Les semaines finales à Paris

Bonjour!

The last two weeks have flown by so fast. We were so incredibly busy with finishing up our Trend Forecasting class that we had little time for much else, however I definitely managed to soak up every last minute I had left in Paris. In the last two weeks, our class had two big projects to work on. The first a group project, in which we researched a designer, went to their store, and created two mood boards and a presentation based on our research and what we saw in the autumn/winter collection of 2011. My designer was Andre Correges, a french designer known for his space-age collections back in the 1960s. I couldn't help but think the clothes looked straight out of Austin Powers. I even had the Austin Powers theme song in my head as I left the store. The project turned out well, but we were definitely tired after turning it in and presenting on that Thursday.

 A few of my friends and I were relieved and excited that we were heading to Barcelona for a relaxing weekend on the beach! We had a lot of fun in Barcelona soaking up some sun. It was my first experience staying at a hostel, which I'm sure a lot of you know is a very interesting experience. Sleeping in the same room as all of these strangers was a bit creepy, however we met a lot of cool people while staying there! The night life in Barcelona is crazy. I swear people do not sleep! We got back to our hostel in the early hours of the morning after one night out and not one other person in our hostel room was back yet. CRAZY. Anyway although the weekend was a whole lot of fun, it ended badly with my whole entire purse stolen on the beach. People are not exaggerating when they say that Barcelona is known for its pickpocketers. My friend's phone had also been stolen earlier that day. Luckily I had my passport! We returned to Paris that Sunday feeling a bit defeated not to mention broke. Thinking back, it was a very fun and relaxing weekend, it just really did not end well. Oh well, I guess I have to learn from these type of things.

I had to get over this quickly, though, in order to enjoy my last full week in Paris. We were very excited because it was Haute Couture fashion week in Paris. To start out the week, our teacher took us to stand outside of the Dior show and people watch and take some pictures of the people outside of the show. It was really cool, and we saw some amazing clothing, and even spotted Nina Garcia! The next night, we ventured over to the Chanel show outside of Le Grand Palais to do some more people watching. It was very fun because we all dressed up and even had some pictures taken of us! I know we all secretly hoped we could break into the show, but that is just impossible. Here are some pictures my friend Hannah took throughout Haute Couture fashion week:

During this last week we also had a final project to work on, and this time it was an individual project. We had to research a designer, and come up with a forecast for their Spring/Summer 2012 collection. I chose Chloe and created two mood boards based on my inspiration, colors, and fabrics. It was a very fun project, and it ended up going very well! I even had to sketch the collection (I usually draw stick figures), but my teacher helped us through that and one of my friends who is a design major. Even though we had a lot of work to do, we also managed to have some fun during our last few nights. On Wednesday night, we went to this awesome hole in the wall jazz club. My friend Hannah knew a Parisian guy who was friends with the band, so she took us along and we had a great time! The next night, we had our farewell dinner with our whole class and our teacher as well. It was a great time just reminiscing about all of our amazing adventures in Paris. We finished the night at some bars in the Bastille (with our teacher, which was awesome), and had to say some sad goodbyes. I was so lucky to have met all the people in my program, and I know a lot of us will stay in touch!

I was sad to leave Paris, but I am so grateful and happy that I had this experience! I am now in Nice having a great time with Sophie Hoegh and her family at their lovely house. I will be heading back to California on Saturday, and I'm very excited to get back to the states!

I've had a great time over here and France and I've learned so much about the culture and about my passions. Hope you all enjoyed reading my travel blog!

Bisous,
Claire

La Troisième Semaine

Bonjour tout le monde!

The past week has been SO busy, I can hardly remember everything that I have done, but I will try to remember some highlights! So Wednesday was our last day of styling, so we spent most of the beginning of the week finishing up our projects and turning in our final assignments. Our biggest styling assignment, which was worth 40% of our grade was called "The rest is history". We were each given a historical figure and we had to use them as inspiration but put a contemporary touch on our styling. I chose Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, notorious for big flowers and bows as embellishments. A spread in teen vogue inspired me with bright colors and big accessories so here are my final pictures:

We were done with our styling class on Wednesday, and so we went out for a Sushi dinner to celebrate the end of our class and also our friend, Kasey's 22nd b-day. Following a long dinner, we headed to some of the bars in the Bastille. It was a very fun night out with some girls! On Thursday, we had our first day of Trend Forecasting. I'm really enjoying this class, and have already learned more than I think I learned the whole duration of styling (although that class was a lot of fun). Our teacher, Michael Azu, is a women's wear designer in London. He has taken us already to the Pierre Cardin museum, the Madame Gres exhibit, and around some of the very nice shopping areas with many designer names to observe not only the clothing, but the people as well.

On Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to take an hour bus ride to Giverny where we would explore Claude Monet's house and gardens. It was absolutely gorgeous, and a nice little break from the city. We ended up having the BEST lunch I think I've ever had at a little place up the road from Monet's house. I have been craving mussels so I finally indulged. Here is a picture of the huge meal along with some pictures of the day:

Saturday night we went to a night club that is directly next to the Seine River. It was so awesome and played really good music! Sunday was probably one of my favorite days here in Paris so far. A group of us decided to rent bikes for the day (which is really easy to do, the bikes are on the street and you just buy a ticket online and take one). It was the most beautiful weather, and we put our swimsuits on under our summer clothes and rode our bikes along the Seine, towards the Eiffel Tower. We then got Sandwiches and laid out on the grass at the Tuileries gardens, eating our sandwiches and ice-cream, soaking up the sun. We haven't had the warmest weather in the past few weeks, but Sunday was the start to a major heat weave. It has been scorching hot ever since! I can't complain though because I've been hoping for some sun on my pasty skin! On Monday night we finally climbed the Eiffel Tower! We took the stairs all the way up to the second level and then up the elevator to the top. The tower twinkled when we were waiting for the elevator. It was so beautiful and worth the wait!

I have about a week and a half left here in Paris, and then off to Nice for a week. There is so much more that I plan to squeeze into the next week and half! We have a weekend trip booked for Barcelona, and I cannot wait for the beach!!!! I hope everyone is having a great summer. I miss everyone at home!

à bientôt!

Weekend in London!

Hello everyone!

So last weekend our program took a group trip to London. It was organized through our school, and 11 out of the 14 of us decided to go! It was nice to go on a trip organized by our school because everything was well organized and we had an itinerary planned out for us before we even arrived. We met for the train early on Friday morning, all a bit sleepy but excited for the weekend. The train ride from Paris to London is only a quick 2 1/2 hour ride, so it went by very fast. What made it quicker is that every single one of us passed out the moment we got on the train and didn't wake up until we were in London! We all wished someone captured a picture of the 11 of us fast asleep on the train. Once we got to London we were welcomed by Tony Skitt who works for AIU London and had organized the trip for us. He was basically our tour guide for the weekend, and it was great because he was full of information about the whole city of London. It was my first time in London, so I was very excited to see the city that I had heard such amazing things about! Tony led us to our dorms, and we were very surprised by how much nicer the accommodations were than our dorms in Paris. The rooms were spacious and came with a full kitchen in the rooms and the building had a game room, computer room, and TV room! It's okay I still love Paris, but I'm very jealous of students who get to stay in those dorms! Later that day we had a walking tour around Dover street, Bond Street, and South Moulton Street where Tony introduced us to an area  of "high-end" London fashion. We then traveled to the AIU London campus and were met by the Fashion Dean there who gave us a presentation on contemporary London fashion. Later that night, we got all dressed up and went and saw the show "Blood Brothers"! Tony told us he picked it because it was his favorite show, and it is definitely one of my favorite now too.  I absolutely loved it. After the show, all of the girls and I headed out to explore as Tony called it: "The thumpin' London night life" haha. We somehow ended up at two different Irish pubs that night and had a lot of fun! 9:30 am was an early morning for all of us the next day, but we somehow managed to get through the full day walking tour. On this tour, Tony took us to many of the monumental sites of London including the Buckingham Palace,  Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Nelson's Column, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, and ended at the beautiful Westminster Abbey. It was a very long, jam packed day but I was so glad we got to see so much in such a short visit in London. That night we had free and it was a friend, Erin's birthday, so we all headed to a restaurant bar called the Brewmaster. It was a very fun place, the food was delicious, and the people who worked there were very nice! After a nice dinner, we headed over the this bar/club called Penthouse and it was absolutely AMAZING. It had three different levels with different djs on each floor. We headed to the top floor where there was the coolest view of the city. 

We had a great time there, exploring each floor and dancing. My friend Elyse and I ventured over to another bar. We ended up spending all the pounds we had getting into that last bar except I had 10 pounds to get us home. We got some free pizza, and then somehow convinced a pedicab driver to take us to our dorms. It was about a 30 minute ride, and I felt bad for the guy because he was out of breath by the end. It was hilarious though, and definitely a highlight to the weekend. On Sunday, we had another quick walking tour, and then headed to the train back to Paris. 

I had a great time in London, but felt anxious to get back to Paris! It has felt more like a home to us lately as we have gotten into our little routines here. I was mostly craving my favorite crepe: nutella et banane! 

For some reason the pictures will not load right now. I will try to add them to the post at a later date!

La deuxième semaine

Bonjour tout le monde!

I have now been in Paris for two weeks, and I'm loving every moment of it! Last week was another jam packed schedule for our styling class. Although busy, it was a short week because it was a holiday on Monday and Friday we headed to London! We had a few fun afternoon outings this week for class. On Tuesday, we went to a beautiful park called Buttes Chaumont. It is located in the 19th arrondisement, and we took the metro there following our morning class. We walked around as a class and enjoyed a warm and sunny day in Paris! On Wednesday, we did a full day outing instead of our normal routine. In the morning we met at the metro station and headed over to Sacre Couer. As a group, we explored the church and learned a little of the history from our teacher and chaperone, Marie. There is a street below Sacre Couer that is full of different fabric stores, so we explored that area and bought some fabric for some styling purposes. After eating lunch at a little cafe (of course I ate my favorite salad here: Chevre Chaud), we headed on the metro over to the Le Grand Palais. The artist that is now featured in the museum is Anish Kapoor, who is known for making people see things in a different perspective. It was very interesting and unusual.

Our one styling assignment that we worked on last week was called "Mood:Food", where we had to bring in any food item to use for styling. I randomly chose to use artichokes and do a jewelry shoot. Here is my picture for that:

On Wednesday night, I went with some of my friends to watch the Stanley Cup final at a Canadian pub. I was blown away by how many people were there. Apparently there are a lot of Canadians in Paris? My friend Hannah is from Vancouver, so I stayed late with her to watch the game. The Canadians weren't so happy with the loss. I couldn't care less hah, although I'm sure my dad would love me to say I was supporting my Canadian roots! The game wasn't over till close to 5 am here so it was hard to wake up for class on Thursday morning, but luckily we weren't doing much that day! 

Friday morning we headed to London! I will post another entry soon to elaborate on my weekend in London!

Ma Premiere Semaine

Bonjour from Paris!

I just finished my first week in Paris and I already love the city, the people, and the classes that I am taking. I am here in Paris for 5 weeks studying fashion styling and trend forecasting and I will be using this blog to share my experiences with everyone back at home! I hope you enjoy.

I arrived in Paris last Sunday and we jumped right into our program with a walking tour around the Bastille area (near where our dorms are). We are basically staying in the center of Paris which makes it very easy to get around by foot or by metro. There are 14 people in our program (13 girls and 1 boy), and everyone was very nice and outgoing from the start. I have met some great people here already!

Although last week was just the start to our classes, we jumped right in on the first day. Our styling class is taught by George Meyer-Wiel. He lives in London, originally from Germany, and has a lot of experience as a fashion designer, stylist, and teacher. He has even styled for Vogue before. George is full of energy which makes our class very exciting each day. We have a lecture in the morning hours and then in the afternoon George and our chaperone, Marie, take us around interesting areas in Paris to serve as inspiration for out photo shoots. In our lectures, we do critiques of our photos and brainstorm ideas for our next assignments. We have already done three photo shoots in our first week here! The first was called "Magazine Massacre" in which we had to style a model using creations out of magazine pages. The second assignment, "Nip Tuck", required the deconstruction of an old garment into something new. And our third, and most important photo shoot so far was the "Tribal Shoot" in which we did research on tribes around the world and used a contemporary editorial to inspire our own images. Here are some of my favorite of the photo shoots I have done so far:

On our first day of class we had a speaker named Patrice de Place who is very well known in the Paris fashion scene. He was the president of Christian Dior in Paris and the president of Celine in Japon and the Unites States. He went over a brief history of how fashion has evolved in Paris, and talked about fashion today in Paris. It was awesome to hear him speak of his opinions of the top designers, boutiques, and department stores in the city. Later that afternoon we went to the extremely fancy department store, Eclaireur, one of the three most chic department stores in Paris. It was AMAZING. The entire store is made up of these textured walls, and everything from the store layout to the clothing displays to the color choices is very edgy and contemporary. It had the most beautiful (yet expensive) clothing you could imagine.  The next day after class, we headed over to the Pompidou. We didn't go into the museum, but walked around that area, and looked in some vintage clothing stores for styling inspiration. On Friday, we went to the Quai Branly museum, which sits right next to the Eiffel Tower. This is a museum that features indigenous art cultures, and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The exhibitions were very interesting, and they definitely gave us some inspiration for our tribal shoots which we did over the weekend.
I was very excited for the weekend because Sarah Roberts came and visited! We had a great time together, and I am so happy she got to meet some of my new friends and explore the city with us. We went out to some bars in the Bastille area on Friday night, which is a young area with a lot of students. It is very funny going out and talking to french people. I try my best to speak french, and am mostly understood but a lot of french people want to practice their English so when I speak French to them, they will respond in English. We went to a club the next night, which was a very interesting experience and of course ended the night with some yummy crepes! I made great friends with the taxi driver that night. He told me I was his favorite American he's ever driven because my french was magnifique! OUI! We saw Sacre Coeur on our way to a little lunch place, went to a flea market on Sunday, and had a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower on Monday. All and all I'd say it was an outstanding first weekend in Paris! I am loving the city, and feeling much more comfortable with my surroundings each day.

This week we will be working some more on our styling activities, and then on Friday morning we leave for London for the weekend! I cannot wait!


A bientôt mes amis!!!