Wedesday, Thursday (and another Fashion Show), and Friday

I'm sure everyone has been wondering what I've been doing the latter half of the week.
Wednesday morning, we had Haute Couture with Muriel. We were instructed in sewing techniques used by the haute couture houses. The first thing we learned was never to use a pencil to mark the fabric and always mark it impermanently (like with a fingernail or pin). The first thing we did was fold over a specific amount of fabric twice and sew along the edge of the line. I kept having to rip it out, due to it being uneven. (Even when I turned it in, it was still uneven, which Muriel helpfully pointed out to me.) I didn't catch the instructions for the next thing, and so asked Liz. Apparently, we had to cut the fabric in half, sew it together, and then sew along the edges of the opened seams in a diagonally decorative stitch. I had trouble what with not being able to mark a line on the fabric and follow it, so much so that Muriel pointed out that my seams were not even and also not the desired amount (that being 3 centimeters). I had only started on that, when class was dismissed.
I have the afternoons off on Wednesdays, and decided to go to Monoprix to get food. I got back in time for the French 1 class to be released, and since Ashley, Liz and I had planned to go to Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville to get supplies, we left soon after, taking the bus. Liz and Ashley had to get embroidery things, and I got gouache paints for Jen's class Friday for experimenting with fashion illustration. Since we had some time, we decided to explore the BHV's 6 stories and walked around, just looking at everything. We found out that a French washing machine has a round wheel-like contraption inside , which you press open to put clothes inside. It was kind of retro-futuristic (and one of these was also '50s pink).
(Oh, I had also asked Sharon about why the cash registers show purchases in francs as well as Euros, and she guessed that there were some very remote places in France that still used the franc and hadn't converted yet. So mystery solved.)
The rest of the night, I finalized my design for the pants (which were pretty similar to my original idea). I looked up references on places like Macy's and Dillard's. (I guess, in Susan recommending me to go to a high-end department store, it never crossed her mind that it would look like I was from "the competition" stealing ideas. I guess that when one is so concerned with embroidery, business doesn't cross into the mind too much.)
Thursday morning, we had Flat Pattern and Draping with Anne (who is becoming my favorite teacher, of design at least). Liz, Sharon and I all had pants and so tried to work together to try and create a basic sloper of them. However, some key bits of information were missing, such as the width and length. So we puzzled and calculated over that for awhile.
Then: saved! Peter came in, and gave us all invitations to a fashion show being held that morning at 11:30 pm. We all really wanted to go, but were concerned that we wouldn't be able to finish our work. Anne told us that she would finish our slopers for us, and that we could make our individual changes when we came back.
Ashley, Liz, Nisa, Sharon and I all took the bus to the Louvre and decided to get a snack, since we estimated that it wouldn't start for about 30-45 minutes. We stopped at a crepes place, and I got an egg and cheese crepe that was really good.
We made our way down to the Carousel de Louvre, where the room was (the same one we had been to before), and stood on one side. One of the security guys told us that a few of us would need to move over, so Nisa and I decided to move to the end of the runway, where all the cameras were. (I think we got a much better view.)
The show was by Leonard, and was pretty good. In both this show and the previous one, there was a trend for loose, wavy hair parted in the middle paired with very smoky eyes. Leonard showed a lot of prints that would look right at home in a scarf (and I mean that in a good way, it's hard to explain). The dominant color patterns seemed to be red, black and purple; black and white with accents of blue, pink and green; and gold and white with blue accents. There were a lot of tight turtlenecks. Sleeves were to the elbow or just above. The sleeves were either flowy or tight, some ending in a gathered bishop sleeve. Clearly, printed dresses were big. Emphasis was placed on the dresses, and they were offset by the models wearing black tights and black ankle-strap shoes. (The designers seem to have learned from the scientific method of "isolating the variable"-in this case, the garment-while keeping everything the same, in terms of makeup and hair.)
Coming back, something really funny happened. I was going through a metro turnstile, and got smashed between the doors. It didn't hurt, it was just surprising, and I kind of just let out a loud "Oh!". Liz made fun of me for that, and I said that that was the first thing that came to my mind to say at that moment. (I then asked if she would've preferred me to say something like the improvised four-tiered expletive I subsequently offered, primarily for her-and my-amusement.)
We got back to class, and nobody else was there. We each tried to work on our pants, but weren't getting too far. Eventually, the rest of the class came in; they had seen Anne Valerie Hash's show that had been a couple of hours later. We didn't get our individual patterns completed, and Anne said that she'd need to see each person individually to ascertain fit and whatnot. She said that she'd leave a note to Muriel and Susan, explaining that we'd gone to a show and hadn't gotten our work finished. We did look at the basic pants and correct the flaws. (I got to be the fit model, as it turns out that I am a European size 38. I had some of my classmates say stuff like, "Maybe you could model for me for the jury" and another girl Tenzin had asked to measure me before for her basic pants or skirt.)
(Oh, random thing: Andrea didn't go with us to the fashion show. We were leaving for it when Liz said, "Hey, where's Andrea?" She had left for the computer lab near the start of class, and nobody had seen her since. Liz predicted that Andrea was going to be "so pissed" that she missed the fashion show. The weird thing was that we didn't see Andrea when we went back to class, and neither had Anne. I came back to my room and saw her coat, bag and a bunch of change on her bedspread, so I figured that she was OK. She finally came in later with Elizabeth, her friend who was working at Elie Saab this week and is staying with us. After I mentioned that we had all been worried, she then told me what had happened. She had been in Peter's office when Elizabeth had called and said that one intern for Elie Saab hadn't shown up and asked if he could get someone to come down in her place. Since Andrea was right there, Peter told her to change and go! So she'd be working until the show on Saturday, and the next week after, since that's when the buyers come in. She will eventually have to make up her work, though. But wow, talk about being in the right place at the right time!)
The rest of that night, I was doing homework for the Yohji project. I didn't feel inspired and like I had a "story" until the end, when I was noticing that his work looked like stuff Bjork would wear for a concert.
Friday, we had Stylism with Jen. Jen asked to see our 5 Yohji sketches. She told me that she really liked a few of them, and to consider a specific one or 2 to use for my draping piece (that's not actually supposed to be an outfit, but rather an exploration of volume around the body). Jen thought one of mine would look good in paper (since it was origami-esque), and told me to start playing with paper and looking up techniques to use. She then told me to play around more and "go further" (a phrase I haven't heard since writing papers for Ms. Fishman at Latin). But I felt more confident, knowing what direction I was going in. She also showed me how to use gouache (since I had tried to use them the night before and it looked more like acrylics). The rest of the period, I played around, painting some my illustrations that I blew up.
That afternoon, Liz and Ashley invited me to go shopping, but I felt behind on my work and wanted to catch up. I drew 12 more Yohji sketches (bringing me to a total of 19, since Jen had wanted some that we could weed out), and then started on Susan's assignment of 12 more sketches, 4 additional looks for each category (Cannes premiere, embassy party, night at the disco). I got 6 done there, so I effectively drew 18 sketches today, and I have never felt so creatively drained. (I thought if I drew any more that day, a little white flag with the word "Bang!" would appear from the tip of my pencil.)
That night, I went to the Eiffel Tower with Liz and Ashley. The metro station nearest to it was closed until March 10th, so we got off on the one before and had to walk a bit. We finally found it, and just stood for a few minutes oohing and aahing and taking pictures. It was all lit up in golden lights, and then had white lights sparkling all over it. The top was lit with a variety of different lights, and emitted a beam of light over Paris. It was beautiful, but I had to go soon after since I had a few Skype dates to keep. But I definitely want to go back at night and go to the top.
(Something struck me as I leaving: The street that we had walked down was a residential one with apartments. I was thinking how expensive that real estate must be, and if these apartments are passed down generations. I was also wondering if it was similar to New York in about the 1940s, where apartments were so eager to attract tenets that rent was drastically lowered. A lot of people ended up paying much less in rent than they would have in normal circumstances, and/or outright buying the apartments. This would certainly keep said apartment in the family. I would love to know, but have absolutely no idea who to ask.)
I took the metro back, and talked to Erin. We decided to Skype-conference-call Mom, so I think that cheered her up since she had been sick (too much OM/germ-carrier children/sauerkraut, apparently). I also talked with my friend Adam, who used to go to State but is not at ECU. I hadn't talked to him in awhile, and it was great to hear what had been going on with him.
Tomorrow, we work at the Elie Saab fashion show!!!