Sezane cardigan
Zara jeans (similar)
Aldo boots
Mango coat
Louis Vuitton handbag
Burberry scarf
Linjer rings (c/o) (similar)
Agape Studio earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: The British Museum – London, England
Photos by Gwen Kortsen
When it comes to fashion, literature and, well, pretty much everything, my tastes have always skewed heavily towards favouring all things French… even though my ancestry is almost exclusively English and Welsh. Maybe it was the constant exposure to French culture in my childhood that did it; like so many Canadian kids, I went to school in French even though I spoke English at home. I could speculate, but I won’t come up with a definitive answer. All I know for sure is that given the choice between Burberry and Balmain, I would choose Balmain every time.
Well, every time except two. A Burberry trench coat remains on my sartorial wishlist. And in the fall of 2020, during one of my almost innumerable afternoons spent browsing online shops for lack of anything else to do during lockdown, I found myself on the Burberry website, where I fell instantly in love with their collection of silk scarves. I didn’t wear silk scarves much yet, at that time. Like most fashion girls, I’d long dreamed of owning one from Hermes, but hadn’t done anything about it beyond dreaming. Suddenly, my wardrobe felt incomplete without a silk scarf, and Hermes was temporarily forgotten: I had to have one from Burberry.
Ian gifted me the scarf for Christmas that year. It’s a piece of artwork when fully unfolded, boldly printed with a menagerie of improbably elegant animals. (I have a personal rule, made in my teens, about never wearing anything with an animal print. This scarf is the exception that proves why the rule is necessary. No garment with an animal print will ever come close to comparing to its beauty.) I envisioned wearing it when my work trips resumed, wrapped around my neck and tucked discreetly under the neckline of my coats. Those work trips have barely resumed three years later – I went to Toronto once last year, and might go once this year, but it remains to be seen. Instead, my Burberry scarf mostly comes along on holidays. It made its Parisian debut in 2021. When I started packing for London, it went in my suitcase before anything else.
These snapshots, taken outside the British Museum, are less its London debut than its London moment. I was only in the city for three full days, after all. But, never one to miss an opportunity to indulge a cliched fantasy, I had to wear the most British garment I own in the British capital. It took until the last full day of the trip, but I did it – but, of course, paired it with what is arguably the most iconically French handbag, my Louis Vuitton Speedy, because I’m still me. And wherever my ancestors came from, I’ll always be parisienne at heart.
