Internships and Runway Shows

I feel this term has been filled with me always saying sorry to you out there, and yet again I say sorry for keeping you all in the dark. BUT in my defense I have had very little free time in between working a ridiculous amount of time at my internship, classes, and schoolwork. So the last time I let you guys know I was getting an internship at Peter Pilotto, well a lot has happened since then!!!!! When I started it was about 2.5 weeks until their show, but weirdly (maybe I should say scarily) enough there wasn’t much to do and all the interns were fighting to do the simplest things. The fact that there was very little to do was very worrying! Well I should also tell you a little about the awesome people who work there! To start off, everyone is wonder and they are very nice, there are the pattern cutters Murat, Suzzane, Stephen, and Helen Shine. Murat is very funny but very meticulous, Suzzane is really quite and shy until you get a little wine in her, Stephen is amazing at draping and funny as well, and then there’s Helen Shine, she is super bubbly, funny, crazy and always fun! There are the assistant type people Yusuke, Katie, Jess, and Anna, the seamstresses, and of course quite a few interns. And of course there are the designers Peter and Christopher, who are hard working yet still very nice, which isn’t the norm in the fashion industry. Peter is the quite one, but funny and the backbone of the label, and Christopher has a flamboyant personality and quite the jokester, together they make a perfect ying and yang design team.

            Ok, now back to my internship, at first the hours were decently, 3hrs here 6hrs there, but that all ended the week leading up to the show!!!! The week before the show the facilities hours were extended from nine to 24hrs, which meant we often left past midnight if not 3-5am!! You have to also see this was on top of school! Well that week I had found out that we were expected to stay the full 24hrs before the show on Tuesday the 23^rd, and at first was all against staying, but inevitably I had to do it, and this was after doing an 18hrs day the day before!! Everyone was living off of chocolate and redbull, which definitely took it’s toll! People were crazed towards the wee hours of the morning, roaming around like drugged zombies, and the moment you stopped you were in extreme danger of falling asleep, so you just wandered around aimlessly to pass the time. When it came time to go to the actual show all of were exhausted, stressed, hyped-up, anxious, the whole gamut of emotions, this may have been from the number of redbulls we all consumed that night.

            Once we got to the show, it strated to become very surreal for me. Seeing all the girls getting into hair and make-up was just like watching a behind the scenes runway show on youtube. The clothes racks were put out with the looks all carefully hung up according to whom was modeling it and surprisingly there were so many more clothes than I had realized. See at the studio was only one of the places putting the garments together, there were the manufactures sewing up samples as well as individual seamstresses around town and they were all making there way back the last few days before the show. Anyway I was assigned to dress Ming for the show and she wore a pair of snakeskin printed rust trousers, a sash button-up shirt, and printed tweed short coat and a huge “jeweled” belt. The show was amazing, and everything went together so beautifully, their inspiration was something about 70’s art and architecture, 70’s liberty/paisley prints, and liquid mercury among other things, and although I really dislike the color orange, they so elegantly made me love it in their show. While at the show I had a very starting realization, models are disgustingly skinny in really life! You could see every bone in their small little body, and while they look good in the clothes, the moment you take them off it’s pretty nasty. I thought I was playing into this ideal in fashion by using models who I believe are really skinny, but my models would have to drop a stone (approximately 14 lbs) before they would look like these models, I think the industry should use healthy looking models not dilapidated, skeletal models.

            After the show I slept for two days straight, ha! I wish, I had to get back to working on schoolwork almost immediately! Till this day I still haven’t had what I consider a decent nights sleep, which would be 9hrs+. Since the show I have still been interning at Peter Pilotto, because they had to get their collection ready to take to Paris to show the buyers. In this stage of the collection more accessible pieces get made, so you have a range for buyers to put in their stores, everything from printed t-shirts, knitwear, jackets, skirts, and then all of the pieces from the actual runway show.

            Well in all I have to say this was an amazing and insightful experience, which has not scared me away from the industry, but rather has made me even more excited for the future!

Here are a few of my favorites from the Peter Pilotto AW 2010/11 collection:

Ming

Beautiful Reptile Textured Dress

Draped Dress with Silver Leather

Double Breasted Coat with Leather Sleeves

Swarovski Beaded Dress, with the Amazing Ultra Thigh-high Boots

Good…. Good…. Bad…. Awesome!!!!

-Good

            I’ve been doing pretty well lately, just going to classes and what not. My design class has been doing pretty well, I’m really liking where I’m going with this project. Right now my t-shirt/ jersey top is looking like draped muscularture and the jeans are going to be high-waisted and corseted.

 

-Good

            As I have said, I really like where my project is going, well I’m not the only one… my design tutor also really likes where it’s going and is “excited” for it as she said. This is so reassuring for me, it such a change from last term. Hopefully things keep going the way they are “headed” and she still likes it.

 

-Bad

            So very unlike myself I actually went out and while I had fun, some where though the night I had a little too much fun and found self throwing-up all night and bed ridden all the next day. Of course this wasn’t the end to my punishment from my body, on top of it I also got sick! Poopy, it sucks, even a week later I can still feel the cold, but on the bright side at least I’m getting better. Oh another bad, I actually got food poisoning half way between my drunken night and the present, basically my flatmate Hannah was going to throw away some salmon fillets, which she said had been in the freezer too long. Seeing as I not one to let food go to waste I said I would eat them, I prepared them, ate them and the next I was sick! Great, but it went away after that day, thank goodness!

 

-Awesome

            the most exciting news of all, I have an internship!!!!! I am currently interning for some up and coming designers under the name Peter Pilotto. Quite a few famous people have been spotted wearing their creations, including Rihanna, Sienna Miller, and our first lady Michelle Obama!! They work with amazing prints that they come up with, and put it on amazingly cut clothes! As some of you may know London Fashion Week is coming up and I will be helping them at their show and I am currently helping them at their studio as well. So far I have been copying patterns and cutting out fabric, which isn’t a lot, but I am happy to help with whatever I can. I’m super excited, but this next week leading up to London Fashion Week is going to be really hectic, basically they want me to come in everyday this week and stay until 10-11pm every night. In the world of fashion there is a basic equation for intern Intern = Slave! Some of the intern on 3 month placements will be working 13+ hour days this week, and I will be working that on the days that I am off, including the weekend, and will be working 8+ hours days on the other days where I have class, keep in mind this is all without pay! Fun time are ahead, it will definitely be interesting and fun towards the very end, but it’s going to be stressful!!

 Peter Pilotto Autumn/Winter 2009

Peter Pilotto Spring/Summer 2010

The designers: Peter Pilotto (Left) and Christopher De Vos (Right)

New Term, New Tutor, New Assignment

Second term started a few weeks back, while I was in Paris I might add, and so far it has been pretty good. Our project this term is based on street fashion, and we have to design a pair of jeans and a t-shirt based on muse of our choice. My muse is Dita von Teese and have broken down her look into 1950’s Hollywood glamour and bondage! Well anyway I am designing a t-shirt based off of anatomy and the jeans are going to be high waisted and corseted. I have already been to two design classes with my new tutor Lilianna Senguino, who is from Colombia and looks like a Viking warrior princess. She is amazingly helpful and likes where I’m going with my work. I also talked to her about my concerns about not being challenged and she encouraged me to start interning for designers, as long as it wouldn’t interfere with my work. Since London Fashion Week is just around the corner, she suggested that I email some designers as and ask if I could volunteer for them, so I did just this and am currently waiting to hear back from them. I’ll tell you if any get back to me don’t worry!

 

Side note: a new friend from my course told me this week that over heard my very difficult tutor from last term tell my tutor from this term that she didn’t like male womenswear designers, BUT she like my work along with the other guy in my group! YAY! Honorable mention for Marcus!!!!

Dita von Teese

Paris J'taime

So sorry for not updating while I was on my Christmas Holiday, but up until the last week there wasn’t much to write about other than I was getting more plump from all the eating I was doing. Well in short I spent most of my Christmas Holiday with my flat mate Hannah’s family in North London, side note from the same town as Amy Winehouse. Her family is absolutely mad in all the best ways, there was never a dull moment. For Christmas, while I missed all my friends and family back home, I had an awesome time! It was really interesting to see how others celebrate the holidays and I got to eat a bunch of new things such as: goose, Christmas pudding, mince pies, and potatoes roasted in goose fat. So all in all my break was fun and interesting with out being too eventful, that is until the last week.

 

While I haven’t invited many of my friends to come and visit me here in London, only one has actually taken the offer my friend Eddie. Since this was his first time here, we planned to visit all those touristy spots in London, which I haven’t seen even though I’ve been here for over 4 months now. Here is the list of places we visited: British Museum (has all the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts), Tower of London (Crown jewels are located here), Tower Bridge, Big Ben/House of Parliament, London Eye (though it was closed due to bad weather), Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Marble Arch, Harrods, and of course Oxford Street for a little shopping. Take in mind we saw all of these places in 3 DAYS! Kinda crazy I know, but everything in London is so close it is possible. I also had him try some great English cuisine such as: kebabs and chips, full English breakfast (including black pudding), bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes), meat pies, and my favorite STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING!!!!!

 

Eddie and I posing with the Pharaoh at the British Museum

And now to the main point PARIS!!!!! We planned a 2 ½ day trip to Paris, we though might as well since he already come half way across the world, and what’s a train ride in comparison. Well some might have heard of all the problems Eurostar was having over the holidays due to the snow, and how there were delays and cancellations because of it Well of course it had to snow before we went to Paris so our train was canceled and we had to go at a different time, but in all the hustle and bustle we some how were upgraded to first class on the ride there. This included bigger, more comfy seats, a nice breakfast and plenty of tea and coffee, so why complain, right? We arrived in Paris, hopped onto the Metro and found our hotel with ease, settled in for a few seconds, got our bearing and were off to explore! We decided to venture to the Museum d’Orsay, home of many of the great and famous impressionists paintings from artists including Degas and his ballerinas, Monet with his water lilies, Van Gough, Renoir, Manet, Cassat, Cezanne, and many more! It was truly amazing seeing all those magnificent paintings in person! After the museum, we wondered around the area looking for a place to eat, well in extreme hunger we chose to eat at Brassiere du Louvre, which was to say a bit expensive, but well worth it! I had a superb braised veal shank with spring veggies, and Eddie had skewers of swordfish and king prawns, que RICO!!!

 

The next day consisted of walking down the Champs Elysees down to the Arc du Triomphe. On our way towards the Louvre we stopped and had a sweet lunch at the famous Laduree, which is known for it’s French macaroons and pastries! Yummy nummy in my tummy is all I have to say about that! After finishing we wandered around the Louvre, which for those of you who have not visited is like walking a marathon! The Louvre consisted of 4 floors with artwork spanning from Ancient Egypt to the Classics, among this are some of the worlds famous pieces consisting of, but not limited to: Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, Liberty leading the People, and the Coronation of Napoleon. After our marathon run through the Louvre we decided to walk to Notre Dame cathedral, which mind you it was freezing outside. Then we hopped onto the Metro and headed towards Tour Eiffel! At night the Eiffel Tower is even more astounding than during the day, when lit up it stands as an immense beacon in the night drawing everyone’s eyes to it. We were really lucky, because every hour on the hour they have a light show, where the Eiffel Tower twinkles like a flawless diamond in the night sky. After taking the elevator up to the second tier on the tower and looking out over the illuminated city, we were forced by our grumbling stomachs to go to dinner.

 

Ok dinner deserves to be told in full, it was that awesome! To start off, we were recommended to eat at this famous traditional French restaurant, Boullion Chartier, by one of Eddie’s coworkers. When we got there we understood why it was recommended, the place was completely PACKED! And this isn’t any small place, it was huge and every table was filled, and you were seated at any available place sitting with complete strangers at your table. The waiter brought over our menus, which were completely in French, no English what so ever, and the waiter spoke very little English as well. We didn’t want to be complete American A-holes so we just blindly chose a meal. For starters we both had 6 escargot each, which were AMAZING! For our mains Eddie chose something off the recommended list, which ended up being a whole grilled fish, but I on the other hand tried to make an educated guess on what I was ordering and chose what looked like “adouille” grille frites, knowing that andouille was a sausage, I thought “sounds safe”, haha further from the truth. When I received my plate I was presented with a sausage and I was very thankful, but it wasn’t until I took the first bite that I noticed what it was stuffed with…… PORK INTESTINES!!!! Not even ground intestines, they were full on, unaltered intestines! The first bite was ok, the second a bit dodgy, by the third bite the full flavor started hit me when both the smell and taste were combining to what can only be described as a the aromatic taste of a pig farm, oh yummmmm! While Eddie was eating I was drinking our wine bottle, giving him a splash here and there, while topping off mine. By the time he was almost finished I was a little tipsy to say in the least, so I decided what the heck might as well try fish eyes while I’m at it. As I gouged out one of fish eye off of Eddie’s plate, I didn’t notice but I had an audience from the other three at our table. As I ate it I heard a few “eewwws” from the peanut gallery, as I had just broken the ice we started to talk to them, there was an Englishman and a French couple dinning together, I ask the French lady what exactly I just ate a moment earlier, and she replied “it’s very special and very French”, LOL great special and French! We chit chatted about things and while talking with the Englishman he told me that there was also a CALF’S HEAD on the menu, and I thought “well thanks God I didn’t accidentally pick that one!”. They helped us choose desserts, which were awesome, and then we headed back to the hotel where we picked up a bottle of champagne and so snacks and just vegged for the rest of the night.

 

Our last day I set the alarm for the wrong time, and because of this we didn’t have any time to do anything other than pack and head to the train station. Bye bye Paris, we had fun, see you soon!

 

Me in front of the Arc de Triomphe

Monet at Museum d'Orsay

Winged Victory at the Louvre

Mona Lisa - Very unimpressed

Notre Dame

For my mom, this is the Nativity in Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower

Escargot

Adoiulette, dissected for your entertaiment

and yes I ate the other half