What's This Place? Behind the Clicks and Mortar with Miranda Black
What's This Place? Behind the Clicks and Mortar with Miranda Black
Who is Lou de Beauregard?
Join me as I share the unexpected odyssey of a blouse that was more than mere fabric—it unfurls the story of my first Poshmark sale, a rare Lou de Beauregard piece and the emotional whirlwind that followed its mysterious disappearance.
This episode isn't just about garments and goodbyes; it's a journey through the shared paths of memory and the acts of forgiveness that help us navigate our losses.
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Hi guys, my name is Miranda Black and this is what's this Place Behind the Clicks and Mortar? And I have some news from this week. So I made my first online sale. But wait, before you crack the champagne for me. I just want to talk about well, how do I, how do I?
Speaker 1:You see, this episode started as a completely different episode and wella was the rare one to find. You know how, when they do these collectibles, you buy the cereal and you keep getting the Pooh, bear or the piglet, but finally she got Kanga. It was a big deal, but somehow I can't remember how long she'd had it. In my memory it's the same morning, but it could have been a week or a month later. We were heading out on an errand and between the house and getting into the car, kanga was gone, and I think this might have been my first experience of loss, because it is such a flashbulb memory and I couldn't understand where it had gone. She had it and then she didn't. It had disappeared and it shook me that we couldn't just find it because it was there somewhere. But it was fall and there were deep leaves everywhere and Kanga was bright yellow, but so were some of the leaves. We had to leave on the errand, but even when we got back we looked and looked and we never found it. My sister was heartbroken and we all remember Kanga going missing, even though it was this little plastic toy. We just all wonder where Kanga went. And the thing I didn't realize then was that that feeling of loss, of wondering where could that have gone, how did it slip through my fingers? That's something that's a universal feeling that we all face at one point or another in different degrees, and it's as familiar to us as, like death and taxes, loss sucks. It's unfair and random, and the only thing that heals it is time. So that sets you up for the story about my first sale on Poshmark, and it's why we're not opening the champagne just yet. So, okay, well, I got to start the piece itself, because that's super important to the story.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I buy a piece of clothing that I barely ever wear or even never wear. Can you feel me on that? I think you can, because I've seen closets out there. I know I'm not the only one to have brand new, with tags pieces hanging in my closet. Well, maybe you don't, maybe you're more of a practical shopper, but I I've done it many times in my life I buy a piece because it's just gorgeous. It might not be practical, it might not fit properly, but God, I just I want it. And that's what happened to me when I bought this blouse. I thought I would wear it, but it was just a little too big in the shoulders. So every time I take it out and try it on, I'd end up putting it back in my closet because it didn't make me feel as good on as it did just looking at it, because man, as good on as it did, just looking at it, because man, was she ever beautiful?
Speaker 1:And the funny thing is, I genuinely believed when I bought it that it was true vintage. There's this line between vintage and true vintage because these days on resale sites, anything that's 20 years old or more is quote unquote a vintage. So something that you bought in 2004 is now vintage, but true vintage is anything that's 40 years old or more. So I thought this piece was true vintage, like 1970s disco vintage, in mint condition, never been worn, and there's this woven design on the shoulders. So it's 100% silk and the designer took silk strips and wove them into these basket weave shoulder pieces and then the woven pieces they drape down under the arms and back up to the back of the shoulders to make up the other side of the basket weave. It's almost impossible to describe it, but you can find it on my Poshmark. Even though it's sold, I'm going to keep it up there because, well, because of how the story ends, it's now like a memorial and it should be seen, and I'd love to hear your comments on it if you do stop by.
Speaker 1:So it didn't fit me properly, but I bought it anyway, thinking I could transform it with a belt or I don't know. I was just so in awe of it. My 1970s, true vintage blouse. But when I started my research on the tag, that's my jam Love researching tags. You can hear more about my love for researching clothing in episode one of this season.
Speaker 1:So I looked at the name, lou de Beauregard, and my first thought was what's this place? Who is Lou de Beauregard? But I could barely find anything on the brand, which actually intensified my belief that this was true vintage, because it is really hard to find internet proof on anything pre-2000s. So maybe true vintage. But then I discovered this tiny article about the designer Florence Dupin. She started Lude de Beauregard in 2010. Lude de Beauregard in 2010. So not true vintage, not even resale vintage. So why is it so hard to find an internet presence? What is going on with this designer and her credits? My God, get this. She worked at Jean-Paul Gaultier, isabelle Marant, sonia Riquel and Paul Smith and I know I murder the names. I don't have a great accent, my Canadianism comes out but in the fashion world these names are top shelf, like top shelf of the top shelf. You know, everyone knows the huge blockbusters like the Gucci and Versace and the Bladdity Blatchy, but these are designers' designers.
Speaker 1:Florence Dupin after paying her dues at these incredible fashion houses, she goes out on her own and creates L'Eau de Beauregard in 2010. And she uses, like real stuff, real silk, not polyester, with technology to make it feel like silk to save money. Real leathers, not spiffed up vinyl to look like leather that starts peeling away after two years. Her pieces are like little works of art. It is designed with perfection and I can imagine it probably cost a lot to make and maybe that our margins weren't great. I don't know, I'm just guessing. Who knows what happened? But by 2012, the brand is gone. There's just no trace of it on the Internet and there's very, very little in the online resale world. I found three pieces available to buy total around the world, including European and Asian resale world. I found three pieces available to buy total around the world, including European and Asian resale sites Three available. Compare that to like Lululemon or Zara, which have tens of thousands of pieces on Poshmark alone.
Speaker 1:Whatever units were created for Lou de Beauregard in those two years, that's it. It's a unicorn. It's like finding the Kanga in your cereal box as a six-year-old. Are you starting to ask me why I sold this? Am I crazy? Well, it's because my closet is not a museum. Yeah, it was lovely, it was a unicorn.
Speaker 1:But fashion, it should live out in the world. There is so much fashion languishing in closets and donation bins in the back rooms of Goodwills and charity shop and storage units. The more we get circulating, the less we're going to feel this need to produce more. And another big reason, maybe the main reason I don't have museum money. You know what I mean Museum money, generational money, philanthropy money, money that makes you talk like this with a long cigarette holder and a driver. I don't have that. I don't have a zero degree storage unit to keep a gorgeous piece of clothing safe forever. So what am I going to do? Keep my Lou de Beauregard that doesn't quite fit me in my closet forever. Never let the unicorn out into the world. Well, hindsight is 20-20, as they say, and if I knew then what I know now?
Speaker 1:When I started writing this episode, it was about my first sale on Poshmark. I was packaging it up and shipping it off to Winnipeg and I was having feelings about my first sale. It was a different plan for an episode, but this is this is what I wrote before I knew the ending. It's a little cheesy. So my Lou de Beauregard is gone. She's been shipped off to Winnipeg, off on her journey, which may have started in England as a sketch and then probably went to China to be made because that's where even luxury garments are made in 2012, and then to New York and, worn by somebody fabulous, to a gala, and then to my house, where she only ever saw the light of day once, to a dinner party. That's all she got to see of Toronto. But now she's off to Winnipeg and maybe I'll get an update from the buyer, or maybe I won't, but I'm happy that she's getting a new life and a new experience.
Speaker 1:And then I waited. I watched as the tracking went from downtown Toronto to Mississauga to Winnipeg, but the whole time I just had this bad feeling like dread, like what have I done? Will this be the only Lou de Beauregard I ever find? Did I charge enough? Will this be the only Lou de Beauregard I ever find? Did I charge enough? Will the buyer accept the package?
Speaker 1:I started to read nightmares on Reddit where buyers receive something and then take a picture of a completely different blouse and tell Poshmark that what they bought was falsely advertised. This is probably either an urban myth or it's so rare it's not worth worrying about. But it was my first sale and I identify as Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh. Rabbit's the anxious one who talks too fast and thinks too much and worries about everything. So I watched as it sat in Winnipeg for six days every day saying it was out for delivery but by end of day not being delivered. The buyer and I started messaging I was a noob, maybe this happens. The buyer said calm down, degrowth, diva. Post in Canada is slow, sometimes by day 12,. I was done.
Speaker 1:I emailed Poshmark and they wrote back to say hi, miranda, unfortunately, it looks like your order has stopped tracking and has likely been lost by the shipping carrier. Lost that familiar feeling of what do you mean? There is no lost on this planet. It hasn't stopped existing. It's just not existing in the place. We want it to be in the place we want it to be Well, that's actually the definition of lost. So they processed it as a lost package and compensated us both. The buyer gets the money back, I get paid out in full. There's no financial loss.
Speaker 1:But the blouse the indescribable blouse with the woven shoulders and the drape that goes under the arms one of three lewd Beauregards that exist in the online reselling world is gone. I really hope it hasn't been opened by someone who just threw it in the trash when they saw that it wasn't Lulu or Zara, which are the top sellers in resale. Who's going to put the research in to discover that this is a unicorn? My best hope is that it's just fallen behind a bin at the Winnipeg post office and someone hears this podcast, takes a little look around, picks it up and delivers it to BB underscore GG in Winnipeg, manitoba, and she gets to love it even better than I did.
Speaker 1:But more likely, I'm always going to wonder what happened to that blouse? Will I see it one day on another resale site? Is it just gone forever? It's been a few days since I got that email. Already, the gut punch. It's not quite as bad as it first was. Time's going to do its thing on the disappointment and sadness of the loss, but I will never forget it. I'll always wonder how the story for my Lou DeBeau regard ended.
Speaker 1:I want to thank Poshmark for covering the sale. That is a blessing. It would have been far harder if I'd lost the blouse and the sale and this is why I chose to start my online selling with Poshmark, because I know mistakes are bound to happen. But, as BBGG wrote to me when we were commiserating on the loss, why this one? Why the unicorn? So I want tob underscore gg for being my first customer and for all the open communication we had during the epic flight this blouse took across canada.
Speaker 1:You can follow her at b-i-b-i underscore g-i-g-i on poshmark and and listen, I'm not advertising anything on the podcast right now. I realize I'd rather just advertise for myself and write stories that I want to write and instead of you having to sit through two minutes of ads, just take 15 seconds. Give me a written review, not just stars. I mean, if all you can manage is stars, I will take them, but they don't do as much for my street cred as a just a little written review. So if you can take 15 seconds, write something that expresses how this podcast makes you feel or what you've learned. It would really help me out. Or follow me on Poshmark. You can find me by searching dgrowth underscore diva.
Speaker 1:I want to end my episodes this season by sharing something that inspired me during the week, and this one it's not really a fashion story, as hard as I tried to tie it to fashion. It's the story of a girl in Ottawa who can instantly recall memories from any date in her life, down to what she wore and had for lunch that day. You can tell her a date and she can tell you what happened on that day. It's called HSAM, which stands for Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. There's only 100 known cases around the world and maybe you think, like I did wow, that is a great superpower. I would love to remember with such accuracy, and I'm sure it is amazing to ace all your tests and remember events so vividly. But as with all superpowers, there's a catch, and her catch is that she also remembers all the bad days, all the loss, in as vivid detail as when it first happened. For Emily Nash that's her name, local Ottawa girl.
Speaker 1:For Emily, time doesn't heal all wounds. If Emily was there the day we lost Kanga, she would be able to remember which cereal it was my sister won the prize, from where we were going that day, what we were wearing, and she would remember the sadness my sister felt as if it happened today. Her mother well, emily's only 18, and, as we all know, life can deal you some doozies. So her mother is helping her cope with her loss through forgiveness, because there is only forgive, no forget for Emily. So, in that spirit, if someone did steal my Lou de Beauregard, well, I forgive you. Times are tough and money money is thin and it probably seemed like a victimless crime. So I forgive you and I hope you wear that gorgeous flowing silk, like the 1970s are alive in vivid detail. This is what's this Place. I'm Miranda Black. I will see you next time, thank you, thank you.
