Wow! I can't believe I've already been in Paris for a week! Time is flying by, but I guess that's what happens when you are busy and having the time of your life! In my last post, I was getting ready to work the Dany Atrache fashion show at the Ritz. The Ritz was by far one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever been. The hallways were filled with display cases of Dior, Goultier, Chanel, Cartier, and many more high-end designers. Everywhere you turned there were HUGE fresh floral arrangements that smelled wonderful. The fashion show was held in a courtyard at the Ritz. While the designer may not be very personable, he is extremely talented! His gowns were all absolutely amazing. It was a haute couture show with 37 pieces. All the garments had an extreme amount of detailing, from beading to sequins, from crystals to lace, and beyond. Each model had only one dresser and 3 garments to wear on the runway. Since I was a dresser, I was able to go behind the scenes to see the models get their hair and make-up done, do a run-through, and see the garments up close before they hit the runway. The anticipation of dressing 3 looks for the show by myself was more than intimidating. The garments were all so beautiful and delicate that I was nervous to even touch them, even more to dress them (especially when the models are in stilettos that can easily rip tulle and lace). All said and done, the show was a success! Dressing was an amazing experience filled with a lot of adrenaline and excitement. To celebrate the successful show, some of the PAA girls went out to dinner at a small French restaurant, then returned home to relax for the rest of the night.
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| Me with my model from Romania, Diana, at Dany Atrache |
On the morning of Thursday, July 7, we went to an art/fashion exhibit by a modern artist, Hussein Chalayan. While the actual construction of the pieces were quite outstanding in some cases and his creativity was undoubtedly present, the actual exhibit and the concept of the pieces was a little to "out there" for me. In my opinion, Chalayan is more of an artist than a fashion designer. He uses fashion as a medium to express other, deeper thoughts and ideas about life and reality. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos since we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit. I guess you just have to trust me on this one....
After the Chalayan exhibit, we had a class with a new professor that is actually from Missouri. She taught us the dyeing technique called shibori. Shibori can be called "tie-dye", but it is a lot more professional than what you think of normally, such as the hippie t-shirts with rainbow colors. To learn the technique, we made scarves in the colors we wanted on a piece of silk. Sharon is an AMAZING professor. She is extremely passionate about what she does and is really fun to work with. When making the shibori, we dyed the silk in a base color first, then wrapped and pleated it around a wine bottle. After that, we discharged the outside color that is not in the pleats, painted it with more colors, and left it to dry. I will finally get to see what my completed scarf looks like on Tuesday!
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| After the pretty color was discharged (not on the outside anymore) |
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| After "cooking" the scarves in the microwave |
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| Completed scarves left to dry for the weekend (mine is in the middle) |
Well, it is 2 AM in Paris right now, so I will post about the rest of my weekend adventures tomorrow. I still cannot believe this is reality right now. I am having an amazing time and cannot wait to see what else I learn! Bonne Nuit!
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