Chanel: Collecting Catalogues.

Within months my interest in fashion was voracious, I knew it all - (I thought), I couldn’t stop talking about it and was still saying “Christian Lacroy”, I was quickly corrected. But the ambition that really started and was talk in our form room, was how I was going to get a Chanel Catalogue. “Are you going to store”? – This was the question, I had been reading all their articles and looking at their advertisements at that time photographed by Karl Lagerfeld and at the ripe old age of 14, I HAD TO GET IN THAT SHOP! I mentioned to my form tutor also a great art teacher at our school what my plans were for the coming Saturday. He quickly, unbeknownst to me, assigned the sensible math pupil in our class to accompany me to Old Bond Street. Admittedly I was a bit of a scarecrow at that time, I was too busy thinking about other people’s clothes and certainly didn’t have the money to buy any. My first Versace shirt was a gift from a college lecturer years later – (crisp white linen). We took the Central Line Train that Saturday and we hit all the notable stores, Givenchy, Ungaro, Rive Gauche; I was so enthusiastic and knew my stuff they just handed catalogues over. There were going to be no games here. Then nervously, we approached Chanel. We walked in, they didn’t flinch and I asked for my Chanel Catalogue. They gave me a catalogue then asked if I would like to see the collection, I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!