Lanvin November Windows (Paris, France) & Awards

Anyone who's familiar with this blog, knows about my unhealthy passionate obsession with all that is Lanvin, and if there's one thing they do better than most flagships, it's their window displays. In some cases their windows display art, in others they provide a social commentary, but usually they're just lots of fun and showcase products in the most whimsical and adorable way possible. Like these windows, which were put up a few weeks ago and possibly capture what Alber Elbaz associates with November. Either that, or he really likes scarecrows and black crows (the bird, not the band). In any case, the mannequins seem to be doing a miserable job keeping the feathered creatures away, but then again - if I were a crow, it would take more than a few life-sized mannequins to scare me away from Lanvin...

By the way, if you missed out on previous Lanvin windows and want to catch up, click here.

Lanvin Homme

I think these were the only scarecrows that kept the birds away...

I love how pi**ed off the one on the right looks. Not sure if it's because of the crow on his head, or if his buddy stole his seat...

The most well-dressed scarecrows EVER. The three crows on his arm probably agree.

A crow trying to nab a messenger bag.

Apparently this scarecrow just did some Lanvin shopping. They seem to have better lives than the average human...

Lanvin Femme

Scarecrows decked out in fur and silk... while the crows fight over a brooch.

The chicest scarecrow in town...

... aside from this one. Gorgeous coat.

Not sure what happened to this lady...

Crows behaving like magpies, pecking at jewels.

If the hand weren't holding the lovely clutch, this would almost be creepy (crow is trying to get the ring).

The only scarecrow without legs, but at least she has shoes...

Again, I'm somewhat behind on a couple of awards I received, so I'd like to take the opportunity to post these and pass them along to some lovely bloggers out there.

First up, the beautiful Niki B. from A Haute Mess not only gave me an award, but she created it herself, so I'm honored to have received 'The Haute Mess Award'. Thank you Niki!

I've scaled it down a bit, but I hope you can still see the awesomeness that includes Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour. Anyway, I'm supposed to pass this on to three blogs, which are:

• Couture Carrie
• Falling Under the Clouds
• Janetteria

I also received the Lovely Lemonade award from the fabulous Pearl Westwood of Fashion Pearls of Wisdom and the 5 Diamonds award from the stylish Inspiration in Italy. Thank you both! Each award should be passed on to 10 bloggers, but I'll be bad and cheat, because I don't think I could list 20 blogs at the moment...

I'd like to pass this award to:

• FabBlab
• La Rue Neuve
• Poisoned Armour
• Take Me Out To The Runway
• Trishikoh

And I'd like the following bloggers to receive this award:

• Dumbwit Tellher
• Meraldia
• Pretty Portobello
• Style Sophisticate
• The Panty Drawer

Finally I also received the Kreativ Blogger Award from the lovely Draffin Bears and the wonderful Thirty Something Style:

The award comes with a tag where I'm supposed to list 7 random/interesting facts about me. I've received this award and done the tag before here, but because I've referred to the same post about three times now, I'll be good and present you with... "5 random facts, the Christmas edition"! Yes, my favorite season deserves its own tag, so here we go:

1. Last year, two weeks before Christmas, I somehow managed to get the chickenpox, even though I was convinced I had been vaccinated against this as a child. Needless to say it ruined some fun Christmas shopping, because I was quarantined for over a week. The kind French doctor who first examined me, also made the mistake of telling me I had 'smallpox', which totally freaked me out.
2. One of our annual family traditions is a Christmas Day buffet where we get to stuff ourselves with goodies. One year, one of the goodies wasn't all that good, because I got food poisoning the next day (I suspect it was an oyster), which involved me spending the entire Boxing Day in the bathroom hugging a toilet. Fun times.
3. One year, my friends and I made the mistake of straying from the usual mulled wine at a Christmas market in Germany and chose an "Eierpunsch" (egg-punch) instead, which was very very strong and not that great. We drank it on an empty stomach... around noon. And ended up attending a lecture slightly wasted (my head actually slammed on the table at one point).
4. During another Christmas market incident, I had my wallet stolen. It was the first (and hopefully last) time this ever happened.
5. The most bizarre pre-holiday experience was the time I lived in Amsterdam. The Dutch believe in Saint Nicholas ('Sinterklaas'), who according to folklore arrives on a steamboat from Spain and is greeted by a large parade of children and adults every year. What's disturbing is that he has a few dark-skinned helpers named 'Zwarte Piet' ('black Pete'), so you don't just get memorabilia and pastry adorned with his face, but have half the country dressing up as this character... which also involves donning blackface make-up (click on the wiki-link or see pic below). Needless to say most expats don't really find this to be politically correct. My most surreal experience was sitting in a restaurant with the hubby, when our usual 6' tall blonde waitress suddenly appeared as Zwarte Piet and served us pancakes. Another one was looking out my office window to see 10 kids dressed as Zwarte Piet playing football/soccer in the park.

I would like to pass this award & tag to all my lovely readers and if like me, you've done this tag before, please feel free to share a holiday version as well... I'd love to read it!

Left: Christmas market in Frankfurt, Germany. Right: a lady dressed up as Zwarte Piet (source: wikimedia) and a traditional Eierpunsch.