Dior, LVMH, Guerlain...just another day in class

Last week, on a cold Paris day, our fearless leader Jean-Pierre lead us on an excursion through Avenue Montaigne and the Champs-Élysées. We saw Dior, Chanel, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Dolce and Gabanna, jewelry stores, and other high-end shops. The Plaza Athenee is a high-class hotel that is also located on Ave Montaigne which has a Dior spa.

From wiki "By the 1980s, the avenue Montaigne was considered to be la grande dame of French streets for high fashion and accessories, and is now considered more important than rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré (which is where the Chanel store is with the staircase). Several established clothing designers set up here, particularly the LVMH (Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton) group. LVMH brought investment and international attention to the street, and its stable of top designers and firms, such as Céline, Loewe, Vuitton, Inès de la Fressange and formerly Christian Lacroix, own a substantial portfolio of the street's real estate."

The store opened in late 1946. The salon is known for the dove-gray color. Does anyone remember Carrie Bradshaw's spill on the marble floor? Christian Dior Fall 2009 Haute Couture show which takes place at the store LVMH Headquarters. Like the Murakami? Next on to beautiful Guerlain. Guerlain was founded in 1828 and is now coincedentially owned by LVMH--hmm, should I buy some stock? It is one of the oldest perfume houses in the world. I was the tester for their infamous Teracotta make-up. I had a nice healthy glow:)

Istituo Marangoni, Milano, or as my cousin Carla called it, insurance on my future

I was in Milano and then, Basaluzzo, and Genova this weekend.

I took Easy Jet, which is very cheap to Milano, Malpensa and then a shuttle from Malpensa to Milano (central). My objective in Milano was to visit the school Istituto Marangoni for possible masters program in fashion design. I could not believe how smooth my transportation from the plane, shuttle, and taxi went in order to arrive to the school on time for my orientation appointment, but it did!

Once there, Tiziana, the orientation officer answered all of my questions and then some. The school even has a masters for e-Fashion which is in partnership with the online shopping company yoox.com--very cool. The masters of fashion design really sounds wonderful and I was told that there are a couple of American students in the program as well. Hmm...there could be a designstudentlivinginMilano next year;)

this is in the lobby. videos of previous collections of students work played continually

The school is right in the near all the fancy high end shops

Zandra Rhodes and David Humphries

Do check out more about Zandra Rhodes as well. Can't help but love her and her love of fashion and mosaics:) This is the building of the Fashion Textile Museum. Enjoy!

London's Swinging Sixties

Poor me. I went to London again. This time with two beautiful friends, Nina and Natalia.

Friday we went to the Fashion Textile Museum which was exhibited the works of Foale and Tuffin: Made in England. The fashions were great! I actually saw a paper dress--true it was still in its envelope, but that is because it is insanely difficult to keep paper preserved over the years. The one I viewed was from 1966. (Here is some info on paper dresses)

The exhibition was setup like a swinging boutique accompanied with a Partridge/Mondrian-esque film of a girl from today's times wearing the dresses displayed--loved it! Really digging the fashion films.

While viewing the great clothes, a sweet petite lady with a pixie haircut, and sparkle shadowed eyes approached Nina and I. She asked us what piece we liked most and I pointed to chic knitted red herringbone jacket, Nina chose a lime green shift dress. We both then asked why she asked? She, herself, Sylvia Ayton, worked in constructing garments with Foale and Tuffin and has been life long friends since the 60's. They also all went to the Royal College of Art and Fashion together.

Nina and I interviewed and chatted with Ayton. Sylvia has constructed coats for 30 yrs, most notably for the Wallis Fashion Group, Ltd. Today, between teachings and lectures, she also examines the final collections at St. Martin's. (Sylvia's bio)

Sylvia Ayton (1937-) and Zandra Rhodes (1940-)
1966
Paper

Sylvia Ayton and Zandra Rhodes's innovative designs were taken up by boutiques and some of the more commercial stores. When Miss Selfridge opened in 1966, the buyer stocked their distinctive printed paper dresses. Customers loved them, but kept tearing the hems to see if they really were made out of paper - they were!
Sylvia Ayton

I asked her what she thought of the fashions of today and she replied, "I just like fashion. There is no decade that is better than another; fashion is just fashion." (Nina, Sylvia, and I)

Do take a look at the links and here is the dress that Nina liked. It is from the Victoria and Albert museum's website, which you should browse through. Cheers!

Merci Merceries et Georges Rech

At Georges Rech with Madame D'Argoeuves

marking off samples in the pink, above and below:)

don't know if he can hold a candle to Adele but...

Our fantastic Fashion Illustration Professor, Isabelle D'Argoeuves (click on her name to check-out our book that she wrote for teaching the subject), led us through a tour of one of the largest garment districts in Paris. The area is called Le Sentier, which is a quarter entirely devoted to the textile and ready-to-wear business. We viewed many mercerie shops which contain mainly notions and buttons, but some with textiles, too.

(About la mercerie (the shop), the original word is mercier (for a seller) & mercière (for a woman)

We walked through a couple of indoor, arcade style wholesale marts, and ended our tour at a fantastic design house, Georges Rech. Professor D'Argoeuves worked at Georges Rech for a substantial amount of time (she did not want to say how long) before teaching at CEA. She worked many designing ends, but predominantly designed accessories.

Some notes from the gracious employees' who spoke:

* takes trois mois (three months) to create one collection

* Georges Rech beadwork is done in India

* they are also under partnership with Apostrophe

* they work with 121 fabric companies, chose 40 styles, in which they order 3 to 5 colors of that style

* once they have all the colors and fabrics picked, then they design

* wonderful Thomas, designs knitwear and avows that it is more difficult to design knitwear than cut-and-sewn because it takes about 4 samples to get one piece designed correctly due to re-fittings

Check out Georges Rech's website too! (ps, check out raena's blog to see video of the pattern plotter in action!)