Not sure I remembered to courtesy.
Before I moved to the States, I spent a year working for Mulberry, the quintessentially British luxury brand. We sold anything and everything you needed for a weekend in the county hunting, shooting or pursuing other traditional delights, including moleskin, tweed and fabulous leather bags and shoes.
I was a floater, which literally meant that I would float between their flagship shop on St. Christopher’s Place and their other locations in Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Barkers, Selfridges and Liberty’s.
Harrods was cool because of the underground tunnels and secret doors and corridors… and I spent my breaks at Way In on the top floor, which was way more my vibe... Liberty’s was old world with with creaky floors, floral prints and hidden corners…Selfridges was flashy and Barkers, on Ken High, was a snooze.
My absolute fav was Harvey Nics... the staff on the ground floor were a hoot... bitchy, camp and super snobby… not unlike the clientele.
Until one day... I was just faffing around... who knows, counting bags, deciding which one to get next on my employee discount... when all of a sudden, it felt like the sea of people had retreated and the chatter had stopped, save for the thumping music in the background.
I looked up... and it was Lady Di… she had walked into my section... I froze.. she was within arms length with too heavy set men about a furlong behind… she was wearing black jeans and a crisp white shirt... she glided over to the beautiful leather belts and started thumbing her way around the rack...I could barely breath… then she picked one out and said, “May I have this?”
Now what? I started to panic. Do I just give it to her? Let her take it? Let her use my employee discount? What about the thingy? What if she sets off the alarm? What if its in the papers tomorrow? Then she’d be arrested? Then I’d be arrested?
Thankfully one of the dudes walked forward and asked me how much... I was so relieved that he had saved us both from what could have been a very embarrassing situation... I rang him up, took the thingy out, wrapped it in tissue and handed it back to him...he didn’t want a bag. When they left...I literally had to pinch myself.
All the sales people flocked over to me afterwards... they wanted me to relay in detail what she had said, what she had bought, what she looked like up close... they were bummed that she hadn’t gone into their departments… All I could say was that she was lovely and kind.
And surprisingly wore a size 30" belt.
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