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!