Fall is ball season in Beijing and even if we are not going to any, others are and as the good friend that I am, I followed Deb to Jenny’s dress shop to help her find a gown. Think dress shop and you think fancy location, a spacious store with thick carpets and large dressing rooms. Perhaps dresses color coordinated on the racks or sorted by event suitability and maybe they offer tea of even champagne!
We discovered that Jenny’s dress shop is not exactly like that… when we eventually found the place after having circled around the same block three or four times. The instructions were: Give Jenny a call and she will meet you at the gate and let you in. Well, we skipped that part after having been let into the garage and in through the locked doors to the lift. Three floors up we enter a court yard where various tiny shops, all locked, were surrounded by apartments in the high rises above.
A quick phone call to Jenny and she appears and unlocks the door to her shop; a teeny, tiny space with dresses from floor (many on the floor) to ceiling. Long gowns, short dresses, casual dresses and what could easily be worn to an Indian wedding and all hanging haphazardly on too crowded racks. It’s clean enough and we begin to rumble through her selection, picking out what is available in “American size”, i.e. very big for the tiny Chinese people. It’s impossible to fathom how she does her inventory, how does she know what she has in stock but somehow she does and she can even produce “new” dresses in different sizes.
Now, I wasn’t in the market for a gown, as mentioned I haven’t got anywhere to use it, but what to do when you find the perfect navy blue silk gown, strapless and cut like a glove that makes you look and feel like a princess – even on a Tuesday morning. Well, you’ve got to buy it and find a reason to wear it. Our house warming might be a very fancy affair….
Deb walked away with four dresses and we headed to Auchan, French hypermarket extraordinaire.
After a quick noodle lunch, two gigantic bowls of spicy noodle soup heaven and a plate of sesame infused greens – all for 26 RMB (US$4!) for the two of us, we continued with our shopping.
An hour or so later I walk out and head home with not only a ball gown that I don’t really need, but also cat litter and Angry Bird stickers. A productive day indeed.
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