Spring Break, Here I Come!

Oh my gosh, it has been SUCH a busy month or so! I got through Fashion Week and am well into my projects, plus I've moved into a one-person apartment. First, though, Fashion Week!

I worked as a dresser for four different shows: Manish Arora, Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh, and Steffie Christaens. All were so different! Manish's theme was "Life Is Beautiful," and I worked with a top American model, Heidi Mount. Manish was very involved with the show, and you could tell he had a vision for everything. He spent most of his time down with us in the small dressing area. His show was at a dock, and it was SO COLD. Some of the models almost refused to change! It definitely is incredibly cramped and busy, no matter what show you're working--and everything has to move whip fast. You're helping a girl change her entire outfit in about a minute, with at least twelve other girls around you, and you have to be careful of her hair and makeup and shoes, too. Everything was so colorful at Manish Arora, though! I think that may have been my favorite show. Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh were both more goth-inspired, very dark and heavy, but they were easily the best-run shows I'd been to. Gareth came by to all of us and explained how he wanted the models to look, how he wanted the clothes styled, etc. He was super nice. Rick Owens wasn't very involved with us, but we got to see him after. Caine and Elise worked at his showroom the next week on internship. Steffie was so quiet, and you could tell she just had too many cooks in the kitchen. They kicked half of us out, and most of the time was spent with the people fighting for control yelling and getting upset. One girl didn't even go out for the finale because there weren't enough shoes!

Anyways, here are some great pictures from Manish Arora (we couldn't take pictures athe other shows):

After that, it was a week or so until my birthday. We went out to WOS (Wide Open Spaces), an international bar run by an Australian and an Irishman (I think). We go there almost every weekend, but we're hoping to go to a swing club near here tonight!

It's getting warmer, in the 60's now. It will never get "hot," like Iowa, but it's still nice enough to pair a pretty skirt and top, which is great. The downside to Paris is that everything is SO EXPENSIVE here. I've told this to a few friends back home, but I bought a box of granola here last week that was $10!!! It's ridiculous. I'm having to work super hard to budget, and it's not all coming out so great. It's worse to not have an income. I'm so used to working 20 hours a week that to not work at all is a shock to my system. I'm hoping to get as near a full time job as I can over the summer. And, of course, I'm still looking for internships in the fall as well--which will be another semester of no-income :(

Spring break starts today! I've got all of my travel stuff booked and ready to go! On Tuesday, I fly out to Edinburgh, Scotland, and I'll be there two days and take a tour around the Scottish highlands. On Friday, I take a bus overnight down to London, where I'll stay until the following Tuesday. I have a couple friends going to school in London, so they're going to show me around town! I'm still debating whether I want to go on a tour to see Bath and Stonehenge. Of course I'd love to, but I'm not sure I have the time/money. There's so much to see in London, you know??

I'll be back in Paris Tuesday night, and then I'll have a day to chill (and do laundry!) before Thane arrives Thursday morning! I'm planning to walk him down to Notre Dame, take the metro up to Port Royal, and then walk back up past my school, get lunch, and then go back to the apartment to pack. This should all take maybe four hours, and then we have to go to the airport to fly down to Nice. Nice is on the southern coast of France, and has everything from Roman ruins to a Russian cathedral--and a flower market every day! We'll stay in a hotel in Nice Thursday night and Friday night, and come back to Paris on Saturday night. Then, we'll take Sunday and Monday to tour the city (the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, etc...), and Thane leaves Tuesday morning. Then, I only have three weeks left of school before I come home! I am so busy, and I don't know how I'll manage to get all of my work done. It's ridiculous.

Anyways, I'll try to update more often from here out. Hope to see you all soon!!!

Getting in the Swing of Things

Well, I've officially been in Paris for 3 weeks now, and I think I'm finally settling in. Caine and I are now in a 4 person apartment with Jasmine (from Boston) and Elise (from Melbourne). Classes are going great, if a bit abstract. I've been applying for internships back in the states, and running into a few problems with interviews because I'm overseas, but Diane Von Furstenberg wants me to contact them when I get back to the States to set up an interview. She e-mailed me the same day I applied, and passed on my resume/portfolio to Marc Jacobs and Polo Ralph Lauren! I also applied at Tory Burch yesterday, but as I did it through the online application and not through a contact, I'm not getting my hopes up. Contacts are EVERYTHING in this industry, so getting out there and networking (whether through e-mails, phone calls, LinkedIn, whatever) is so important. It's a little intimidating!

As for classes, I go back and forth. On Mondays, we have Haute Couture sewing (hand-sewing samples, mostly, to get the hang of things) and Fashion History (17th to 19th centuries), as well as a three hour class at the end to catch up on things, so we're there 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, I only have one two-hour class, and that's French 3. Wednesdays I have off, so we usually do homework, go to the fabric district, do laundry (SO EXPENSIVE HERE. Like, 8 euros per load!), and generally take a breather. Thursday is another 9 to 6 day, with Draping in the morning, then Textiles class, Costume Research, and some other class I don't know the name of in the evening. Thursdays are our days with Xavier. Xavier is your typical French man--kind of catty, wears all black, acts like sunshine could turn him to dust... He has his own knitwear line and works for Yiqing Yin, a major Fashion designer who was selected to run a Haute Couture show this year. He pushes SO hard in terms of the creative thought process. He makes us go so far out of our comfort zone that it feels like we need a rope just to get back. Right now, for him, we're designing a garment out of "things we hate," a silhouette entirely from squares and triangles (no darts! no curves! NO CHEATING!), and a garment based on images of our favorite place (he just told us that we will have to use these images to create a garment out of "camouflage," in any sense of the word). Fridays we have Xavier in the morning for Illustration, and Martine in the afternoon for more Haute Couture. Martine is the sweetest thing! She only speaks French, so she and I have a lot of fun conversations (yesterday we had to peel an orange in one go, trace the pattern, and cut out fabric to sew it back together into a ball. SO MUCH HARDER THAN IT SOUNDS. But the cloth was green, so we decided that it looked, LITERALLY, like un petit chou!). For 20 years, Martine worked for Madame Grey, whose factory burned down some time ago. Madame Grey is a legend in the fashion industry for her pleating techniques. Martine is one of only TWO PEOPLE LEFT who know the techniques, and she's the ONLY one willing to teach them to others! It's such an amazing opportunity to learn from her. At any rate, two of our professors only speak French, one prefers French due to her self-proscribed "horrible" English (not true, but I let it go), and Xavier learned English in London. I get a lot of opportunities to practice my French! Below are some pictures of our classroom.

Squares and Triangles dress that I'm conceptualizing

Of course, it's not ALL work and no play. Last weekend, Jasmine, Caine, Elise, Phoebe (also from Melbourne), Chantalle (from Lebanon) and I went to the Luxembourg Gardens by our apartment. They were so beautiful. The sculptures alone made up for the fact that it was about 20* outside and snowy. By the way, where has Warm Paris gone? I'm constantly told, "Paris is never this cold! This is so unusual for us!" However, I've yet to see a day that is both above 30* AND sunny. Ah, I guess I should know better. I mean, I AM from Oregon, after all--Land of the Rain... 


Elise, Jasmine and I went to a Tibetan restaurant right next door to our apartment last night. I love the French--their customs are, at times, so different from our own, yet they still make SENSE. For instance, if you want your server's attention, you must ASK for it, as the French don't believe in "rushing" their customers. You have to ask for the check when you want it, because they don't want you to feel like you have to leave! I was talking to the owner, and she was telling us how everything was homemade. I was so impressed! I did make a little faux pas without knowing it, though--I asked her if the ice cream was homemade as well, as it was the BEST chocolate ice cream I'd ever tried--she started laughing and said, "You must be joking me!" Then she left. Oops... It's okay, though--most French people are pretty understanding. I mean, I feel like it means more to them that you're actively trying to speak the language, and not just forcing your own culture on them. I can totally understand that. I've worked in retail for quite some time, and I know that if someone foreign comes up to me and tries to insist that I speak his language and not my own, I would do my best, but I'd be a little insulted.


Anyways, I'll leave you with some fun pictures of the Gardens and us goofing around at our flat. It's a beautiful day outside, I think we're going to do some shopping today! Tonight should be fun as well; it's Thelma (from Iceland)'s birthday, so we're having a get together at a friend's house. That reminds me... I'll have to pick up some wine for her gift! Bonne journée!

Caine rocking the headphones and mustache

Jasmine's oh-so-healthy dinner

Caine's addictions

Our ever-growing quote wall

The Luxembourg Gardens

Chantalle and I

Bienvenu à Classe!

Yesterday, Caine, her dad, and I went to see Notre Dame de Paris and La Tour Eiffel. Notre Dame was lovely; we ended up going during their mass (which was absolutely amazing, by the way). The architecture is just fantastic. I was a super smart person and decided against wearing a coat (daring, n'est pas?) and was, as a result, super freaking cold. But it was all worth it: we went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower and saw the wonder that is Paris from above.

Today we started classes officially. I had Haute Couture sewing, Fashion History (due to a scheduling mix up, we all managed to MISS this class... Oops), and Pattern Making/Draping. We ended up going to an art store and a fabric store in the shopping district of Paris for that last class so that we could get all of our supplies at a reasonable price. I met a lot of great people; a girl from Boston and a girl from Melbourne live in the apartment two floors above us, and we bonded with them pretty well. We're all going out tomorrow night. I also got to know a girl from London, a girl from Iran, a girl from Lebanon, a girl from Mexico, a girl from New York, and a girl from Paris.

Exposure has done wonders for my French. I'm able to converse with the shop keepers without being laughed out of the store, and Lea, from Paris, let's me speak French to her while she speaks back in English. It's fantastic--she's so sweet. She told me that Parisians really do like it when you try to speak with them in French; it makes them more open-minded about what you have to say to see that you're trying. Today, after classes, Caine and I went to the grocery store and the boulangerie and got stuff to make grilled cheese, pasta, cereal, etc... Bread is so great and so cheap here. I got a chocolate brioche, a regular brioche, and two croissants for four euros.

Tomorrow morning, we'll all get up bright and early and be in class by 8:30 to do a special dyeing workshop. We'll be doing Shibori dyeing on silk, which involves wrapping layers of cloth around a board (or wine bottle in our case), painting on colors, and then taking them away in layers. The effects can look something like the picture below (credited to http://tondro.com/archive/2005_10_01_archive.html).

We then have a three hour break, but we have to be back at the school by 3:15 in order to get ready for our first runway show! We'll be backstage at Basil Soda (www.basilsoda.com), dressing the models. We've been instructed to wear our blacks, minimal makeup, no jewelry, hair up... Much like tech work on plays. Basil Soda is absolutely amazing, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Oh my gosh, this is so amazing! We're really hitting the ground running. To give you a quick preview of Basil Soda's style, here is a dress from his Fall 2011 line.

à bientôt!

Quand en Paris...

So yesterday morning, I woke up at about 7:30 a.m. and got ready to hop on my plane to Paris. After a near-heart-attack from the woman at the check in gate over my visa (she didn't know how to read the dates, as they're backwards from the US) and a tearful goodbye with Thane and my mother, I boarded my plane to Minneapolis (a 45 minute flight). In Minneapolis, I had a four hour layover, after which I got on my Air France flight to Paris (a 7 1/2 hour flight). I couldn't sleep on the plane due to a headache, and I finally got out of the airport and into a cab at 8:30 a.m. Paris time (1:30 a.m. Des Moines time).

Paris is actually a lot like any other major city. It has some seriously shady parts visible from the high ways. There's graffiti on every overpass. The drivers are scary and inconsiderate. I don't think I saw one speed limit sign on my way here. Honestly, I will never ever want to drive in Paris--it's terrifying. My cab driver nearly hit the other cars at least ten times because everyone's cutting each other off and speeding up at ridiculous moments. Best part: my cab sped up to 40 mph for five seconds, then jerked to a stop in order to not hit two crossing policemen (pedestrians), and nearly sped up again and toppled over them because they were walking too slow. The policemen didn't even wince--they just held up a hand and kept talking among themselves as they crossed.

We got to PAA, and I met a few of the instructors/people in charge. They're all very nice! I'm set up in a temporary apartment with Caine until February 1, and after that we'll be in an apartment across the street from PAA. The apartment we're currently in is gorgeous. The owner told us it was actually built by his great-great uncle during the Directoire for the Revolution in the early 1800's, and it was built atop a recently destroyed convent, which was in turn built atop the ruins of a Roman villa. So the basement is totally stone, and you can see the different phases in the stone--2nd century AD at the bottom, 16th century in the middle, and 19th century at the top. The entire place is just gorgeous.

Paris itself is lovely. Caine, her father, and I went to lunch at a small restaurant a few blocks down. We even ordered in French! The waitress was surprisingly patient, but I think she was still rather annoyed despite our best efforts. The food was fantastic as well. I had a salad with apple slices, tomatoes, onions, and a vinaigrette, and it was served with a round of camembart, warmed and topped with honey. Good Lord, it was fantastic. I also had a chocolat chaud... Even the lowest common denominator of hot chocolates in Paris are miles ahead of the US!

Caine, her father, and I have plans to go to Normandy by train tomorrow and see Deauville, which should be fantastic. Deauville is where the famed film, "Un Homme et Une Femme," was shot by director Claude Lelouch. It was honestly one of my favorite films from my French Cinema course a few years back. And of course, who could forget the song?

On Sunday, we'll be touring Paris proper. Monday we start classes with orientation at 9 a.m., and from the sound of things, it seems as though we'll be working a runway show on Tuesday as well. How fantastic is that?

And on that note, I have officially gone 29 hours without sleep. I think something needs to be done about that. One last parting shot for you all: