Voir c'est croire.: Paris Fashion Week

Bonjour!

Paris Fashion Week started February 27th and runs through March 7th. The first five days of the fashion week, our school was asked to help backstage at five shows. Even though signing up for all five shows was insane, especially with an eight day internship following I figured I would never have the chance to work at Paris Fashion Week again and I signed my name on the lists!

The first show, Steffie Christiaens, was Tuesday night. A few of us girls took the metro after our hat making class and headed towards the venue. We had to sit outside for a half an hour but after asking what we needed to do, they let us come in and start folding programs to organize on the benches. When that was finished, we were taken backstage into a tiny tiny room with the models, backstage crew, the workers from the design team and all of the model dressers, us. There was literally no room to move and the show was to start at 7:00. I was pressed up against the wall and still felt like I was in the way! After several minutes, the design crew came back and said they would be letting eight people go home because there was not enough room for everybody. They went around and picked eight people, I was "rearranging" things for my model when this was happening so I got to stay! I made myself look busy and they seemed to like that!
Even though eight people left, it was still cramped and almost 7:20. The models were not dressed, their hair and makeup was not done and I did not have my second look because they were still sewing it! This show was so completely unorganized! Even though fashion shows always start late, because they're "fashionably late", this show was ridiculous! No one seemed to know what was going on and the clothes were still being sewn and fixed up until my model went out on the runway for her first look! They pretty much threw the dress at me, I dressed my model in like 30 seconds and she headed back out on the runway for her second walk through. Definitely was a very unorganized and stressful show but the clothes were neat! Seeing shows like this teaches me how to do things differently when I have my own runway show.

Steffie Christiaens Fashion Show

Steffie Christiaens Finale

My roommate Jasmine and I setting up!

Setting out programs!

My model and I backstage!

The model's first look!

The dress they were sewing this dress up until she had to walk in it!

The second show was on Wednesday night for Gareth Pugh. This show was directed under the same person that the Thursday night show was and my internship as well. This show was very organized and we each were paired up with a model. They had snacks for us and let us watch the show walk through. When we dress models backstage we cannot see the show, all we can hear is the music. Even though the walk through is not the same as the actual show it is nice to get a feel for how the show will look. After the walk though, I grabbed more orange juice!!, and headed to dress my model.
Gareth Pugh came around and talked with each of the dressers to let us know how our garments worked and the easiest way to put on and take off the garment. We is a tall, really really skinny gangly guy who has Justin Bieber hair and a strong British accent. The entire time he talked to me he kept flicking his hair. It was rather distracting and it was hard to understand him as well. After that I dressed my model and headed upstairs to help another girl with her model's second look. The show started and backstage was completely black. Not only did we have difficult changes with cranky models, we were in the dark and could barely see anything! We could barely tell one model from the other but we somehow got our girl dressed and back in line! The show went very well and did not last more than 20 minutes. After the show everyone was whisked back downstairs for snacks and champagne to celebrate. W had to wait until most people left so we could be paid but it was nice to finally be paid for a show!

Link for Gareth Pugh Fashion Show

My model that I dressed.

Elise and Pheobe and I! Elise is my other roommate and both are from Australia!

Watching the walk though!

Thursday morning I was supposed to work at a show in the morning but since I will be missing the next several weeks of classes for the fashion shows, internship and my trip to Ireland I went to class instead of going to the morning show. From what I heard, the designs were beautiful and the show was great except that it was freezing! The show was outside down by the river and there were no space heaters. There were two models with broken toes and they made the models work. Apparently they were making the models wear crazy high heels and really tight boots and the girls were crying it hurt so bad. The design team told them to suck it up and get out on the runway. The dressers said they could barely walk, somehow did their walk down the runway and left as soon and they were out of the designer's clothes. They said it was a neat idea but it was much too cold and frustrating.

Manish Arora Fashion Show

Thursday night I worked at the Rick Owens show. This show was run by the same lady who directed the Gareth Pugh show and she is originally from Virginia. The Rick Owens show was so smooth. We all had our models, had them dressed and ready and the show was over before we knew it. There was no stress and it was an excited atmosphere instead of crazy, yell at everyone, scream your head off. It was such a smooth show and all of the dressers and workers said the same thing! During the show there were lines of fire up against the walls. I am trying to find a video of the show to post here otherwise I will see if I can find a picture! Again, we had to wait until relatively everyone was gone to get paid but I was ok with that as long as we got paid!

Link For Rick Owens Fashion Show
The music for this show is "interesting". Maybe turn the volume down.... :)

Model's first look!

Second look!

Friday morning I went to class and ate lunch at home. Friday afternoon I had a meeting with Ana Burk, the director of the Gareth Pugh and Rick Owens shows, about my internship the next day. After our meeting I hurried to the Amaya Arazuaga show. She is a Spanish designer who was having her fashion show in the spanish embassy at the Champs Élysées. I was late coming to the show because of my meeting and the man at the door had a list of names of who he could let in. After checking the list, my name was not there. He said since I was a dresser he could let me in but he needed to write my name down. So I started spelling it in French. He was barely listening and spelt CHAINE and finally got him to understand there was not an "H" so he crossed it out. Then we got to Westergard and I said "doub-le Ve" which means "W" in French. He wrote Du Beauvais for my last name. After doing this with ever letter, he had crossed out my name and started over five times. So in case you're wondering, my I've decided to change my name to CHAINE Du BEAUVAIS. Nice to meet you. Regardless, he let me finally go in and find my group. The Spanish embassy is beautiful and it was a neat location for a show. The music made me feel like I was sitting inside of a kaleidoscope and it was a nice change from really dark and heavy music from every other show. The clothes were very colorful too, again was a nice change from the heavy black and crazy outfits of the other shows. The models chosen for this show were relatively my height which was also a change from the usually tall models of other shows. This show started 50 minutes late but I do not know why because everyone was dressed and ready to go 15 minutes after the actual show time. Who knows with "Fashion People". It was a long time to wait and the show was only like 15 minutes long. We helped our models change quickly and headed for the door. It was time to be at home for awhile!

Amaya Arazuaga Fashion Show Link