the guard.

"Yep, but the entrance is" - he pointed - "over there."

Well, snaking out of that entrance was a freaking line that wrapped around the building and ended at Jamba Juice. A guy was walking up and down the line asking if anyone had an Angel card. There was just no freaking way I was standing in a line that long to peek into a store I've been in ten thousand times in one form or another. But I thought I'd give it one small shot and told the guy with the headset I was a member. Did I have my card on me? No, but apparently it didn't matter ... he told me to follow him to the front of the VIP line (the diva walk past the whole line made me heady for about two seconds - that's for all the times I stood in a bullshit line to get into a ridiculous club! - then I became just really confused.

There's a line inside the store? What for? Why am I here at the front of it? Ooh, cameras. Why didn't I put makeup on this morning? Why is that guy waving at me? What are we all in line for?

"Name you want on your autograph?" the Man in the Suit barked.

"Um. Say what?"

"You can't get an autographed picture unless you have a post-it with the name written on it."

"Oh. Okay." I spelled the name for him, still totally bewildered (all I wanted to do was browse Biofit!) and he went away.

"Uh, what are we in line for?" I asked the nicest-looking girl in the line behind me. (The rest looked like the wanted to kill me. Could I blame them ... no.)

"Marisa Miller's signing autographs," she replied.

"Oh how cool!" <--- I tried to squeal this with a knowing inflection but I did not know who the girl was talking about (I know one VS model name: Alessandra Ambrosio), until Marisa Miller actually came around the corner. She is very tall, very slim, very beautiful, and very down to earth.

I made small talk with her for about 10 seconds while she signed my photo, and finally, I got to enter Biofit (and Pink) heaven. I sneaked some photos (what were they going to do, take my Marisa Miller autograph away?), bought some woo-hoos, sniffed some scents, and finally left.

So yes, I "went to the opening" - and I didn't have to take off from work or stand in a line. The store, by the way, packs much awesomeness. It is big and beautiful (vocabulary suckage due to the late hour). I still don't know how I got to the front of the VIP queue (and I wonder what I could have pulled off with a little makeup and some heels!), but whatever. Btw, the guy was not waving at me. Obviously. He was waving at Miss Hawaii 2001 (and fellow former Miss Chinatown Hawaii princess) Denby Dung, beautiful (and congenial) as ever, who was next to me in line.

Next stop: OREGON!!!