Paris Part One/Fashion

(Peter is the director of the Academy so all tickets were in his name)

I arrived in Paris on Friday morning Sept. 3 after a flight of over more than 10 hours, direct from SFO to Paris. Sharon met me at the airport and we got on the Metro to ride back to where we were staying in the Latin Quarter or 5th arrondissement. It was my first ride on a subway. I know, you're probably sitting there with a shocked look on your face saying "what?" as most people do when I tell them this. No I had never ridden on a subway before. It was very crowded and we were juggling my luggage aboard but Sharon is a veteran subway rider and graciously helped me get the hang of it.

After I unpacked I took a three hour nap and then I was ready to go. I wasn't good at carrying my camera with me always, or taking photos of everything. I didn't keep a detailed journal, I just wanted the experience of being there and not having to document it all. When I went back to jot down my daily list of things I did I couldn't even remember what I did that first Friday I was there. Really, but I know we were on the go.

On Sat. we went to Monmarte and the fabric district.



On Sunday we went to the flea market which I'll write about in my next post.

On Mon. we were up early and off to Pret-a-Porter. The Paris American Academy sent all the students and faculty to this annual event where designers of ready-to-wear show the latest fashions for buyers to submit orders. It was huge! We (I am going to say "we" a lot because Sharon and I were together non stop) met many designers whose work we loved. The main floor had a section for "green" designers but it was called "so ethic" and I found several clothing collections from this section I liked. Cameras were not allowed so no pictures except the fashion show one below that we snuck with Sharon's phone camera.



Here are a few sites you can go look for yourself, but remember the collections I saw was for the 2011 lines that aren't being shown on websites yet.

PRIVATSACHEN
mara gibbucci
ELISA CAVALETTI

We were drawn into this designers shop and sat and watched his fashion show. We either loved the garments or hated them, his designs were extremely varied. Later in the week we went into the Didier Parakian fashion house when we went shopping on the Champs Elysees.

And I like these boots como no

We went to the concourse next door to view the "Who's Next" designers and see a fashion show. The show had a fabulous set with escalators on each side of the back of the stage and a large and steep staircase in the center. The first show was "Converse" and I really tried to see the theater in it but it was boring, long, and hard to tell what they were really selling. A model walked down the center stairs and sat down at a vanity onstage. A guy wearing a Converse tee shirt and shorts rode the escalator down one side holding a Converse gym bag in front of him and walked over to the model. He took our a hairbrush and began teasing her long hair up and then affixing sunglasses in the teased hair for 20 minutes! Then two guys dressed in the same outfits with their hair already teased and sunglasses sticking up out of the hair rode the escalators on each side down and stood on the side of the stage while for another 15 minutes while the guy finished the hairdo on the model. Now you tell me what it was about?

It was taking a very long time for the next designer's show to start and my back was aching a bit so we left to take the tram back to the Metro and home to the apartment where we were greeted by this view from the apartment window.



It was a long, exhausting day but very inspiring and our minds were whirling with ideas.

(p.s. A Francophile friend of mine wrote to tell me this about my previous post: "One small thing but gramatically important to the French: Bonjour MES amis (that's plural, for all your friends, mon is singular)" and I thank her for that!)