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!!!