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...