retska: 2013

Hello friends and family,
As crazy as it is, I am half way done with my schooling here! It has gone incredibly fast because they keep us so darn busy. I have experience and learned so much in the past week and half and I am looking forward to what I will get to do in the coming weeks. Here is the update of what I've done since my last post.

Rad Hourani Couture Show
So this is the fashion show I was looking forward to the most because I love Rad Hourani's designs and aesthetic. He is a designer of unisex clothes that are often times rather minimalistic but have so many smart details and are made impeccably. Because it was a unisex show, he had male and female models with the same hair and make up and shoes(with heels). One guy had 5 inch heels and was having quite a hard time figuring them out. I loved it. It was SO inspiring to see not only his clothes up close, but the whole production of his show. It was at the Candian embassy here in Paris, and it was very, very well organized. All dressing instructions were attacted to each look and everything was labeled and in place. It is so uncommon for backstage at fashion shows to be so clam, but it was very relaxing back there! He also show many pieces 2 or 3 times (just in different looks) so that helped with the calm atmosphere. Rad was very controlling and helped dress almost every look, so it was essentially impossible for mistakes to be made. During the other couture show I went to, I was feeling like couture is not where I want to go in the industry because it often meaning heavy beading, or complicated embroidery, etc., but seeing Rad's clothes gave me a different idea of what couture could be. I have never seen a collection so well thought out, so cohesive and so well made. I had to keep pinching myself backstage, it was unreal. I will never forget how great of an experience that was and how much I learned from just being in the environment.

This is where the show was. It was in the morning and on grass and they had an interesting walking pattern!

These signs were posted backstage. I think it is his motto, sort of. All the models had to follow these intructions, it actually adds a lot to the show. love it.

These were masks for the last look of all the models.

The order of each look and model to be used as a reference for everyone backstage. So helpful!

This is my creeper photo of Rad Hourani. He dresses in his designs, as did every single person backstage. Everyone was in clothes from past seasons and almost everyone, girls and boys, had the same haircut.

This is a link to blog I found with pictures from the show, since I wasnt actually able to see it and could take pictures of the clothes backstage
http://style-anywhere.com/2013/07/05/rad-hourani/

Couture Techniques
This is the reason I am here, of course, so I thought I'd show you what I have been up to. Since it really isn't very exciting to look at, I only will post one picture, just so you can get an idea. We are all making the same dress so that we can focus on the technique, not so much the design. Couture means that it is very high quality and all hand made, so we have to do a lot of hand sewing. Rather than using pins to keep things together, we pin something and then baste it (hand sew a temporary stitch), and then either machine sew or cut, etc. To trace the pattern, we chalked a line and then basted the line. Everything takes forever. Classes are 5-7 hours long and it seems like I hardly get anything done in one day, but that is the couture way! My teacher only speaks French, but we have a translator/teaching assistant to help when needed.

So exciting, right! I am actually learning alot about being exact in every single step of production, as well as do's and dont's about pinning, ironing, stitching, etc. I never knew I was being so sloppy before!

Shibori
One of the coolest things I have done here is Shibori, which is a Japanese method of dying fabrics. It is kind of like tie-dye, but there are so many ways of doing it and many more patterns that tie-dye. And it is not ugly... sometimes. The first type of shibori we learned is called arashi, which is a pole-wrapping method. Basically it involved wrapping thread around fabric on a pole (or bottle in our case) and creating little pleats in the fabric. This creates a really cool chevron pattern, or also a fish-net looking pattern. We first dyed the fabric a base color (black for me), and then wrapped it on the bottle.

Next we put the fabric and bottle in a discharge solution, like bleach, to take away the color in the exposed areas.

Then we painted on a few colors to that and microwaved it! I painted it with a light beige, dark beige and a burnt orangey/red color.

Once it was cool, we had the option to let it dry on the bottle which would make it pleated, or iron it. I personally didn't like the pleats so I chose to iron. This is how it turned out!

The next type I got to try was called tesuji which involved wrapping fabric around a rope and then dying it. This method was easier, but also didn't have as cool of a result. I started with a lavender color and the over-dyed it black.

Feathers & Smocking
These are another few areas I have been learning skills in. Today we learned how to use feathers. I learned the characteristics of different feathers from various birds and was able to make an accessory with them! I chose to do a hand piece/braclet/corsage type thing. I used goose and pheasant feathers. I actually had to pluck the pheasant feathers from the leathery skin. It was disgusting and smelly.

This is the pheasant

Final product!

I also learned smocking today! If you dont know what it is, just look because I dont know how to describe it. :) This process is so so easy and it looks so great after!

This is the front.

This is the back, which I think looks even cooler than the front! You can see that I drew a grid with a pattern as a guideline. That is honestly the hardest part.

Sightseeing
Here are just some pictures of the things I have seen and done since I've been here!

This is the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is one my favorite places here. It is BEAUTIFUL. Also, very close to my apartment!

These are some of my friendies. The girl in the middle front in my roomie!

The Sacre Coeur is amazing.

Eiffel Tower!

This is the view from the Trocadero, which is incredible. We stopped here on our class bus tour.

Who's Next is this giant trade show/market that we got special access to. It was cool to see the enironment in which buyers work with designers/brands.

This was an exhibit in the Louvre all about undergarments through out history. There were corset type things made out of metal and giant wooden structures for volumes, etc. It was so cool! I love this one so much.

We also went to Musee d'Orsay, which is home to many paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas and many others!

MACAROONS. I am obessesed with them. They are so good, although quite pricy. I bought 9 this day, one of each flavor. They were all gone in the next 24 hours.

I went to Louvre for a few hours with my class last week. It was incredible! This is from my favorite room from our visit. I plan on going back the next two fridays so I can see as much as possible!

Notre Dame!

July 14th is a national holiday in France called Bastille Day. Most of my class signed up to go on a cruise that day, but a few of us didnt, so instead we went to a friend's house. He was having a rooftop party to watch fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. It a little scary to get up there with this janky little ladder.

But! This was the view! It was so worth it. We were with a bunch of locals and we felt so Parisian.

Fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I will never forget this.

These are the girls I went with sitting on the roof!

After a very long trip, I am in Paris. This is something I have wished for years and it is hard to believe I am actually here. The flights were actually pretty great (besides the food). I arrived to Paris an hour early, thinking I could maybe make it to the first day of class on time. I quickly found that a pay phone cost 10euros and the number they gave me to schedule a pick up didnt work on them. After many minutes of panicking I eventually went to information where the lady called for me and figured it out. An hour later I was picked up (interesting with another girl from Colorado), and two hours after that I arrived at the school. That shuttle was incredible chaotic, I am shocked we didnt get in an accident. I learned that I will NEVER drive here. Ever. After feeling over whelmed with the stress of the arrival I was questioning why Paris is so loved, but as soon as I got to the school, I understood. It is located right next to an incredible church and across the street from that is a little courtyard with two fountains and a few little shops. My apartment is on the other side of the church, so it is obviously very easy to get there. My roommates name is Liliya and she is from Moscow. She doesn't speak English very well but I have enjoyed teaching her a few words and phrases so far. She is very nice. Our little apartment is rather cute! We both sleep in a room that has two big windows and room for a dining table. It also has a little bathroom and kitchen in separate rooms, as well as a small walk in closet. I love it except for the rock-solid beds. The main building where classes are held has 4 floors, each one for a different subject (fashion design is on the top floor). As soon as I dropped off my luggage, I went to the lab and started sewing right away. The professors only speak French, and they speak to you like you understand it perfectly. Almost everyone understands very little, so we have a translator named Madeleine to help us when we are desperate. After 3 hours of sewing lines and doing mock hems by hand, I hurried home to change and came back to go to a couture fashion show for a designer for Eric Tibusch. We were helping dress models back stage, which was great because we could see the contruction details and feel the fabrics and textures. It was very hectic and quite disorganized which is what I am used to during fashion shows. I didnt bring my camera to the show, but some of the clothes were amazing. It was interesting to see that they were not perfectly constructed like I expected. I found some mismatched seams and uneven hems, etc. It was incredibly frustrating to not speak french there though because we would get yelled at to find something or do something and have no idea what to do. Anyone who could translate was already running around like a crazy so we were not very helpful there. After the show, some girls and I took the metro home, which was a maze but I loved it. The next day I had French survival class (where I found one girl from Kazakhstan, Kirsten!) in the morning and then we went to a couture exhibit at the city hall of the 4th arrondissement. It was incredible to see garment from legendary designers up close. My favorite part was being able to see a sample garment including marking/fitting notes from Karl Lagerfeld (head designer of Chanel). I wish so badly I could hvae taken a picture because it was flawless. In the exhibit there were garments from the 1800's along with garments shown in the 2013 shows, so great. After the exhibit, I had time to nap! Then I went to the next fashion show for Alexandre Vauthier. This one was at a much nicer location and was obviously a higher end production. Every model wore a pair of Louboutins (with the red soles). The model I dressed wore a beautiful jacket that was embroider with a zillion beads and crystals. It was incredibly heavy and fragile, but so amazing. I brought my camera this time so I have pictures! I met some new students at this show and we walked around the 7th arrondissement (where the Eiffel Tower is) and it was incredible, and then I got home early! And that is all so far. I have hardly had any free time to eat, let alone visit any attractions. However, I have gotten to see alot already through traveling to each event. I really love it here, and I would love it more if I walked less. My feet are dying but I am hoping that gets better. I will post things as often as I can, but I give no guartunees! Loverretta