Another Week and Weekend Gone

Tuesday we didn't have Susan, so we had Muriel in class. We worked on our pants/skirts, and I got the waistband completely sewn to the pants. I basted the hems of each leg, as well as the top of the belt (so that I can evenly stitch the belt facing to the top of the pants). Muriel told us that we needed to have it done by Monday (?!), but it sounds like nobody will get their piece done on time. (Andrea had said that she wouldn't get hers done in time, since Muriel ripped hers completely off the mannequin, even though she still has to finish! I couldn't believe it!)
In the afternoon, after the rest of working on the pants, we had French class, where we talked about the slang of French youth. Then, we moved to our Art History classroom where we watched a movie called "L'Esquive", which was about young people in the (low-income) suburbs. The dialogue was really fast, and we were all having trouble picking it up. Nolwenn said that we'd watch more of it next week. After class, I went down into the computer lab and worked on my revamped mood board.
That night, Nisa had invited me over to her apartment to eat dinner! She made some Malaysian food (which were all really good), and we watched Sweet Home Alabama. (Funny, I come all the way across the ocean to see a movie about the South. But I plan on seeing There Will Be Blood and maybe No Country for Old Men while I'm here, so why not?) After we were finished with dinner, I took some pictures of her to use for my croquis, and we had some good girl talk (as usual). I love her, she's so awesome! (I feel like I've "bonded" the most with her and Sharon, and not so much with the other 3 American study-abroad students here. Maybe because Nisa, Sharon and I are most individuals.)
Wednesday, we had Anne and we worked on our evening wear. I started planning out my pattern for it, and it looks like I'm going to have 20 panels (wow!). I devised a system to number the pieces (instead of naming them) so that they would match up. I then draped the bodice part of it.
Since I had that afternoon off, I spent the time scanning in pictures for my (also) revamped color board. I worked until the French I class was out, and Liz and Nisa came down. I also worked on my sketches for Jen's class that night, since we needed 10 drawings of shoes and/or bags for Friday.
Thursday, we actually had our regular teacher (Anne) for our regular class (Flat Pattern and Draping), imagine that! I took the bodice for my dress off the mannequin, took off the ribbons marking the panels and traced over the lines where the ribbons were, using my ruler and French curve. In the afternoon portion, I began draping the skirt part. I mostly just cut long pieces of muslin and attached them to the bodice. I didn't even get that done, so I have more to do next time.
After class, I worked on my color board in the computer lab, and got that done as I like it. (Now, I just have to print out that, my mood board, and an enlarged photo of me in the bra, for Susan. Unfortunately, the computer has been out of the magenta cartridge for a few days. I've told Jean-Michel and someone else, but as of Friday morning, there was still no magenta cartridge. So it's back to Copie Saint-Jacques I go.)
Friday morning, we had Stylism with Jen. After she had outlined what our accessories project would entail (a lot of sketches of specific-use bags and shoes, as well as making one bag), she walked around the room and looked at our sketches (and noted down that we had EXACTLY 10). When she got to me, her general comments were that I was getting "too conceptual" with the bags and needed to make it more commercial, and that my shoes were more along the lines of what she would like to see (i.e. not as conceptual). I also asked her about redoing my draped piece, and she said that I could do a few dodecahedrons in various sizes in paper (yay...not). I wasn't feeling particularly inspired (and hadn't when I had drawn my sketches), and so looked through a couple of magazines and talked with Sharon. At about 10 am, Jen asked us if we'd prefer to go to a couple of accessories places (rather than sitting and sketching) so that we could look around and get some ideas. Field trip? You bet we were up for it! And guess where she'd told us we'd go? Marc Jacobs! (Because if we're going to do accessories, we might as well glean information from a modern master.) I ran back to get my purse/tickets, and we rode the bus to Palais Royal.
As it turns out, the Marc Jacobs store is on this tiny, deserted side street. (Sharon and I were talking about this. It seems to be deliberately placed there, instead of on a busy, fashionable street, because they only want the people who actually seek them out with intention to buy, rather than just wander in. That was my idea on it, at least.) When we got there, we split into 2 groups (so as not to overwhelm the salespeople), and Jen, Sharon and I went into Marc Jacobs first. We got to see the frog bags that Jen had told us about (the frogs were usually gold, silver or jeweled and were perched near the clasp). He used a lot of vibrant colors in medium hues, such as kelly green, purple and bright yellow (which I hear is supposed to be the big color this season). All of his stuff was really beautiful, and it was great and inspiring to see how accessories SHOULD be done. We also looked at his kids stuff (Little Marc Jacobs), which were so cute that I kind of wished he made the boys' tees and girls' flats in adult sizes. (Seriously, there was this one pair of flats that were made to look like a mouse! It had little metallic buttons for eyes and a nose, and little whiskers coming out the sides; really the only thing it didn't have was a tail in the back. I could just picture myself dressing my-future, hypothetical daughter in those. Not that I'd blow my money on that for my kid, since I'd be more likely to just buy a pair of flats and paste on some googly-eyes or something. I don't know what it is, but I'm imagining more about having young kids lately. Of course, it might just be seeing all these cute kids bundled up over here, and I could revert back to my "normal" self once I return to the States. But I think, nay, know my mom will be pleased about this!)
After we were done in Marc Jacobs, the groups switched places, and the three of us went down the street to Martin Margella (Mardella? I'm a little unclear on the exact name). This place was completely different from Marc Jacobs. It was a little bit more conceptual and minimalistic. For one thing, you have to descend to below street level to get into the place. Once you're in, the tinkling doorbell announces your presence, and an Asian lady in emo glasses and wearing a lab coat greets you. Everything was very pared-down, in terms of decoration, the sole concession being a small movie theatre in the back that showed the runway show on a loop. I thought some stuff was cool (like the plastic mesh belt), but it was too...clinically clean for me, what with all the white and lab coats and what not. (On the other hand, they did get their point across very effectively.)
After that, the whole group met up again, and we decided to go to Collette, and uber-trendy that I had heard about but hadn't been there. Well, Collette really reminded me of Urban Outfitters. It's like if people in their teens who frequented Urban Outfitters grew up into their twenties, got a bit darker/moodier/edgy and serious, and cared more about designer labels, they'd be Collette's target market. This place has music, cool books, jewelry, and perfume on the lower level. Upstairs is where all the designer clothes are. I had a great time taking it all in (and occasionally sneaking a peek at the prices). I saw another pair of flats that I liked. They were half-black, half-white, so that the inside half of each was white and the outside of each was black. (On seeing them, the first thing I immediately thought of that Seinfeld episode where the four are going to attend a dinner party and spend the whole episode waiting for a chocolate babka. Jerry gets a black-and-white cookie and shares his idea on racial harmony. "Look to the cookie!" I swear, I don't know how my mind works, I make the most random connections.)
After we were done with Colette, Jen suggested we go to Miu Miu, so we walked down the street there. (This was Rue de Foubourg-Saint-Honore, where all the big places, except Marc Jacobs, have their shops.) Miu Miu was doing some great harlequin diamond prints in very warm hues, mostly of purples and rubies. The shoes were absolutely beautiful, and they ranged from wedges (some with carved motifs in the heels) to stilettos. (Initially, I had doubts about the red-purple combination, but they definitely pulled it off, I loved it!)
After Miu Miu, Jen left us, and I walked with Sharon and Rikard back to the metro to go back to school. On the way, we talked about traveling and I learned something really interesting. Rikard was saying that the big thing for the kids to do these days is do is to go to Thailand or Vietnam, instead of traveling within the European Union. He said that this is so common, restaurants in Thailand will have menus in Swedish! I thought that was pretty amazing. (It reminded me of the "Mean Girls" part where Cady gives the Kalteen bar to Regina, and Regina exclaims that "it's all in Swedish or something!" To which Cady replies, "Yeah, everyone in Africa can read Swedish". Random connections, I tell you...)
We got back to school just before Hats class, so I got my stuff and went to class. We made a hat with our straw-like fabric. We first had to cut it to a certain length, and then pleat it, leaving some of the ends loose. We then gathered the ends, and used the excess as decoration. I ended up making a few loose roses and used some of Beliz's pink fabric to accent my deep red hat.
After class, I just chilled, and that night, I planned a trip for the 2-week break! I decided to go to Rome (to see the Colusseum and Trevi Fountain, and whatever else) and Madrid (to see the Boschs in the Prado Museum and eat some paella). I booked flights for all of them on RyanAir, and booked hostels as well. The only sticking point is that I accidentally booked a flight a day earlier than intended. I went back and booked the correct flight, but need to call the airlines to cancel that flight and see if I can get money back or something. I'M EXCITED!!!
Saturday was kind of intense. All I did was work on my pants. I spent the majority of the time sewing (by hand) the belt facing to the pants. This took awhile, because not only was it done by hand, but some of my edges were pretty short and kept coming out, so I had to go back and fix certain areas a few times. Seriously, that took me about 5 hours. From there, I was too burned out to do anything else, and so just bummed around the rest of the night.
Today (Sunday), I sewed the hems on each of the pant legs, and then pinned the gloves in their (potential) position. I also redid that one illustration that Susan didn't like, as well as painted in legs for applicable illustrations (this excludes the Cannes ones, since those are all long dresses). I also talked to my parents, and wrote this.

Easter Weekend

This weekend was a 3-day weekend for us (we had Monday off), which was much needed after our stressed week.
Saturday morning, I got up fairly early, had breakfast and headed out to do some errands. I first walked past the church of Saint Sulpice to the Village Voice, an English bookshop. (I had been there before with Harlan, and had seen a book that I was interested in buying.) I bought "The Book of Other People", which contains short stories each centering around one specific character,edited by Zadie Smith. It had a lot of great authors that submitted stories, such Dave Eggers (not a surprise, since the book benefits one of his organizations), Daniel Clowes, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Smith herself. I'd been feeling the urge to read lately (since I really haven't since I've arrived), not just "to read" but as an alternative to spending my time on work when I'm already sick of doing...work. I've paged through it and it looks good, but I have yet to sit down and read an entire story.
After Village Voice, guess where I went? Give up? American Apparel. Now why would I go there (in Paris), when I could just as easily go there in the States, you ask? Be still, there is a method to my madness: My good friend Mark (whom I miss dearly) asked me what my tee shirt size in American Apparel was (apparently, he's embellishing a shirt for me or something). I didn't know, and so decided to go to one, try on a shirt and report back. Since Paris has about 7 of them within the city itself, I chose the one in the 6th arrondissement, which is closest to me. It turned out that it was a street away from the Village Voice. It was my first time actually inside an American Apparel store, and I can tell you that I definitely wouldn't have gone there on my own. (Nothing about the decor or the clothes appealed to me. I think it was because it was trying too hard to be "hip", not to mention too '80s and metallic. But I was on a mission, so I just did what I normally do in these kinds of situations: pretended I was a sociologist, taking mental field notes.) I tried on a tee and left. (I later warned Mark that if he even thought of getting me those shimmery metallic "nylon tricot leggings", our friendship would have to be terminated. Fortunately, he assured me that I would just be getting a tee shirt.)
Since I really had nothing else to do that day (except work, but that's a given), I decided to wander up Saint-Germain, since there are a lot of clothing boutiques around there (also lots of interior design places). I stopped at one place called Sinequanone that I had visited with Harlan to look around, and ended up trying on 2 dresses, one flowy purple (perfect for summer), and one black and white with a sweetheart neckline. I really wanted to buy at least one, and my undecided mind wasn't helped by the very nice salesgirl, who was getting me sweaters and pin-on flowers (that she told me is the thing in Paris now) to go with them. At one point, she asked me if I was French and I replied that I was actually American. She looked surprised and told me that I spoke very well (since we had speaking back and forth the entire time), and asked why I was here. I said for school, she asked if it was the Sorbonne (default choice, I guess), and I told her it was the Paris American Academy. She then asked where in America I was from, first guessing New York and Los Angeles. I told her North Carolina, and she knew it because of One Tree Hill! So that was pretty cool. I ended up buying the purple dress, and thanked her for her help.
I also went into another place I had seen around, called Zadig & Voltaire. I had seen some of their clothing at Galleries Lafayette, and was interested in checking it out more. They had a store on Saint-Germain, so I went in. It was a lot of cashmere (so trop chere, pretty expensive) and kind of reminded me of Urban Outfitters, but a little more subdued in their color palette and product lines, and not quite the amount of product proliferation. I had originally considered getting something from there (since I really like Voltaire, after reading "Candide"), but the prices kind of ruled out that idea. Oh, well.
After walking awhile, I decided to walk up Rue du Bac, up towards the Seine and the Musee d'Orsay (which was the sign that I was following). When I got to the Quai de Voltaire (which runs along the Seine), the Musee d'Orsay was directly on my left. It was a good reconaissance mission, so now I know how long it takes to walk there (even though I'd probably take the metro there).
Then, I walked back the way I came, and then going one street further Rue Saint-Jacques. I stopped at Berty's to get a couple of mechanical pencils (which I've grown to like), taking a new route back: I took Rue du Gay-Lussac in the other direction, thinking it would connect to Rue du Claude Bernard, and I was right! (I was so proud of me!) I ran into Sharon, who was out for a run, and then went back to the apartment. Then, I decided to do some laundry, and proceeded to do that for the better part of my evening. But I decided to go to bed early for the service tomorrow.
Sunday morning (Easter), I went to a service at Notre Dame! It was really beautiful. I left the room at around 9:30 am for the 10 am service, thinking I'd be able to get a good seat by starting out early. I took the RER B there, and arrived at about 9:45 am. There was a huge line waiting to get into the sanctuary, but it moved quickly and we were soon inside. Wow! It was totally packed with people, and I stood the entire time (but I'm young and can handle it, so I didn't mind). From what I could follow of the service, it was pretty much the same one we'd have back in the States: opening, various prayers, offering, communion (of which I partook), dismissal. Even though I'm not great a recognizing (foreign) words when they're said to me (I can absorb them better written), I could follow the gist of what was happening.
The service ended at about 11:20 am, and I decided to go to the Champs-Elysees, since I had only seen it during the van tour about a month ago. I walked up and down the street, and took some pictures of L'Arc de Triomphe. (I know I need to come back to actually go up the Arc and take 360-degree pictures from the top. I also want to get a macaroon from Laduree, a famous pastry shop that supplied the sweets for Sophia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette". Speaking of Marie Antoinette, there's an exhibit about her in the Grand Palais, right by the Champs-Elysees, which I intend on seeing when I have the time.) I stopped and had a sandwich and hit chocolate at a nearby cafe, and then went to the Franklin D. Roosevelt metro stop. While waiting, a lady came up and asked me, in French, if this was the line that went to Trocadero, right by La Tour Eiffel. (Once again, someone asking for directions in what they presume to be my native country!) I said yes (I didn't know how to explain about the metro changes), but fortunately, she didn't question me further, and went to talk to her companions (in French, so that;s when I suspected she was a native).
I got back at about 1:30 pm, and sat down to do something I'd needed to do for awhile: applying for internships. I had identified the ones I liked on FashionInternships.net, so I looked at the requirements for each and wrote cover letters for each, as well as made a spreadsheet that will chronicle how each one is doing (all wonderful ideas courtesy of Kent). That took up most of the afternoon, so I again went to bed early.
Today (Easter Monday) was a work day. I first sent out my various cover letters and resumes, being sure to double-check everything. Then, I did some research on quilting techniques for Susan's class (even though we have a break from her until the beginning of April, yay!). I also began and finished on of our 3 samples for that class. (It's an all-over design, outlined with your basic running stitch. It sounds simple, but it took me most of the day to do it. Andrea came back at about 5 pm from Amsterdam, and then I went out to Monoprix for some much-needed milk and other stuff.
I wonder what we're even doing tomorrow since Susan's not here...I guess I'll find out.

That Was The (Critique) Week That Was

1 week. 2 critiques. Major stress, minor sleep.
Monday morning, we worked on our pants with Muriel during Sewing. I worked on making my waistband and sidebands match up. I actually lined up the fabric lines this time! I was very excited and proud of myself. We did the same thing in the afternoon, and then I went to Art History, where we learned about Minimalism. When we viewed some slides, Eva discovered that with some black-and-white striped ones, you could see rainbows if you looked away fast enough. It was pretty trippy, and we spent some time discussing this.
(Interestingly, since we had a critique for Susan the next day, a lot of people didn't come to class. I was the only fashion person in Art History.)
That night, my parents took me to an Italian place on Saint-Michel for dinner, a really good place called Mezza Luna. I got some salmon with pasta, and I communicated Mom's orders to our waiter and waitress. We decided to order dessert, and I asked for the dessert menu. When our waitress came back, she said (in French) that since I could speak well, I got the French menu, and Mom and Dad got the English menu! That was pretty cool. (Dad understood that he and Mom had been "dissed", as he put it, and we explained it to Mom after the waitress left.)
We had a short dinner since I had to go back and put my stuff together for Susan the next day. I spent time mounting my maquettes, colors, and bra photograph, and then did my moodboard. I went to bed at about 4 am.
The next day, we each spread our stuff out and walked around to each person's spot and Susan made comments and told us what we needed to fix for the next time we saw her (in about 2 weeks). It was great to see what everyone else had done, so that I could glean improvements for my own work. (Let me say, Liz has the most impeccable flats I have ever seen. I know that I tend to get asked if I do mine on the computer-I don't-but mine have nothing on hers. Her lines were so clean! I'll have to ask how she does it.) For mine, she really liked my flats and bra photograph, prouncing it to be "one of the best in the class". She told me to redo my moodboard (since it looked "a little schoolgirl" and also had some despised white space) and to redo 1 of my flats (admittedly, 1 I dashed off and didn't like much). In short, she praised what I liked and cared about the most. I got a 16.5 (out of a possible 20), which is pretty good, considering that she doesn't (or at least very rarely) gives 20s.
That took up the whole morning, and when we came back for lunch, she told us about our next project. We would be quilting an evening bag (to go with our evening dress), and used the rest of class to gather materials for our samples. Susan also came around to look at our flats and pick out which one we would do as a project. For mine, I told her that I preferred 4 of them (2 disco, 2 Cannes), she narrowed it down to 2 (both Cannes), and I picked my favorite (which had been my favorite all along). She had originally told me to do them in jersey, but this time, she changed her mind and decided that satin would be good (since jersey requires a special machine that the PAA does not have, and satin would look beautiful).
In French late that afternoon, we discussed the French political system, and did an exercise where we had a map of Paris and shaded in the arrondissements according to if the victory had gone to the PS (Parti Socialiste, the left), l'UMP (Unite Majorite Parti, the right) or les Verts (the Green Party, but not like the Libertarians, because the French Green Party only cares about the environment). It was interesting to see that the eastern part of Paris voted left, and the western part voted right, all except for the lone 2nd, which voted Green.
(We also had some hilarity in there, courtesy of yours truly. Nolwenn was talking, using some vocabulary which I wasn't sure of, and I thought that I heard her say the name of a popular French car, the Citroen. I asked, "Like the car?" and Sharon, next to me, cracked up. Nolwenn actually said "citoyen", the work for citizen. This has happened before, incidentally also with Sharon present. I had thought I had heard someone ask her if she was a model (une mannequin), but they had actually asked if she was American (americaine). Might be some synchronicity going on here...)
That night, my parents and I went out for a long dinner to celebrate. I took them down to Saint-Severin, near the Seine, since I wanted to take them to the same place that I had gone with Nisa, since it had been great. After some wrong turns, we decided to settle on one place. It turned out to be La Harpe, the same place! (I was very happy to have found it again.) We all got the fixed-price menu, with entree, plat and dessert. I (again) got the frogs' legs in Provencal sauce, salmon in sorrel sauce, and profiteroles in hot chocolate. Since it had been a long and grueling day, I got some kir as an apertif before dinner, which was pretty good. On the way back, we walked around the area, which has a lot of walkable cobblestone streets with lots of restaurants, where waiters stand outside and try to lure people inside. We found Theatre de la Huchette, where they are still performing Ionesco's "The Bald Soprano", in its 51st year, according to the poster. I might have to go back and see it sometime.
After the 'rents walked me back, I decided to start painting my Yohji-inspired designs that were due Friday. But for some reason, it (the gouache, and the creativity) just wasn't flowing for me that night. My paintings all looked heavy. I stopped after 9 paintings (I needed 15) and it was around 2 am when I went to bed.
Wednesday with Muriel, we worked more with our pants. I spent more time on the waistband, and next time I'll be able to sew my gloves on! It'll be exciting.
After class, I went to my apartment, changed, and took the metro to Opera Garnier, where I met Mom and Dad on the steps. We went to Galleries Lafayette, where we had lunch at the (really nice) cafeteria. I had chicken with fries (garlic potato wedges) and a chocolate feuillantine for dessert. Fantastic. (The last time, I was there with Mom, and I had gotten the salmon, which had been excellent. But at this point, I had already had salmon 2 days in a row, so I thought it'd be good to give myself a break so I'd still like it.)
After lunch, Mom wanted to show Dad the "seduction fashion", the very artistic lingerie that surpassed being clothes into being art (as Dad said later). One of the most interesting things I saw was a plain white, Swiss-dot nightgown. What intrigued me about this piece was that it was very modest, so it looked pretty out of place. Maybe it was for the French Mormon population (which I'm sure is huge...not), but I was wondering how popular those modest items are. Considering that this is a country that has absolutely no problem with nudity, I wonder just how many natural-born French women are clamoring for these more modest items, even just to be "different"?
Mom and I looked around Galleries Lafayette for awhile, and I wasn't seeing anything that I liked. (The plan had been to get me a nice piece of clothing for my birthday, but the crappy exchange rate was making that difficult.) I suggested going to BHV for clothes, since they had pretty nice ones, so we collected Dad and went there. I found about 6 pieces I liked (most of them dresses) and went to go try them on. I wasn't impressed until the final one. It was a white dress printed with black silhouetted flowers, that hit below the knee. It had some interesting detailing around the bust, in that there were 2 gathered panels that crossed and then tied in the back. I knew immediately that I wanted that one, and so began to change back. As I was looking at the dress, I noticed it had a stain of something down the side. I told Mom, and she went looking for another in the same size. Thank God they had one! We bought it, and then went back to Mom and Dad's hotel room to relax (where I took a nap). We got up and decided to go out for dinner. We went to the Cafe Soufflot (definitely becoming one of my favorite places), where I got the confit de canard (good, but not as good as at L'Oree du Parc), and 2 scoops of cassis sorbet for dessert. (Harlan had told me that she had eaten a cassis macaroon while she had been here. I'll be on the lookout for one.) Then my parents walked me back (they left the next morning), and I worked on my flats, and, again, the creativity was not flowing; I don't know why, I felt suddenly too heavy-handed with the gouache.
The next day (Thursday), we had Flat Pattern and Draping with Anne. She first looked at each of our sketches and advised us on how to do the pattern. For mine, she told me to drape a basic bodice (yay more draping practice!) and then to divide it into panels from there. But first, I drew it out from front, back and side views, so I could see how the panels matched up. Before lunch, I got the back piece draped, and I did the front piece when I came back. Anne told me that I had pinned it "beautifully", and so I took it off the mannequin and traced in the lines with my ruler and French curve. (I'm afraid it might be off, though, because the dart is huge and has a weird shape.)
After class, I took a nap and then trekked to Monoprix to get groceries (like the ever-important dairy products). On the way back, I stopped at the fromagerie (cheese shop) by the Parthenon, and got munster with cumin. (One thing I've noticed: Many shopkeepers will specifically ask you for exact change here. I'm perfectly willing to unload any of my 40 Euros of change whenever I can, but hey, if I want to pay with a bill, that is also my prerogative.)
I then went home, had dinner, and started my draping piece. (I had technically started it a few weeks ago, and had taken the paper back. But since Harlan had been there, it got pushed to the ground under the bed, and was so crumpled that I couldn't use it.) The idea was to make a few boxes of varying sizes, glue them down to paper, and then cut the paper around them in an interesting manner. Did I mention the boxes were in paper as well? The last time I worked in that medium was 1st semester of design school, and it did not go well. This time was no exception to the rule. All of my 5 boxes turned out lopsided, and I had to pin 1 or 2 corners of them to the paper, and then tape the pins onto the underside of the paper. Quite frankly, it looked like crap, crap that you'd never know I worked 4 hours on. I ended it about 2 am and went to bed.
I woke up this (Friday) morning to hear it pouring rain outside (which is rare, since it has sprinkled for, at most, 15 minutes here), so I immediately thought of what I was going to do with the "draped" paper project. I ended up wrapping it up in 2 trash bags and carrying it to school.
In class, we each presented out inspiration book, illustrations and draped piece to Jen and the rest of the class. I was 2nd after Liz, and I made it clear from the beginning that I wasn't happy with my draped piece and wanted to redo it for the end-of-year jury. (Jen wasn't grading us today, just telling us what we could improve on. It also didn't help that I went right after Liz, who also made a draped piece out of paper, but totally put mine to shame.) I was told to vary up my pieces in the collection a bit (since they all had relatively the same hemline), and to add pants/jackets, etc. Everyone else's stuff looked really good, but a lot of people didn't finish since we were all working on Susan's stuff. I certainly got more ideas for what to do in my projects. (I now want to do my draped piece as a dodecahedron, which figured in my collection. Po-Lan had done a beautiful sleeve with points spiraling out, and I really liked it. Jen told me to do one in paper, and one in muslin, my preferred medium, for Friday and we'd decide from there.)
After lunch, we had Hats with Jean-Pierre. I was the only one of the 4 who showed up (since Liz and Andrea had gone to Amsterdam, and Ashley isn't taking it), along with Beliz, Tu, Tenzin and Po-Lan. We went to go get supplies, so we took the bus to this place by the Opera called Ultramod that sells a of supplies. We all amused ourselves by looking at all the shiny buttons while Jean-Pierre took care of some business in the back. Then, we went across the street to his shop. We looked at a lot of his supplies, and he told us that many were made of rabbit skin. We each bought a basic hat (mine was black), some stiff material for another hat (mine was reddish with a tinge of purple) and lengths of bands for the inside and outsides.
After we had all gotten our materials, Jean-Pierre took us to a hat-making atelier, one of only 3 in the world (so this guy gets a ton of business, as evidenced by his photos of recent work for Dior). We toured his shop while he explained everything, mostly about making the wooden heads for the hats and the massive amount of lumber he had in the back. He was also talking about how it was a dying trade, since it takes so many years to become masterful, and you don't make a lot of money at first, and a lot of the young people just aren't interested in it. (In response to a question by Beliz, he said that he had a daughter who was pretty little yet, but that she wasn't interested in her dad's work).
When we left, Jean-Pierre left us, and Tu invited me to come along with the others to an Asian tea that they apparently go to quite often, called Tea Zoo. I got the banana bubble tea, with the mousse au chocolat made with green tea at a fixed price. It was really fun to hang out with them, a good change, and I'd like to do so again.
After we left the tea bar, Tu, Po-Lan and I took the bus back to school. Po-Lan and I sat together and talked about school and stuff, the first time I'd ever really talked to him. We all separated at the school and wished each other a good break (woo 3-day weekend!).
I decided to go to the Louvre tonight, since Friday nights are free for students and open late. I looked up beforehand what rooms I wanted to see (Boucher, Watteau, basically rococco), and took the metro there. I first went in the wrong wing that didn't go up to the second floor, and then I thought I could just walk across to the other wing. (I thought wrong, I had to exit one wing and enter another). They also had the sections I wanted to see closed! (That happened the last time, and I had been hoping to avoid it.)
I also had some trouble with the map. Half of it was that I didn't know that I couldn't cut into one wing from another. When I decided that I wanted to leave, it took me a good 40 minutes to actually emerge into the lobby. I eventually discovered my error after leaving: The floors are (going down) 2nd, 1st, Ground and Lower Ground. I had thought that the way to get out was on the ground floor, and the signs that led to the Louvre Mideval section were to a level below that one that you leave through. Well, no, it turns that Lower Ground level was the one that I wanted. Now I know for next time (and there will be a next time).
I'm looking forward to relaxing tomorrow and the next 2 days!!!

Weekend with Harlan and the 'Rents

Saturday morning, we had decided that I'd get my work done. Harlan was going to Versailles early, so I got up when she did (rather, laid in bed and tried to go back to sleep for a few). Harlan decided to leave at 9 am, and so went to open the door to the apartment. I then hear, "Um, Sarah? Andrea's out here sleeping in the hall. Should I wake her up?" I got up, expecting Andrea to be in the hallway of our apartment, but no, she was actually curled up right outside our doorway. (She had apparently came back pretty late and didn't think to knock on our door.) Melissa woke her up, and at that same time, Ashley woke up and went to get Liz. (Backstory: Ashley, Liz and Melissa had gone out the previous night, and they wanted to come back earlier than the others. But Liz and Ashley had locked themselves out of their room, so Andrea had given them her key so that they could sleep here. Once here, they realized that there wasn't enough room for all 3 of them, and so Liz went to sleep at someone else's apartment.) Liz and Ashley then spent about an hour trying to call various PAA people for Jean-Michel's and/or Visgitah's phone number. After that was unsuccessful, they tried calling various locksmiths around Paris to get an estimate on how much breaking the lock would be (around 140 Euro, it turned out). Since that was too expensive, Melissa suggested that they try getting the landlord of their building to let them in. So Ashley and Liz left to try that, while I finished my evening wear illustrations, which I had been working on while they discussed solutions. (I was surprised by how short of a time that took. I was painting them in with gouache, which I've never worked with before. I started it at about 11 am, and finished after 1 pm. For 12 sketches of varying colors, that's great time. I don't know if that means I did it efficiently or just badly/sloppily. I'm sure Susan will tell me Tuesday.)
Around 3 pm, Sharon came over and we photographed our bras. Actually, we photographed me in both of our bras (though not at the same time). For mine, I posed as I adjusted an earring, and it was shot with the top of the photograph being my lips. (I'm going to put it into Photoshop Monday and playing around with the contrast and stuff to make it look more "Vogue-worthy".) For Sharon's, she posed me near the window, and had my arm holding the window open. Here, the photograph was from my neck to my waist. After we were done, I downloaded them and sent hers to her, and she, Melissa and I sat and talked for awhile. She left, and I did some more work (I started making my maquettes-rough construction ideas-since I needed 5 of them). Harlan came back and told me all about Versailles, and she and Melissa went out to get some food and necessities. My parents came up about 2 minutes later, and we chatted about our respective days while waiting for the two of them to come back. After they arrived, I went out with my family and Harlan for dinner.
We went to a place called La Petite Perigourdiere, which was really good. We all got wine, and I had duck in cabbage with carrots. (It was tasty, but paled in comparison to the confit de canard that I had had earlier in the week at L'Oree du Parc. I think that duck is becoming the new chicken for me.) For dessert, Mom and I had the profiteroles (they had a sort of hazelnut ice cream along with it) and Harlan had an apple crumble tarte with ice cream. After dinner, Mom and Dad walked us back, and we went upstairs. We then decided to look up the term "perigourdiere", since neither of us knew what it meant. My French dictionary was no help (the word was too specialized), and the online translating site I use turned up the same word in English. Then Harlan attempted to search for it, and was successful. (It turns out that "perigourdian" was a French term for the Paleolithic historical period. So "La Petite Perigourdiere" translates to "the little Perigourdian girl". Mystery solved!) That search so exhausted us that we soon went to bed.
Early this morning (Sunday), Harlan left. I was sad, we had such a great visit! (This room is so empty now.) But I had to get up and get ready to go to Versailles with my parents! I left a little before 9:30 am, and met them at their hotel. We walked to the Saint-Michel/Notre Dame metro station and took the RER C out of Paris. (This one was a double-decker, so we sat on the top level and had a great view. We even saw the mini Statue of Liberty.) After about half an hour, we pulled into the Chateau de Versailles train station, and walked to Versailles. (Harlan was right to warn me that it really spoiled the effect to see all the tour-buses parked right in front of it.) We waited in line to get our tickets while it rained on and off (as it has been and is normal here). Then, we had to stand in another line to actually enter the castle. Getting closer to it, we could see that they were doing some renovations on the front and center section, and had covered it with very roccoco-esque large hangings (that actually looked like cardboard, they reminded me of paper dolls and doll houses).
We finally got inside, and wandered around the first floor. We first saw the chapel, which was beautiful, especially the ceilings (covered with murals, or relief sculptures, depending on where in the chapel it was). Then, we walked many rooms of portraits, both of the royal families throughout the ages as well as important figures (such as Ninon de l'Enclos and Moliere). We also walked through various rooms, with lots of ornate decoration (which I took lots of pictures of). Most of these rooms were bedrooms or libraries, and many were pastel green or deep red. (The wallpaper was a lot of burn-out velvet, meaning the decoration part was full tufts of velvet, and the rest was shaved-or burned-off. I really like that effect, and I've been seeing a lot of it lately, like on lampshades at BHV. I guess all the trendmasters saw "Marie Antoinette" and predicted that everything from that time period would be making a big comeback, and so put the word out accordingly.)
After some confusion, we made it to the Hall of Mirrors! Wow! I could just imagine myself back during that time, strolling along the Hall, looking out at the grounds. (Actually, the whole day, I felt that I should be walking around in appropriate attire, i.e. hoop-skirts). (The only thing that prevented it from being seriously awesome was that my camera chose that moment to give out from a full memory stick.) That led into the Queen's chambers. We saw her bedroom, with wall hangings pulled aside so that we could see where she escaped through when the mob came.
Since it had gotten nicer outside, we decided to stroll the grounds. We walked out pretty far, to the reflecting pool (although it was bigger than a pool, so I'm not sure what exactly to call it). We stopped at a restaurant beside it for lunch, and I got a hot chocolate (the best one I've had since I've been here) and a croque-madame (a ham-and-cheese sandwich with an egg on top).
We left around 4:30 pm, and went to the train station. While we were waiting for the train, an announcement came over the speakers, saying that a train had had an accident and that we'd need to go to another one nearby. So a whole throng of us walked through town (it must've been interesting to see).
After we got off the train in Paris, I went to Mom and Dad's hotel room, and we all relaxed for a little while. Then, we walked down Rue Saint-Jacques towards my apartment, looking for a place to eat. We stopped at Cafe Soufflot, where I had a raspberry mousse (yummy) and shared some of Dad's cheese plate. Then, they walked me back and I relaxed.

The Rest of the Week, and Mom and Dad Arrive!

Wednesday morning, we had Haute Couture with Muriel. She gave us the choice of learning more haute couture (hand-sewing) techniques or working on our pants/skirts. We unanimously decided to work on our pants/skirt, and so I spent the morning cutting out my pieces and beginning to sew them up. At the end of the class, I had sewed up both fronts to both backs along the side seam, and was working on pinning the inside fronts to the inside backs.
After class, I had the afternoon off, and went back to my apartment to wait for Harlan to get back. We had decided to go to the Pere Lachaise cemetary in the 20th arrondissement (Harlan wanted to see Oscar Wilde, and I wanted to see Edith Piaf, Moliere, Jim Morrison, and Proust.) We stopped at a crepes station by the RER B (we each got a banana and Nutella crepe-yum!), and we took a metro to the station right across the street. And what do you think happened right after we got out of the metro station? An old man came up to us and asked us directions to a street that I didn't know. (He kind of creeped me out, so I wasn't about to take out my map book and look it up.)
Since we had gotten off at the stop nearest the Pere Lachaise rear door (nearer the last stops on the walking tour in Harlan's guidebook), we decided to enter in that way and do the tour backwards. We went towards the double doors, and found them to be closed, except for a small crack. We tried to push it open, and couldn't. As we stepped aside to figure out what to do, another man approached to get through the doors. He apparently listened to someone and then began to walk away. I asked him why nobody could get in, and he said it was because there was too much wind. (What happens if there's too much wind? Do the bodies get uncovered or something? I didn't ask.)
Disappointed, we decided to go to Dreyfus so that I could get fabric samples. We took the metro there, and I got satin (for the disco) and jersey (for the film premiere) samples. They didn't have crepe, so we went across the street to Reine and I got a 50-cm. sample of some beautiful bronze crepe (for the embassy dress).
After I got my fabrics, we took the metro to the Cite metro stop. We walked around Ile de la Cite, taking in Notre Dame and walking around. We tried to get in line to see the Saint-Chappelle church, but was told we were in the wrong line (after waiting for about 20 minutes). We decided to leave for another time when it wasn't to crowded, and checked to make sure that we had been in the correct line. Sure enough, we weren't, having been in the line for the Conciergerie.
Harlan wanted to go back to some boutiques that she had seen cute stuff in earlier,
so we walked down Boulevard Saint-Germain-de-Pres to find it. It was called Cosmos, and apparently was a place where Belk buyers go to bring back stuff for "trend interpretation". We both tried on about 6 things. I really liked this one dress that was a sleeveless v-neck, that was gray with black stars. (I'm still debating on whether to go back and buy it.)
After Cosmos, I needed to hit up Monoprix, so we did some food shopping there. We came back, took naps, and went out to dinner at a cafe a couple blocks down called L'Oree d'Or. We each had wine, and shared a cheese plate. I had confit de canard, a fantastic duck dish served with garlic potato wedges (which I'm absolutely looking forward to having again). We had originally planned to go to the Eiffel Tower later that night, but we got back from dinner late, and so ended up doing homework for awhile.
Thursday was Flat Pattern and Draping with Anne. We had expected to be able to finish our pants/skirt in that class (at least in the morning portion), and so we were very surprised (and a little panicked) to hear her announce that we would only be working on our costume projects. To review, the last time nay of us had looked at it had been a few weeks ago, and it took a good deal of rummaging through my (admittedly cramped) work drawer to even find my pattern pieces. I took them out, laid them on the table, and stared incomprehendingly at them. Anne had told me it was a visite, and 1880s ladies' outer jacket. Looking at the pattern pieces, I wasn't sure of how to even start putting these together. Added to which, one of them wasn't even closed. I asked Anne, and she told me to make a smaller mock-up of half of the jacket, so that I could see what I was doing. I B.S.-ed what I thought closing off that one piece would look like, and also cut the pattern in half so that the jacket length would be shorter (also because we were running out of muslin). I attached the 2 pieces at the shoulders, and Anne showed me how to arrange the sleeves. After lunch, we regrouped and I draped the piece on a mannequin to better work with the sleeves. The sleeves were supposed to be pleated, and Anne told me that it was up to me, however I wanted to work with them. I decided to have 6 pleats, and I eyeballed the spacing between them (even though it turned out pretty even). It then took longer for me to adjust the other sleeve, since it seemed that I could never get them even and symmetric. I always had too much of one sleeve and not enough of the other (story of my life). I finally got it, and Anne told me that the pleats looked beautiful. I then sewed up the pleats and sleeve, only to be told that I had done everything backwards (as well as use non-white thread for a white practice garment). I spent the last minutes of class ripping out my stitches.
There did come one good thing out of that class: Our pants/skirt and our costume garment aren't due Tuesday! (Anne said that she would talk with Susan about that.) Jen won't be there Tuesday, so it only leaves Susan's stuff to do (only, heh heh). (Too bad, since I had already started on Jen's work.)
I had been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of Susan's work that I had to get done, and had talked with Melissa, Andrea's friend, about her plans for the night, and seeing if she'd be interested in going to the Eiffel Tower and the Musee d'Orsay with Harlan. I got out of class, told Harlan the situation, and we decided to get dinner before she headed off. We went to the same crepes place that we had been the day before (I'm sure the guy probably recognized us), and we each got a banana and Nutella crepe (it turned out that we had both been craving it since the day before). I then went to Berty's and got a book for inspiration for Jen's project, and bristol on which to mount my sampler of stitches and my moodboard. After I had made my purchases, I went back to the apartment, and did work after Harlan and Melissa, as well as Andrea left.
This morning (Friday), I came in for our first Hats class, thinking that I was late, and I was second only to Sharon in being early. A few minutes later, Beliz and then Liz came in. We, along with our teacher Jean-Pierre, waited for about half an hour for anyone else to show up. While we waited, Liz had said that she, Melissa and Andrea had gone out and got back at 6 am, and that, on their way back, some guy had spat on them! (This was presumably because none of them wanted to talk to him.) Then Beliz told us that Po-Lan's apartment had been broken into the previous afternoon, and his camera and computer was stolen! We were all shocked at that.
Eventually, Jean-Pierre decided that nobody else seemed to be coming, and so we went down to the 1st level to watch some videos. The reason that we had not had class with him yet is because he had been making hats for Jean-Paul Gaultier for Paris Fashion Week, and so we watched videos of two recent Gaultier fashion shows. The first one was the Spring/Summer 2007 Couture show. It featured models wearing halo-like headpieces (which fit in perfectly with the church-like classical music), which were sometimes attached to the outfit itself. The whole vibe was very "fashionable piety", the piety being demonstrated by a gray dress with a red heart (over one's actual heart) with the cross/sword stabbed through it, dripping red sequins down the torso onto a red-tulle-encased leg. (I think a supporting theme would be "diabetic retinopathy", seeing as the makeup featured red- or black-sequined small tears on a cheek right below each model's eye, making them look like they're crying blood. If Gaultier had done the same thing on his models' palms, it would be "stigmata".) I absolutely loved that Dita von Teese was one of his models! (It gave me one more reason to think she's awesome, and the marriage to Marilyn Manson is certainly not one of those reasons.) I also really liked Lily Cole, I'm liking her more and more recently. (Incidentally, she's going to be playing Alice in Phantasmagoria, an upcoming film about Lewis Carroll, concept and direction for Marilyn Manson. I found the 2 degrees!) The other one was his Spring 2008 Couture Show. It opened with a mermaid lounging on a rock, with bubbles blowing around her, and the models walked in front of her rock. The collection was definitely mermaid-inspired, what with scales as decoration and literal sea-shell bras. One model looked like a mermaid bride with 1980s Madonna-esque pointy white seashell bra cups, and a goldish-white sequined floor length skirt so tight that she had to walk down part of the runway with 2 white barnacle-encrusted crutches. About halfway through, she leaned down to unzip her dress from her ankle, and it eventually revealed a diagonal slit up to her thigh. I thought it was interesting that many of the models' arms were painted gold, similar to (what's that Bond movie) Goldeneye, to about the length of formal gloves. I also recognized the dress that Marion Cotillard (who is French) wore to the recent Oscars, where she won for "La Mome" (called "La Vie en Rose" in the U.S.) . (The dress in the show was black with gold scale detailing, while the one that she wore was white with gold detailing.) Jean-Pierre also told us that one of the dresses the Gaultier designed in his Spring 2007 Couture show (a high-necked, bared-shoulder black dress with sequins in the skirt part under the empire waist, with a symmetrical cross cutout in the center of the bust) was actually used in "La Mome".
After we had finished watching the shows, we went back up to our classroom, where Jean-Pierre showed us pictures (both taken backstage and featured in magazines) of the various hats he had designed. (There was one that was a half-white, half-black top hat that culminated in a spiral at the top.) Then, he told us that we were going to make berets! First, we each measured the largest width of our heads. Mine was 56 centimeters, which he happened to have a pattern for. There was circle, a curved band, and a long, straight band. I traced the pieces, and then created a practice one out of muslin. I happened to have extra in one piece, so I made a pleat near the center seam. Jean-Pierre helped me figure out a way to revise the pattern, and I tried again, this time making it with felt.
About 1 pm, Vivgitah brought in my parents(Mom looking quite European, with her outfits of all neutrals and black purse slung around her waist)! I stopped my work for a few minutes and talked with them, and we decided to meet after my class was over at 4 pm. The rest of the class, I worked on my hat. I somehow ended with having more room than before, which wasn't good. Jean-Pierre told me what to do, and I ended up having something like a 3 cm seam allowance on each side. But it fit, and it looked good! (It was reminding me of Mary Tyler Moore, I kept having the urge to toss it up in the air.)
I met my parents after class, and we went back to my apartment. Melissa was there, so we talked with her and then with Harlan when she came in. (Mom also gave me Erin's birthday present, "hematite" studs of 3 sizes. I loved them and wanted to wear them out, but the backs were having trouble staying in, so I decided not to risk it.)
I needed to go to BHV to get some embroidery floss for my color story, so Mom and Dad went with me (Harlan didn't want to go out since she had been out all day). We walked through Montparnasse on the way to the metro, and eventually got to BHV. I quickly found about 5 colors that I could use, and we took a different way back. (Mom really liked that I was ordering her around!)
We came back and picked up Harlan, and the 4 of us went out to find somewhere to eat. We looked at a few places on Boulevard Port-Royal before deciding on one with a menu that also had English translations. I got what was billed as "sausages and fries", thinking it meant something like Italian sausages and potato wedges, so imagine my surprise when I got actual fries and two hot dogs! I also tried some water with raspberry syrup mixed in. I wasn't impressed, so I know I won't be having that again. (Good thing I wasn't the one paying for this meal.) It was really fun, though, eating with both Harlan and my parents.
On the way back, we stopped at the nearest boulangerie/patisserie and got treats. I got a custard-filled pastry, as well as a loaf of bread. Then, my parents walked Harlan and I back before they went back to their hotel. We hung out and talked with Andrea, Liz and Melissa for awhile as they prepared to go out, and then we just talked and got ready for bed.
I need to do some Susan work tomorrow...

The Weekend, Monday and Tuesday

Saturday morning, Harlan and I went out! (She had a whole list of things that she wanted to do/see while she was here). Since it was going to rain later, we started out by taking the metro to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur. We walked up one street that led directly towards it, and then took our time walking up the hill. (I noticed halfway up that Dreyfus and Reine fabric shops were about a block to our left. I knew that they were pretty close to Sacre Coeur, but I didn't realize how close.) We took a break at the top and took pictures, and tried to identify buildings, like Notre Dame and Tour Montparnasse. We then decided to go into Sacre Coeur itself. Wow! It was beautiful inside. There was a service going on as we walked through, so we had the added bonus of music as we toured. (I've noticed that when I go to church at home-or anywhere in the U.S-I don't feel very religious or reverent. It was completely different being in Sacre Coeur, but maybe it was because of all the candles, oversize stained-glass windows, and gold-leaf ceiling paintings that made me feel so. Maybe I only feel religious in a church with some years of history in it.)
After wandering through Sacre Coeur, we took the metro to the area around Saint-Sulpice church in the 6th arrondissement. We walked around the area for awhile (there were some really high-end clothing stores there, like Christian Lacroix and Armani), and went into this one shop called Gerard Luflot's for a snack. Apparently, he's famous for his pastries, so I decided to get an opera (like a tiramisu sandwiched between two bars of chocolate), even though it was hard to choose because everything looked so delicious (and so visually well-presented). Harlan got a macaroon (which he's famous for) and she wasn't disappointed. After our snack, we decided to have some coffee for stamina, so we walked to a cafe that was to the right of Saint Sulpice. We sat outside, so we had a great view as we sipped our drinks and planned where we would next go. On the way out, I bought a couple of magazines (I'm trying to improve my French).
We wandered toward the Saint-Germain-de-Pres area, which had some great shopping. We went into Sonia Rykiel just for fun, and tried to go into Etro, but it was closed. (Everywhere we went, Harlan insisted that I go in first so that I could answer questions for the both of us. Not that I minded). We walked along, and went into this tiny shop called Nanie. We both tried on the same shirt, and it looked good on both of us (pretty amazing)! (What I really liked about the lady helping us was that she didn't speak any English to us at all.) We also went into Sinequanone, where Harlan tried on a couple of sweaters and I made a mental note to come back. (Seriously, I haven't done any shopping since I've been here, except for supplies and fabric. I can't wait to have a day off! I also really need to make a list of stuff that I'd like to do/see while I'm here.)
Harlan also wanted us to go to this English bookstore that she had read about in her guidebook. It's called the Village Voice, and they carry a lot of interesting stuff, I could've browsed there for hours. (I saw this one book edited by Zadie Smith, with short stories by Dan Clowes, David Eggers, Z.Z. Packer and Zadie herself, so another mental note was made to come back and pick it up.)
We began to walk back to the apartment, and cut through the Jardin du Luxembourg on our way. A lot of families with small kids were out, and a lot of them were playing with the boats that float on the lake. (This meant that a lot of them were running haphazardly around the pond, carrying big bamboo sticks practically perpendicular to their bodies. The Southern phrase "you're going to poke your/someone's eye out" definitely came to mind a few times.) It was really cute watching the kids (almost made me reconsider my stance on the issue), and I got some good pictures of them (while trying not to seem creepy).
We got back to the apartment, and got ready for my birthday dinner that night! I had decided to wear a purple tiered top I had gotten at BelleVille with black pants, but Harlan convinced me to wear it as a dress and let me borrow her tights. So I wore it with heels and minimal jewelry. Sharon came to the apartment at 6:30 pm (our reservations were for 7 pm), the three of us and Andrea picked up Liz and Ashley and we went to the restaurant. It was called ChantAirelle, and was located behind the Pantheon on a really deserted street (so much so that Liz was joking about how we were going to get mugged). We eventually found it (it's REALLY hidden), and happened to be the only ones inside for about an hour. (It was kind of funny, the "atmospheric music" was rain forest noises, and there was one of those clocks that makes bird calls every hour on the hour. We got some amusement out of that.) We started with bread and sausage, and I got duck in a honey and thyme sauce, with sauteed vegtables (along with half the table), some white wine and some profiteroles (cream in a pastry covering in a ball, covered in chocolate ice cream) served with pear ice cream (which was delicious). The whole thing for me was 30 Euro, which, considering it wasn't a fixed price menu (where you get an entree, plat and dessert for one price), was pretty good. It was a fantastic celebration: good food, good friends, good times!
The next day (Sunday), I did laundry in the morning and Harlan joined me in the laundromat. Then, she decided to go out, but I stayed behind to do homework, namely, work on embroidering my bra. I had laid the fabric over it, and started to embroider on it. It was pretty tough, since my bra was heavily padded, getting the thread through all those layers of padding. I took to pulling the needle up with my teeth (I think I might've slightly chipped a tooth), so it took me around 7 hours, give or take, to finish up one cup (half of it). Added to which, my right thumb and forefinger were punctured, sore and numb. (I don't believe I will ever consider embroidery as a career move.)
That night, we decided to go out for Indian food. I had heard that there were good places in the 10th, so Harlan found what looked like a good place, we got all dolled up and left. It turns out that the 10th is a pretty sketchy area at night. Everything was closed, the streets were poorly lit, and there weren't many people out (the only ones were guys). We promptly decided to go back, and thought we'd try the Tibetan place near the apartment. What do you think happened there? You're right, it was closed! Frustrated, we decided to just get paninis (and single-serving Ben and Jerry's!) at the panini place RIGHT NEXT DOOR to my apartment. Yeah...we got all dressed up and rode all that way for paninis...
The next morning, I went to Sewing with Muriel. We worked on our pants patterns all class. I spent about 45 minutes attempting to line up the entire grain-line with one pinstripe, pinned it down...and then realized that I was working on the effect face (i.e. the part that would show outside, to the public), not the technical face (the inside). So I had to take everything off and start again. About this time, Muriel came over and corrected my method of pinning. (I'm a bit frustrated that it seems to feel like I'm doing everything wrong. But then, I've never made pants before, so how would I know the right way? But I feel this way about most procedures here, and hope I'm learning along the way.) After I got everything pinned down in the Muriel-approved way, I cut everything out and traced the pieces with my handy-dandy tailor's chalk. The next time we meet, I can sew them up!
In Art History that afternoon, we talked about Abstraction in the U.S. after 1945, mostly about Expressionism. Ashley, Liz and I embroidered our bras the whole time (I also occasionally took notes). Another girl Eva, who's in interior design, and another guy were really impressed with the 3 of our bras and thought they were so beautiful (it remained to be seen whether the all-powerful Susan would think the same). That class was actually pretty fun, because people had certain opinions on what types of the abstract art that they did and didn't like. (Eva had the most hilarious/insightful opinions. I like her, she's got definite opinions and isn't afraid to share them. For example, we were talking about elephantitis near the end of class and she then mentioned a guy who reported had it in his testicles and had to cart them around in a wheelbarrow.)
After class, I went back to the room and met Melissa, Andrea's friend who's staying with us for about a week. She seemed pretty cool, and she and Harlan hit it off pretty well, both of them being pre-med and all. Later, Harlan and I had dinner, and then I embroidered and drew up my 12 evening wear illustrations for Susan.
Tuesday morning was Stylism with good ol' Susan. She first checked everyone's progress on their bras one by one, and happened to forget me. Partway through class, a Malaysian family came in for a tour, and in talking to them, Susan suddenly remembered that she hadn't seen mine. (That was fine by me. If she didn't see it, then she couldn't dislike it.)
(Funny thing: After the Malaysian family left, Nisa said, "Now you know what Malaysians look like". I was like, "What, are you and Redza (her boyfriend) really abnormally good-looking ones or something?" It was kind of funny.)
Susan then decided to see my bra and sketches. She pronounced my bra to be "absolutely beautiful" and then went on this thing about how some students struggle with embroidery and don't really like it (was I being that obvious?), and they do something completely different, and it turns out looking beautiful. She told me to leave the edges at the top unfinished (I finished it later, and I must say, I'm really pleased.)
(Another thing with the bra: We have to take a fashion photo of it. As in, "Vogue quality", as said by Susan. Tu asked if the person wearing it could be photographed from the waist up, and Susan looked perplexed as to why anyone would want to do that, because we all know that "fashion" does not equal "modesty".)
So: the sketches. She liked most of mine (although some of the cocktail ones looked a bit similar and "ordinary" a very damning term from her), but had a problem with the proportions of my croquis. I was told that I needed to slim down her hips, elongate her legs and that "her tits look a bit saggy, don't they?" So I worked on my sketches and talked with Sharon the rest of the afternoon. (I'm pretty sure that whenever Susan busts out the typical, "Are we embroidering or designing, or are we chatting?", she's really leveling it at Sharon and I, mostly because we make the mistake of having Susan overhear our laughter.)
For French class, we each did oral presentations about articles we had read. (I had misunderstood and read an article in English, oops.) I talked about Obama in the primaries, which segued nicely into us talking about France's political parties. (They have a Green Party over here, but it's all about the environment. I tried to ask if it was the same party as in the U.S., and was met with a blank stare. I'm still finding it hard to believe that a centrist party only emerged in 2007. So much for my hope of finding a fair viewpoint on things, since a lot of the media is right-wing, as is Sarkozy's party.)
After French, I went with Nisa and Sharon to Berty's to get bristol board and double-sided tape. (I love hanging out with both of them, they are so funny and just awesome.) I then came back to the room, where Harlan had found a place to go out to eat called L'Ardoise, near the Tuileries. We got dressed up (I wore a gray wrap sweater dress, black flats and borrowed Harlan's tights again), and took the metro there. Once there, we each got the prix fixe menu, and split a glass of white wine. For the entree, I got lobster bisque and Harlan got escargot (I tried some, and it was a slippery texture that took the taste of whatever it was served in). For the plat, we both got the lamb, served as 2 pieces wrapped in mint. For dessert, I got the Feuilletine citron et orange (basically an opera with those flavors in the middle in cream), and Harlan got the creme brulee. It was delicieuse (but then, every meal I've had in a restaurant here has been)!
We got back here at around 10 pm, and relaxed until going to bed. Tomorrow, I get out at 12 pm, and we're going to go to the Pere Lachaise cemetery in the 20th (lots of famous people are buried there, including Oscar Wilde, Moliere and Edith Piaf), as well as getting fabric samples! Should be fun!

Harlan's Here!!!

(What do you suppose this post will about? Hmm...)
So for those of you who don't know, my good friend Harlan from high school has planned to visit me in Paris from March 6th-16th. She was supposed to get in to Charles de Gaulle airport at 10 am Thursday, and getting to my school around 12 pm/1 pm. When I got up Thursday morning, I got an email from her dad, saying that Harlan's flight had been delayed and she'd be in more likely around 1 pm, having her get to my school at 2:30-3 pm.
I went to class, and Liz and Ashley asked if I was excited that Harlan was coming. We had Flat Pattern and Draping with Anne, and we continued working on our pants/skirt patterns. We who were doing pants were told to add some width to the bottom hem (to make it more straight), and to "draw a line up". Up to where? Sharon and I both assumed she meant the waist. So we cut our fabric, and began sewing up a prototype. I was noticing that mine looked strangely large, and thought that something must've been off. But what? I got the pants prototype made, and I looked like Jared Fogle with his before-Subway large pair of pants. (I even did the thing where I held out the waistband in front of me.) I asked Anne about it, and it turns out that we were just supposed to draw a line up to where the hip curve would become straight. I redrew my pattern pieces, and then it was time for lunch. Before I left, I let Jean-Michel know that Harlan was coming, probably to the office.
The afternoon class was technically supposed to be Costume Research, but a lot of us hadn't finished our patterns, so we were allowed to do that. I sewed up my one leg, tried it on, and it fit perfectly! (As it turns out, I am about a perfect six 36 over here. Sharon and Liz were also using me as a fit model, and have said I might have to be their models for the end-of-semester jury/fashion show.)
After class, I was really excited, hoping that Harlan had gotten here. Ashley wanted to meet her, so we went to the office to see if she was there. Sure enough, she was! (Apparently, she had only gotten in about 30 seconds beforehand.) We went to my apartment, dropped our stuff, and then met up with Nisa and Ashley to go to Fil 2000 (fill-de-mille) for supplies.
First, we stopped so that a few of us could get a carnet (10 bus/metro tickets all at once), and then took the bus. Unfortunately, the bus ended its route early, so we had to walk to Fil 2000. (Incidentally, I, the one with the bad sense of direction, recognized the street that it was on and led the way!) Once at Fil 2000, I realized that I didn't really need anything (and could get things cheaper at BHV), so Harlan and I walked a couple of blocks to the nearest Monoprix, so that she could get whatever she wanted to eat. Ashley and Nisa met us there, and we took the bus back.
At our apartment, Harlan and I had dinner and discussed the week. It was decided that she would take my keys for the days she'd be exploring (except for the day trips to Chartres and Reims), and come back for my lunch break. After she went to bed, I looked up some origami for Jen's class.
Friday morning, Jen had us all working on our draped pieces for the Yohji project. I was doing something origami-like, and practiced with making boxes out of paper by folding them. (Who knew that that sweet-potato-box project in Design Fundamentals would come back to me in another form?) I showed Jen what I had done, and she suggested that I make the bases spread out. I initially decided to do about 10 boxes, but I settled on 7. Returning to class, after lunch with Harlan, we did the same thing. Jen suggested putting pleats in the corners of the boxes so that the insides wouldn't show through, and that later I could glue them down in a random pattern on a piece of paper.
Coming back after class, I met Harlan on the apartment staircase. I needed to go to BHV (again) to get supplies, so we looked up the route and off we went. We got a little lost in the metro station, but made it there soon after. After I got what I needed, we decided to walk to the Saint-Michel metro station so that we could take the RER B directly back, closer to the apartment. We walked right past Notre Dame (I LOVE doing that), and stopped at a boulangerie/patisserie, where Harlan got a baguette and I got a raspberry macaroon (which put the previous raspberry macaroons to shame, because it had real jelly). We boarded the RER B, and walked back. We each made our own dinner, ate and relaxed a little. Then, I did some work on my bra (i.e. started embroidering it), and it turned out well (although I practically have identical holes in the pads of my thumbs from pushing the needle through). After that, we discussed the plans for tomorrow (shopping! and later, my birthday dinner).
Should be a great day tomorrow!

Over Half the Week Gone...

Monday morning was Sewing with Muriel. Not too much happened in this class, we just worked on our pants patterns. I began tracing pattern pieces (necessary since I have a belt waistband) and adding seam allowances and such.
Oh, something interesting DID happen: Ana, the girl from Mexico who has attended all of 3 days, showed up (and here we had all left her for...well, not dead, but maybe non-existant). Everyone was really surprised to see her (I had mentally started referring to her as "Phantom Ana"), but she seems a little oblivious to how much class she's missed and how much she has to catch up on.
Sewing in the afternoon was more of the same; working on our individual skirt/pants patterns. I started to cut mine out in muslin, eventually to make a prototype, fit it to myself and make out of my decided fabric.
In Art History, we talked about Constructivism. Since we had an embroidery sample due the next day, I took the time to start it (as did Ashley, Liz and Tu) and got some good work in (lots o' French knots). I love taking Art History, but it seems that we would be better off if we had that time to work. Seriously, this is one area that I actually enjoy/want to learn about, but I can just as well look this stuff up on my own time. But at least I know that this will be my easiest class (since I can always do a Powerpoint presentation that's pretty lax-no, it's horizontal-on finding sources the night before).
Monday night was all about getting that embroidery sample done, so I sat on my bed and listened to music.
Tuesday morning, it was wet and looked like it was going to rain. I went to class and sat down to work more on my embroidery, which everyone did too as we waited for Susan. Susan came in about half an hour late, and went around looking at everyone's samples. When she came to me, I braced myself for the onslaught of questions pertaining to why I was "completely incapable" of producing something utterly dainty and feminine. Imagine my surprise when she actually liked it! (I nearly fainted.) I believe it was something to the effect of, "It looks so nice when it doesn't look like a mistake" (high praise from her, and for me). I told her my ideas, she suggested a few things, and showed me a new stitch that might be useful for me. I then spent the rest of the morning class attempting (and eventually succeeding at) this new stitch.
After lunch, a bunch of us were in the room, goofing off and waiting for Susan to get back (because the only thing that REALLY means it's time to work is her presence among us). Someone looked out the windows and noticed it was snowing! We all gathered around the windows to see if it was true. Sure enough, it was light, but it was there. (This had been odd, since we had already had rain, overcast cloudy, and bright sunlight that day.) Then, we started debating over whether it was snow or really thin hail. But before we had gotten far with that debate, Susan appeared.
She spent all of our Stylism class looking at our new evening wear sketches for all 3 occasions. She started at the opposite end of the room from me, and it took awhile to get around, so I really didn't do anything the entire class, except for play with my kneaded eraser (I'd forgotten how much fun those things were). She looked at mine nearly last (making me a bit late for French class at 3 pm), and seemed favorably inclined towards many of them. She just told me to divide up the elements and put one in each category (such as, panels in Cannes dress, braids/twists in cocktail, and insets in disco). Incidentally, she also really liked the one random dress I had for Cannes that I didn't think was representative of the 1930s at all (always seems to go that way).
In looking through my drawings in my sketchbook, she had to flip around some pages, because I had started drawings in some places and finished the category about 10-15 pages later. I had the sketches for Jenj's Yohji project in the middle. Susan paused a moment to look at them more carefully, and told me that she really liked them! I replied that I hoped that Jen did too, and she said that it was probable since she and Jen had similar taste. She then asked me what my inspiration was, and I told her that it was Bjork performing. So I might get to do a project on Bjork! How cool would that be?
(Yeah, somehow, Susan was really nice all of class, and to all of us. The only time she got a little peeved was when she was talking to Ana about what she needed to catch up on, and said that she could've been embroidering at the hospital. She also referred to Ana as "the phantom student". Hey, great minds...)
Finally, I was released for French class, and we were doing an exercise with telling a story using the imparfait and passe compose tenses. I was just sucking at it. (It probably has something to do with the fact that I hate being late anywhere and feel totally off my game if I am.) I feel like I'm working hard, but it hasn't come back yet. I know I should be going out and practicing it, but it feels like anytime I do that, the person I'm talking to sees right through it and answers me in English. I really want to do well in that class.
Our homework assignment for next week is to read an article and talk about it. Finally, I have an excuse to buy a magazine from one of those newsstands I see everywhere! (I had been eying an art magazine with an article about women who changed art for awhile.)
During Susan's class, I had talked with Liz and Ashley about going to get fabric. They had wanted to go to BHV beforehand, so we decided to meet up at Dreyfus. So after French class, I got a croissant and took the metro to the fabric area in the 18th arrondissement. I found Liz and Ashley with little trouble; finding budget light-weight wool was another matter. All I was seeing was going for 60 Euros a meter, and I was not having any of that (Liz told me she'd slap me if I did). (Also, an example of what I mentioned earlier happened: I asked a clerk how much a certain fabric was, and he corrected me on my pronunciation, and we both knew right then that the jig was up.) I finally found some, paid and we took the bus back.
That night, I (half-assedly) looked up some origami for Jen's class on Friday. I also looked up the Euro exchange rate (I look it up every time I use my debit card, and calculate how much I've spent in US dollars). The Euro is over $1.50 right now! (It's more like $1.51.) I tend to round up when I do my accounts, and this is not good (especially since my parents and Harlan will be coming here soon, and we have to purchase expensive fabrics). I just checked it tonight (despite not having used my card today), and it's nearly $1.53! Why is it rising so fast, and why now?
On a happier note, I called my Grandma Homzak that night. (I had wanted to call her closer to my birthday, but didn't manage to.) I was so happy to talk to her, and she as glad to hear from me too. She even said, "Sarah, you're too far away" and told me that she thinks about me every day. (I teared up on the phone, and in typing this.) I'm always glad to talk to her, and I look forward to it even more now since I don't have my cell phone and have to rely on calling cards that eat up minutes.
Wednesday morning (today), we had Haute Couture with Muriel. It was the same deal as Monday, we each worked on our individual pants/skirt. Again, I've been having trouble, what with sewing exactly on the lines and having to redo it multiple times. Also today, I discovered that my hip and knee lines are off. I don't know how this can be, since I traced them off the EXACT SAME LINE, but hey, anything's possible with me. Muriel did tell me a more effective (albeit more time-consuming) method to pin, so I'm trying to use that. (I can't wait to look back on this time when I was learning and getting frustrated when I actually have better skills. I think it'll be one of those things where I won't fully realize how much I've learned until I'm finished. That's what happened with learning Photoshop in TAM 271: I now feel like I learned so much, but at the time, I didn't feel like I was getting anything right.)
I talked to Nisa, and since we both needed to go to BHV to get embroidery and painting supplies, we decided to go there and to Bouchara, a fabric store, after her French class. Since I had the rest of the afternoon off, I went to Monoprix for the weekly shopping expedition, and then came back to the apartment. I had decided to go out to dinner this coming Saturday night for my birthday celebration, since I had wanted to wait until Harlan had gotten here. I had asked Jean-Michel for suggestions, as well as looked online, and thought I had found a place yesterday. It turned out the place might be a little too expensive (as Nisa pointed out to me this morning), and so I looked online for another place. I finally decided on a place called ChantAirelle that looked reasonable, so I can't wait to go and have a good meal!
Nisa came back from class and we left at about 3:30 pm. We first took the metro to Bouchara (going to which, emerging from the metro, gives one a fantastic view of the Opera Garnier), and it was right near the grands magasins of Galleries Lafayette and Printemps. Bouchara's whole lower level is devoted to fashion fabrics. We found some organza pretty easily and in a color that would go well with my threads as well. (They do things differently in that store: Instead of waiting for someone to cut the fabric for you, you're told to wait in line to check out, clutching a slip of paper with what you're purchasing, while they're cutting the fabric. While you're in line, you're handed the cut fabric.)
After Bouchara, we took the metro to BHV, and walked by this one place Paul, which apparently was a dessert bar and Nisa said was supposed to have great macaroons. (I had just bought some raspberry macaroons the previous night, and had finished them up over lunch the previous day.) At BHV, we purchases paintbrushes (Jen wanted natural ones) and embroidery thread (I had to get another gray since I couldn't find the one I had.)
After BHV, Nisa suggested that we got to Paul and have a snack. It was sort of like how I'd picture indoor cafe scenes whenever I've read stories/books set in the 1800s: all dark wood paneling, glass windows with frosted detailing at the sides, tiny tables shoved close together. (I was just waiting for Zola to come in with some papers and order some absinthe.) In short, I LOVED it. (I definitely want to go back, just to chill sometime. Add it to the list, along with Colette Bistro and Cafe de la Paix.) We each got vanilla macaroons (which were about the size of hockey pucks) and had some great (well-needed, for me at least) girl talk.
Then Nisa asked if I would be interested in a "real French dinner". Well, I didn't have to think too hard about that one: yes! (She said that she felt bad for not being able to come to my birthday dinner this coming Saturday-since she'd be in Lemoine, visiting her boyfriend-and wanted to make it up to me.) She said that it was off Boulevard Saint-Michel, so we decided to walk there. We walked through Ile-de-la-Cite, and passed right by Notre Dame (reminding me to go back there and take pictures).
(We also passed the Theatre de la Huchette, where I'm pretty sure is still staging Ionesco's The Baled Sporano-as it's been doing for about 50 years. I need to go back on my own and find out for sure.)
We went to a tiny restaurant called La Harpe, located on (get ready) rue de la Harpe. We each decided to get the Menu Delice, which gives you one entree (appetizer in English), one plat (main course) and one dessert off a specific list for a set price of 15 Euros. We each got a glass of champagne, ordered, and our food soon came out. For my entree, I had ordered frogs' legs in Provencale sauce. I've always been curious about how frog's legs taste, even more so after seeing The Triplets of BelleVille. Eating frogs' legs was definitely on the Paris-to-do list, since I wanted to see if it really was gross/weird, as it sounds. Consensus: Not gross at all. Actually, they taste fantastic! (I also loved the sauce that they were in, and used the bread to sop it up.) The meat was really tender, and slid right off the bone and stick. My complaint was one that can't really be fixed: They still had bones, and they were too small (Maybe we start force-feeding frogs here. I wonder if that would lead to banning of that dish on the grounds of animal abuse, similar to why foie gras isn't served in Chicago anymore.)
Mon plat was salmon (always good), along with rice served with sauce, and spicy green beans. (Salmon is always a good staple for me.) For dessert, I had (I think it was called) boutillons au chocolat, which were cream puffs drenched in hot chocolate, with a side of whipped cream.
Overall, the evening and meal was just awesome. I had a great time with Nisa, getting to know her better and such. I felt that I could really be myself with her. (She had also previously expressed interest in going with me to the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss concert in May.) Fantastic evening all around!
We walked back, and Nisa and I hung out in our apartment and talked for a little while before she decided to go back to her apartment and do homework. I didn't feel like starting any at that point, so I decided to update my blog (a much more fun prospect).

Sunday of the Birthday Weekend

So, since it had been my birthday yesterday (Saturday the 1st), I decided to put off work and go to a fashion show that PAA had gotten some invites to. It was a designer or team called Chapurin, and the title of the show was "Anna Karenina", so I was picturing something very dark and Slavic. None of the PAA girls wanted to go, but Blessing did, so we arranged to meet at 11:20 am in front of her apartment (the show was supposed to start at 12 pm). I went to her apartment and waited there for about 25 minutes, getting more confused and concerned, before deciding to head off to the show by myself. (It turns out that we had gotten our signals crossed and hopefully will hang out soon!)
I took the 27 bus to the Carousel de Louvre (we seem to get all the invitations for the "salle delorme" room), and walked down. There was a line, which I induced that I had to wait as well, after seeing other people also holding paper invites to the same show. I got there right at 12 pm, and we ended up waiting in line for (I would guess) about 30-45 minutes. Finally, we were let through security and allowed to enter the room.
Immediately upon entering, each person was offered a free mini-bottle of Moet champagne (the first time this had happened at one of the shows I had attended). I took mine and stood on one of the top levels facing the stage. To my left were the photographers, standing on inclined risers, jostling for position. The stage against the wall had these spindly silver trees placed at intervals along the back, with pinprick lights highlighting them from above. The music evoked a train in the night (no, seriously).
We waited and waited and waited, the photographers getting more and more impatient, yelling at random intervals, yelling, "Go! Go!" and once, "Change the music!"
Finally, the show started. It was more new-world Russian (what with having a lot of military influences) than old-world (although a lot of furs were featured, a nod to the winter-or really, any time of year there). There were also hints back to dark sexuality, using light, dark knitwear as sleeves and leggings, and (what looked like) a fishnet body stocking. According to Chapurin, the big colors will be army green and a green a shade darker than kelly (used in semi-formal dresses), dark navy blue (for day-wear), and we will all be wearing furs (even in North Carolina). The hair and makeup trends were pretty interesting in that they seemed to deliberately veer off from what the other more "mainstream" designers were showing. Instead of having soft waves, the hair was bluntly cut short, with bangs hanging in the eyes (it reminded me of that haircut all the boys had in the 4th grade). Instead of naturally pale lips, they were stop-sign red. I'm pretty sure that these were in keeping with the military/dominatrix tone, but couldn't shake the feeling that he was doing it just to be different. (It's like the kids who are so into "indie culture" they won't give something from mainstream culture a chance, even if it might have redeeming social/political value, etc...so clearly, I'm not talking about The Hills here. These are the kids who go out of their way to go off the beaten path, and at first it's refreshing, and then eventually, you just want to tell them where they can stuff their new Death Cab for Cutie downloaded song every time they open their mouth.)
(Actually, maybe this designer's reading the "wrong" trend magazines. I wonder if the the fashion world is like school/society, where, even though it's unspoken and not generally acknowledged, there is one or more "correct" ideas for a season within a narrow segment. How wide is this segment? If one goes "outside" the segment, do they get ridicule or respect? Or does it depend on who you are, and your success status with fashion?)
I did like that this show was more conceptual and theatrical than the ones we've been seeing. The last look was a steel-grey strapless dress that revealed massive volume in the back. As the lights dimmed, the model turned around to face the back wall. Manufactured wind blew out her dress, a train sound was heard, and lights (simulating those of a train) flashed on in the darkness. The train sounds got louder and louder, at the same time that steam poured out of the lights/wall, and the model ran towards the lights/wall and disappeared backstage. Then, the music stopped, the lights came on, and the models did the final walk. I really enjoyed it.
(I think one of the reasons that I enjoyed this show so much was that I was able to get right in the front, at the end of the catwalk, to the right of the photographers. I had originally had my camera out and was taking pictures before the show started, and even though there were security guys near me, nobody said anything. Passing through security to get to the room, they saw my camera and let me go in. So a few seconds into the show, I noticed that the front was open, so I snuck down and pretty much knelt a few feet from the end of the catwalk, and took pictures there. Again, nobody said anything. Who knows? If someone had asked, I'd like to think that I'd lie and say I was a freelance fashion reviewer.)
After the show was over, I decided to walk across the street to the Palais Royal. It was a little cold, so there weren't many people there, and I took some pictures. On the way to taking the metro back, I bought some Skittles to eat...and nearly spat them out a few seconds later (I would've if they hadn't cost me a Euro). I think I've been spoiling myself since I've been eating Milka chocolate a few times every week. Or maybe I'm losing my taste for blatantly, artificially sweet stuff...
I came back and finished my Susan sketches, and chilled the rest of the night.

MY BIRTHDAY!!! (and the Elie Saab show)

So, as the title says, my 22nd birthday was Saturday, March 1st, and it has certainly been a memorable one, to say the least!!!
I'm not if I had mentioned this or not, but a couple of weeks beforehand, Peter had told us that we'd probably be dressing the Elie Saab show that occurred on (you guessed it) March 1st. (Liz was immediately like, "That's your birthday!", which was good because it hadn't sunk in yet.) Elie Saab is a Lebanese designer who clothes a lot of celebrities for the red carpet. He first came to prominence for Halle Berry's dress the year that she won the Oscar for "Monster's Ball" (2002, I think). Friday afternoon, Peter had told us to meet at the school at 9:30 am (the show started at 11:30 am).
Saturday morning, I met Nisa, who was also coming out of her room and we walked to school together. (She also told me that I looked really good and I pulled off my red lipstick well. We were told to wear black, so I wore a fitted black v-neck sweater, dark-wash jeans, black flats, and a silver scarf around my neck.) Other fashion students trickled in, some of them wishing me a happy birthday. There were some girls there that we didn't recognize, and they were all from the Sorbonne. (It turns out that someone in the Sorbonne study abroad program is friends with Peter, and if Elie Saab needs more help for his shows, the Sorbonne girls were tapped.) There were 4 of them, and their names were Whitney, Jessica, Blessing and Rebecca. On hearing that it was my birthday, they were like, "Wow, what a great birthday present!" (I had to agree.)
Once we had all assembled, Peter passed out names tags, which had the Elie Saab staff logo and our individual names on it (!!!). We then got on the bus to the Carousel de Louvre. On the way there, I asked Peter something I had been puzzling over for a couple of weeks: On each of the street signs, above the street name, the arrondissement is listed, but it's always abbreviated, like 6th Arr. After the 2nd "R", there is a mark that I couldn't tell what it was. After trying to decipher it, I thought that the closest thing it looked like was an exclamation point. (I thought that maybe all the arrondissements had major pride and excitement for themselves, pepping themselves up. "Who are we?" "The second!") I asked Peter if this is what it was, and he said that it was actually a very small "e". (I prefer my theory, and so will stick with it.)
We got to the assigned showing space, and the first thing we saw was a bunch of men covering up what looked like a hole in the back of the set with paper with the Elie Saab logo running across it. I was confused and thought that they were covering up the area where the models would enter and exit the stage. I didn't have time to think about it further, because then a lady who worked there came up to us and briefed us on our duties as dressers. We were to have to models try on the shoes first thing, discern the front from the back of the outfit and make sure we could operate the closures. Then she assigned us our models and we went to find their specific spots. Their racks were set up in a square, with room to exit on one side. Each rack held space for about 4 models, and nearly every model had 2 outfits (1 had more, and a couple had less). My model's name was Erin, and the hangers with the outfits had Poloroids of how she would wear the outfit. She would be wearing a black sleeveless v-neck top with a sash around the middle and fabric made to simulate flowers edging the bottom, along with black pants. Her second outfit would be a strapless red dress, the top being rich red velvet, with a red sash at the empire waist, and the rest of the dress floating out away from her.
We got there while the models were still in hair and makeup, so we all walked around and looked at each other's outfits. I was talking with Whitney, Blessing and Sharon near the front of the room, when a lady walked in. She was really tall with blonde hair, and was wearing aviator sunglasses, and had a little girl in tow. Photographers were following her as she moved about the room, and so we figured she was someone famous. We heard some minutes later that she was the wife of a famous French soccer ("football" over here), a former model known for her insanely long legs (1 meter 20 cm, we heard), as well as possibly the host of France's Next Top Model.
And then: We had a sighting of Mr. Elie Saab himself! He was explaining the collection and showing the garments to the large horde of press who were snapping pictures and taking down his every word (presumably, seeing as we were too far away to actually hear him). At one point, he was joined by his wife (who we had seen earlier, walking around in a cure purple and black sleeveless dress) and son (whom we had also seen earlier, and commented on how well-dressed he was).
Around that time, the models started coming out. Sharon's model Eniko came out before a lot of them. She talked for a minute, and then took her computer and lounged under a nearby table until it was time to get ready. The models had some pretty intense vibrant blue eyeshadow, and their hair was coiled on one side, and gathered into a bun at the back of the head. (It reminded me of the 1940s hairstyles we had to wear while doing South Pacific sophomore year of high school. I wondered if the models had cylindrical pieces of foam-albeit very, very thin ones-in their hair too.) The standard backstage look for most of them seemed to be big jacket, skinny jeans and boots, either ankle-length or knee high. (I really liked one model, Julia's look. She was wearing a Def Leppard baseball tee, dark skinny jeans, thick gray socks, red high-top Converse shoes with dirty laces unlaced, a kelly green-and-black scarf with fringe, and a gray winter coat. She also had this amazing flaming red hair, she looked like such a rocker. Added to which, she was one of the really nice ones, really easygoing about posing for pictures with us at the end.)
My model Erin came up, and I asked her if she could try on the shoes for me. She curtly informed me that she already had, and that they had fit. Walking away, she asked me to watch her stuff (which I did across the room, since I went back to talk to Sharon and Whitney). On returning, she told me that the models got to keep the shoes at the end of the show.
Getting her dressed wasn't hard, a professional was there to help us. It seemed the models knew what to do, letting people move them as they chatted with their friends nearby. (It was funny, it definitely reminded me that these girls are pretty young. My model was talking with the one next to us, Lindsay, who was Ashley's model. They were talking about a mutual friend-presumably a model-who was "obsessed with sex"-in their words-, and apparently had a lot of sex books, and would hide them under Lindsay's bed when others were over. It was really all I could do to keep from laughing at that as hard as Erin was.) I also helped Liz get her model, Vivianne's shoes on.
So the show started about 45 minutes late, and the models lined up to go on. Once they were finished with their first outfit, they came back and we got them into their second outfit. After my model came off the stage, I looked around for her and saw her bent over the chair, still in the dress, frantically stuffing something into her bag. I went up to her, helped her get the dress off, and then pointedly asked her where the shoes (that I needed to return) were. She then reminded me that they were allowed to keep them, and quickly left. (Andrea later told me that she was definitely one of the bitchy models. She said that she had asked if they could keep the shoes, and was told no. She later was heard to be complaining that she had worked for Elie Saab for the past x-number of shows and should be allowed to keep something.)
(Maybe she was just cranky because she was hungry. Rebecca and Blessing overheard one model tell another that she hadn't eaten anything in a week, save for champagne and cocaine. Let's not shatter any stereotypes here, shall we?)
(I will say this, though: If I was going to steal any shoes, those would be it. They were these slick, black snakeskin, sky-high Mary-Janes. They were hot. So at least she had taste, and didn't steal the lace-up ones.)
Oh, in the aftermath of the show, Ashley came up to me really excited, and told me to follow her. I did, and guess who I saw? I saw Ms. J. Alexander, runway dive extrordinaire from America's Next Top Model (who is really tall)! (A few of my friends now have Facebook profile pics of them with Ms. J. I actually obeyed the rules and didn't bring my camera. Learned: Always break the rules!)
It was interesting, some of the other girls were talking about how they felt physically inferior and didn't want to have lunch. I didn't feel that at all (OK, I felt a touch like a Pygmy), I just felt that they were exercising their talents, and I have different ones. I guess for them, it's like belonging to an exclusive club, one where only the luck of the genes gets you in. (Although seeing them all together in the same place, they're kind of plain...and I was certainly not stupid enough to say this out loud.)
After that, I walked with Rikard, Ashley and Liz, since it was such a nice day outside. We stopped and had Starbucks (a first for Rikard), with Liz proclaiming that it "tasted like America". We then hopped next door to Monoprix, where Liz and Ashley decided to make a cake for Sharon and I, and I got some raspberries.
We all went back to our respective apartments, and I did some more evening wear sketches for Susan. Ashley came over later to back the cake (since they don't have an oven), and we talked about what we want to do for spring break (mostly Italy and Greece). We then split up to get ready for Sharon's party, and met up again later.
Sharon's party was held at La Fonda, a tapas bar. Ashley and I only recognized Nisa and Redzarul there. Sharon showed up soon after, and we all introduced ourselves and said how we knew Sharon. I got a caipirinha (similar to a mojito) and had some calamari rings (mmm, I hadn't had those in awhile). Later, the cake was brought out, and the table sang Happy Birthday to both of us!
The 4 Sorbonne girls came later, and I said that I was interested in seeing a fashion show Sunday morning, and asked if a few would like to go (since Ashley wouldn't be using her ticket). Blessing was interested, so we decided to message each other to make further plans for the following morning. On that note, Ashley and I left, each going back to her respective apartments.
It was an absolutely AMAZING 22nd birthday for me! I couldn't ask for anything more!