la vie à paris: couturecouture

Doing fashiony things makes my life. I guess this is why I ultimately chose to study in Paris, and let me say, it's definitely starting to have its perks!

As some of you know, it is currently Haute Couture fashion week here in Frenchy-Frenchville, and fortunately for me, I found the show schedule complete with addresses online! Although most of the shows were during class hours, I was able to make it to one tonight. Which show, you ask? Ummmmm... Valentino Couture! YES PLEASE! No I didn't manage to sneak inside, but I was able to stand right outside the entrance with the photographers and other fashion dorks and watch the show-goers and models walk by!! As soon as I got there, I heard some girls speaking English and instantly made friends with Sylvia, Juliana and Sarah, who had all met each other that week while standing outside every couture show they could find. It was so freezing outside, to the point that I could not feel my feet one bit, but we sucked it up and held out our cameras to take pictures of every Vogue editor, model, and pretty young thing that we could spot. While I wasn't quick enough to shoot Anna, who walked right by us into the backstage entrance, or Hamish Bowles, I did get a stunning photo of NATALIA VODIANOVA! I also snapped Chanel Iman and others walking from makeup to the dressing room, and I found Jak & Jil / Style.com photog Tommy Ton!!

{omfg natalia!}

Juliana and Sylvia are both members of a fashion livejournal community and already posted their pictures and a video from couture show lurking.

{smiling as a model runs nearly naked behind me!! weeeee!!}

{sylvia's video of the scene}

Amazing. So worth nearly getting frostbite.

To thaw off, the four of us ducked into a tiny bakery for cake (fresh rasberry, creme and meringue!) and chocolat chaud (hot cocoa) and discussed the week's shows, Target diffusion lines and our love of Sex & the City. Yay new fashion friends! Hopefully we'll all meet up again to lurk outside the Prêt-à-Porter (Ready-to-Wear) shows in March!!

This week also consisted of a couple excellent field trips for my art history and oral French classes.

Today we went to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris' museum of mostly French impressionist and post-impressionist works and is housed in a former train station. If you've never been, I definitely recommend it! The building is really impressive and really does feel like a train station with its ornate rounded ceiling and huge gold wall clock. We saw tons of great works by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Matisse, Cézanne and more, many of which we studied in class. I'm so thrilled to finally take an art history class and fully understand the importance of all these canvases covered in paint.

Last night, we went to the movie theater to see the new film about famed French singer Serge Gainsbourg. It was visually stunning, filled with elements of magic realism and fantasy, and had lots of 60s fashion (my fave!) worn by the characters of Bridgette Bardot and Jane Birkin. I would definitely love to see the movie again with English subtitles, as I probably only understood about 30% of what they were saying.

Alright mes cheries, I gotta dash. Leaving for London straight after class tomorrow and have to finish packing!! (Not to mention do my grammar homework and shower!) Fabulous English updates when I return!!

Paix, Amour et Néon,
Marisa