On my flight back to North America, I had a 6 hour layover at Incheon Airport (Seoul). My flight from Mongolia arrived at Terminal 1, my flight to Vancouver left from Terminal 2. Since I had loads of time, I walked around Terminal 1, a lot; there are tons of very high end brands. I made the mistake of walking through Louis Vuitton (supposedly the biggest airport store for the brand). Yes, I had my dusty backpack and all, this guy tailed me throughout the entire store. I picked up a pair shoes to look at the price, put them down at approximately the same location and angle, he "fixed" them. I turned to look at him, and honestly wasn't sure what to say. I left without even inquiring about anything. Unfortunately, now I understand how many minorities feel in stores.
Many of the staff in the airport stores barely speak English, which shows their market.
I did stop at a Moncler store, and found a really cool orange puffer jacket that was part of limited collection with a Japanese designer. Stupidly, stupidly expensive, even for Moncler. But I was tired of wearing black gear for weeks. The very nice saleswoman had me try on a size 3 (men's sizing), which I didn't think would be big enough. But it fit and I looked good it, or it might have been sleep deprived with Duty-Free pricing goggles.
https://store.moncler.com/en-u.....ara_Geniushttps://store.moncler.com/en-u.....ara_Genius
I pulled out the credit card, they asked for my passport and boarding card. They came back sheepishly, I thought my card had been declined for fraud alert(couldn't remember if I told the card about the stop-over in travels). Nope, apparently, since I was leaving from a different terminal (did not need to go through security again though), they couldn't sell be the jacket. They were very apologetic, and even called the Moncler boutique in Terminal 2, which did not have the jacket. I was very confused, and unfortunately the language barrier didn't help.
In Terminal 2, I did look at the boutique and they had the jacket in a size 4, but it was too big, and some reality was sinking in that I really didn't need a that jacket, at that price. Plus Seattle winters aren't as cold as they used to be.
To confound things even further, even if I really, really wanted that jacket, I would have to go get it in Miami, in person to get it, as it is sold out online, and the boutiques don't ship.
In Vancouver, BC. I had a bit of downtime and poked around Gastown looking for indy designers and shops. I found one cool denim shop, but what I wanted, it didn't exist in my size.
I wanted a new jean shape, and forgot I have saved this find a while ago, and Uniqlo is having a sale. And in the Men's section I found an orange puffer, for a fraction of the thwarted Moncler. Also gambled on these pants.
To be determined, if the puffer looks cool, or like a washed up search and rescue person.
