Dodgie Times in London

London was by far the funnest visit yet since being in Europe for two months. From our days full of visiting limit-pushing designer shops and sections of town to our nights of witnessed fist fights and party ragers of all ages; it was surely a week load of AWESOME.

The greatness of London came before we even got there. We were fortunate to fly into the city of rain on a gorgeous day with a one hour duration of fantastic views. We flew over the sea reflecting the sky we were in; making the view confusing of which blue was the sky and which was the sea. Then we floated with the clouds above the mountains. They were hiding in their hills little pouches of the bluest water I have ever seen. It was a fantastic, uplifting morning flight into an only slightly dreary London.

It was such an energy boosting flight that led the man at borders to tell me to "sober up." So, don't worry America, I am making a good impression for us at border lines with my intoxicating energy ; ).

We then started our time in London getting our tourist sites checked out of the way first. We all hopped from site to site on a coach from seeing the London Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben to shoving ourselves into a little red telephone booth. AAnnnnd then we were let free to actually do fun things in London ; ).

That night we made our way to around Soho where we stumbled upon a loud chorus of drunk men. We couldn't turn down an opportunity of singing with ecstatic middle-aged Londoners, so then came a night of tributes of Queen to Donna Summer. And who knew they had a whole other, funner part of the hokey pokey!?


I wouldn't have thought everyday following could be even more fun than the one prior. The next day we visited the V&A museum which was absolutely fantastic and inspiring.

We then ate a big cake for lunch and hopped from shop to shop . The shops and merchandising of them were so edgy, innovative and exciting. I want to be in London!

But never more did I want to be exactly where I was than that evening. We went to the theater show Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The most colorful, fabulous, hilarious, and best costume filled anything to ever be created. What could possibly be more fun than three diva drag queens on a bus in the middle of nowhere? My face still hurts from my plastered smile of shock and laughter of what three drags on a road trip means.

Our next day was London designers overload!

We first went to Pinaki Studios which houses workplaces for all types of artists; jewelry, interior, fabric designers etc. We met and heard from fabric designer Arantza. She is extremely innovative, making pieces of 3-dimension, with rust details, etc. She works for many theaters and movies to create original fabric for costumes.

We then visited Zandra Rhodes' studio for some educational awesomeness. And by that I mean we played dress-up after hearing about these dream garments from the co-designer =].

That day ended with a lecture from couture millinery designer Prudence. She had a "lovely" bio full of how lovely everything is, which is quite easy to say when your least expensive hat is a "lovely" 800 lbs. Millinery is a fantastic dying art so it's great someone is making the big bucks with it!

The next day we had a free day to invade London. Natalie and I filled most of it exploring the east end. We hopped from shop to shop around and down Brick Lane. The streets were full of vintage stores and boutiques of young fashion designers, painters, sculptures etc etc etc. It was also flooded with young kids dressed like us . . . but cooler! This was such a refreshing feeling being around people trying to be different and new; Italian style has been making me a bit conservative! uuughhAhhh! ;)

We ended our day in East London too at a 1920's themed club. A live band played that perfectly mocked the twenties! Dancing to them in our fringe, pumps, and new tights completed the dream of wanting to live a night from the twenties.

We spent about 3 hrs hopping buses back to our hotel in West London, but along the way we ran into all sorts of worth while events. We witnessed two fist fights, one being between two girls on the ground beating each other in mini skirts over some Mcdonald's "chips" . . . "I'm loving it."

Sadly our week had come to an end, but beautifully at Windsor's Castle. It was a gorgeous, cool day that was a bit calmer than the rest to help us end our fun in London.

London felt great and oh, one day, I'm going back!

Well, As if I was over posting about France

2day Como/Milan Trip

Day trip to Como, another city in fast-forward but all along great!

We visited the Ratti Factory that makes and prints on silk fabrics for high fashion houses. It was founded in 1945 and is still prestigious and prosperous!

They used to do everything for creating the fabrics, even raising the silk worms. Now they do everything else but that.

It was so amazing seeing fabric being massed produced. There were tons of machine looms, printers, dryers, etc. making all of this beautiful fabric.

We had a tour visiting the many steps and ways the fabric was being made and printed.

There were thousands of print templates displaying brand names like Louis Vuitton and Dolce and Gabanna.

It is wild seeing layers of designer fabric just lying around.

Just a wonderful day of seeing wonderful fabrics. We then visited a massive archive of antique fabrics. It was collection of all the intricate, extraordinary hand woven, embroidered, beaded, and painted fabrics from the most luxuries garments of the past.

Outside of this fantastic museum was Lake Como. It was such a peaceful, beautiful lake to have lunch next to and feel the wind from. We were able to see several hydroplanes land from flying around the amazing mountains surrounding the lake; such a great place. (and I think George Clooney lives there.)

We spent the night in this wonderful little hotel that had us take a bus up the mountains to find. Como is a the most lovely city.

After a great sleep due to our black out electric shutters ;), we went to Milan!

In Milan we went to the Triennale Design Museum. The most fantastic place ever! We had the most perfect tour guide. She was so humble, intelligent, open-minded, and of course cute! She led half the students to tears in her great presentation of the exhibit.

Then we just happened to stumble upon Milan fashion week. Somehow neither I or anyone else from the fashion school knew it was fashion week when we were in Milan.

As we were leaving the museum so were all these models etc. from this fashion show. Everyone was flashing their picture as they made ridiculous serious faces of half opened mouths in their daisy dukes. So of course we had to make some smiling, goofy faces in the background. It was fun seeing that models really do act like that.

We then explored through Milan visiting many designer shops etc. etc. Fun Fun Fun.

I could've layed forever in Monet's Garden

Isn't it just great!

Oh, Beautiful, Wonderful, Fantastic PARIS

Finally!! We made it to the dream land. Its the first day and here Nat, Rita, Molly, Kaitlin and I are just turning the corner and then whoa! There, unexpectedly, it is! The massive, but so gentle, beautiful, symbol of the place we've always longed for, THE EIFFEL TOWER!!


We giggled, skipped, and photographed to and all around the tower in reassurance we were finally there!

Then so innocently we are trying to ride the elevator up to the top when all the sexy, french police officers push us out of the limits of the Eiffel Tower. They knew this love was too unnatural but they told everyone it was a "bomb threat."

But undefeated we were; There were so many other great Parisian symbols we had to tackle our first night.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed up to the 250 something stairs to the best view in Paris. All of the lit up streets of the city lead to the circle surrounding the Arc; surrounding us. The sparkling city was surrounding us and of course the wonderful view of the glowing Eiffel Tower at night. Here we all called our mom's and teared up out of happiness and thankfulness that we were finally here!!!

We love being tourists, so we couldn't stop there.
We then strolled down the "Ooooh, Chaaammppss Elyseeesss!" to fill up on some crepes.

And just saying, it's no big deal or anything but the waiter told me "You speak very good french."

OOOhhh Yeeaaahhh! Dream Day!!

The rest of the week was full of endless greatness and of course fashion!

We visited all of these wonderful places I never though would be possible at this point in my life.

Our class visited Premier Vision; the world's largest fabric trade show. It was absolutely massive and full of the most outstanding selection of fabrics, trims, and trend forecasting.

We the met the most talented, kind Madame Picot. One of only five women in the world who knows how to create the tedious, beautiful, unique pleating done in the dresses to the left. She is between us.

She gave a wonderful history of the inventor of the technique; Madame Gres. Madame Picot worked for her and learned this fantastic technique and gave a demo to our class. I was very fortunate to put on one of Madame Picot's amazing designs of silk jersey!

We visited endless wonderful shops and fashion forward places while being surrounded by the well-dressed Parisians too.

We also visited Versailles which is alone always wonderful but there was also an exhibit throughout the castle from the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. He made all these cute, fun, and fantastic manga sculptures that were placed throughout.

From the Louvre to the Parisian gay clubs we did just about everything. Oooh, what a fantastic week of my life long dream of finally going to Paris.

Paris, je t'aime!!