Gossip Girl Season Finale

The main reason I watch Gossip Girl has always been for the clothes -- the girls always look spectacular.  This week's season finale was no exception.  I adored the gown Blair wore -- I'm trying to figure out which designer it is -- my guess is Marchesa but I have no clue.

The dress Serena was wearing was pretty fantastic as well.  According to Gossip Girl Fashion, it's by Jenny Packham.

from gossipgirlfashion.net

The photo doesn't do it justice.  It looks amazing in the show.

Yikes time for an update

Wow, can't believe I haven't updated in a month!  I just (hopefully) put two websites to bed, so I'm taking a little break before I head to bed myself.

Let's see.  Here are some updates:

- Stylist Martha Violante got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago to use a couple of my
Spring 2011 pieces for a NYLON mag shoot (for the June/July issue), on emerging rap artist rye rye.  She shot the pieces in the photo from my previous post -- the coral lace rashguard crop top, and the spacer bra.  I'm pretty excited to see the images; it'll be my second time getting my work into NYLON.

- I took a short vacation to Miami to visit friends, but really, visit the beach.  It was my first time to Miami and it was really great.  I definitely want to go back.  The beach was beautiful, the water was the perfect temperature, and it's only a couple hours away from New York by plane!  I convinced my friend's friend to give me an undercut while I was there, which looks like this:

The beauty of the haircut is that if I part my hair in the center, you can't tell that I have an undercut.  It's a ninja haircut.

- As soon as I returned from Miami, I had my semi-final audition for Project Runway.  Sadly, I didn't make it to finalist round this time, but I'd like to think that it means there are bigger things in store for me.  The vibe was slightly different this time, and more importantly, no Tim Gunn at the audition!  Just a Marie Claire editor and contestants from seasons past. 

- I uploaded a couple more of my songs on YouTube:





- Last Wednesday, I signed up for painting classes at the Art Students League.  I've been wanting to get back into painting, specifically learning to paint people from life.  The class I've signed up for only goes for 2 more weeks but if I like it, I'll sign up for classes for the summer as well.  I'm pretty psyched about it.  Painting naked people!

- My friend has been teaching me a little guitar.  I can play basic chords and what not but my goal is to be able to play with a little more finesse, as well as play face-melting guitar solos.  To that end, I bought myself a new practice amp.  It looks like this:

(The smaller one. Come on people, I don't want to get arrested for noise pollution).

- I've been writing some new music, including experimenting with writing melodies for someone else's lyrics.  It's been turning out to be fun, since I have a much easier time coming up with melodies than lyrics.

- I've been slowly (it's taking forever) updating the shopping cart for Graey, using Magento.  Hoping to update the rest of the site as well, and reorganize it.

That's it for now, I'm spent!

Graey in NYT T magazine!

My coral lace rashguard cropped top made it into New York Times T magazine!  Check it out here.

From T magazine blog

The writer, Madison Shimoda, contacted me last week, asking for a flat product shot of the rashguard, which I didn't have.  So I went and bought white foamboard and took a picture during daylight of the rashguard top, laid flat on the board.  Then I used Curves in Photoshop to balance out the colors and voila.  It's hard to tell in the image, but the lace is see through, which is why I had to put the bra on top of it in the show.

Spring 2011 shoot -- on the beach

Last summer, while I was developing my collection, my friends (model Rachel and photographer Ferris) and I did a test shoot of some of the Spring 2011 collection at Rockaway Beach.  Rockaway Beach is great because it's free, and you just need a Metrocard to get there, and (I think) it's fairly nice.  You can also surf there, although I haven't yet.  We did see some surfers during our shoot, one of whom let use use his surfboard for a couple of shots. 

Here are a couple. 

You can view the rest on the Graey facebook page, or by clicking here. 

I'm in the middle of revamping the website, but they will be available for sale online soon!

How to create a fashion portfolio

If you click on the above image or go to www.janetleekim.com/portfolio.html, you can view my fashion portfolio. Often when you email people your resume and cover letter, they ask you for links to your work.  However, images of your clothing are generally not sufficient.  They also want to see sketches, usually both hand sketches and Illustrator flats although in New York, more often work is done on the computer.  I'd seen portfolios in the past, and obviously from my own line had collections that I had done, but still felt somewhat at a loss as to how I should put it all together.

Through a personal connection, my resume was submitted internally at Gap and I met with a recruiter.  I showed her a binder that contained a collection of rough sketches with swatches, a couple of lookbooks/photos of my clothes, and press I'd received. She very generously gave me constructive criticism on how to put my book together, showing me a sample of a freelance project she had on hand -- inspiration images, fabric swatches, and sketches.  I think every company has a different preference for style, and in New York, which is a pretty commercial market, the style tends to be favor computer work.  However, the style she was interested in, and what comes more naturally to me, was something more organic and handmade (and someone later told me, what the head designer, Patrick Robinson, prefers).  She also told me that since my background was more unconventional, my portfolio should reflect that.

With that, I decided I wanted my portfolio to feel more like you had come across a sketchbook of sorts, as opposed to something that was more polished.  People get more excited when they feel like they are getting an inside glimpse into your process, even if what they're actually seeing is something that is carefully constructed.  I bought a moleskine notebook and started putting the book together.  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted it to look, but I started with compiling inspiration images.  This was a little tricky because sometimes what inspires me is an idea rather than an actual image - like how would this shape look cut out on a leg -- so I also did a Google search for images which I could pretend inspired my collection.

I looked around on the internet for examples.  I didn't search too hard but didn't really find much that was helpful.  What did help me, however, was to go to a portfolio seminar run by the freelance/talent agency, 24Seven, located in SoHo in New York.  They run all sorts of training events to help you become more employable, including this seminar.  My seminar was run by Molly Gamble, who does recruiting for Delia's.

Molly went through the different aspects of the portfolio, and general do's and don'ts.  However, what was most interesting was the end part where she critiqued each person's portfolio, or whatever they had started.  There were about 6 or 7 of us there.  Although most of the other portfolios were more computer-based (i.e. mainly computer illustrations, laid out in Photoshop, and professionally printed), it was still helpful to see how other people had integrated the different elements.  Seeing the samples really helped me solidify how I wanted to lay out my portfolio.  Since I do some web design, I decided to just scan my portfolio (although I ended up doing a lot of work cleaning up the scans on Photoshop) and put it on my own site.  However, Molly recommended the website Coroflot, a free site where you can upload your portfolio.  Other portfolio sites that were recommended:
- Carbonmade
- Dripbook

Places in New York to buy portfolio supplies:
- Sam Flax
- Lee's Art Shop
- AI Friedman
- Pearl Paint
- Dick Blick
- Utrecht

I bought my moleskine notebooks at Dick Blick (I also live near there).  You can sign up for a discount card and if you're on their mailing list they often send out coupons.

Besides Craigslist, you can find fashion design jobs listed on StyleCareers. Also, a lot of the bigger companies post jobs directly on their websites, and you can apply through their site.

Good luck!

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

I'm currently at JFK, Terminal 5, waiting with my brother to board my flight to San Francisco to see my dear friend Bird.  The flight has been delayed, apparently due to ground problems at SFO.  Thank goodness they have free wifi and I brought my laptop.

I decided to use this down time to catch you up on some of what I've been up to over the past couple of months.  I meant to post about it when I first found out I got the position, but I was too busy to sit down and write about it.  My friend Kellan referred me for an interesting freelance gig.  I handled social media for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which is run by IMG.

Some background on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.  The two major fashion seasons are Spring/Summer, which starts in September right after Labor Day, and Fall/Winter, which starts in February.  New York Fashion Week kicks things off.  The best known and most established venue of New York Fashion Week is what is colloquially known as the "tents," which used to be at Bryant Park until Spring/Summer 2011, last September.  Now they are at Lincoln Center.  Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week connotes those tents at Lincoln Center.  Around 90 designers showed this season at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, although some of those included affiliates who showed off-site (at a venue outside of the tents), but pay money to be associated with the event.

Many designers show off-site, particularly if they are a big enough name that they can draw press and buyers alone.  In the past couple of years, MAC X Milk (shows at Milk Studios in the Meatpacking sponsored by the makeup company MAC) has become a hot venue, drawing the hottest names in fashion. 

However, many designers, if they can afford it, like to show at MBFW (we were instructed to always call it Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week rather than New York Fashion Week or the tents) because of the critical mass that gathers to see all the shows there.  Fern Mallis is credited with creating what is now known as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.  In the early 90s, she was president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and worked to bring the shows, which had been previously scattered and disorganized as well as sometimes in shoddy locations, under one centralized location.  The event has since been acquired by IMG, which produces it.

**Edit.  I'm in Atherton at Bird's house, and continuing the writing of this post from there. **

At Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, there are four different venues.  Each designer is given a 1 hour time slot during which the show takes place, and no other runway show takes place.  Most shows usually run under 10 minutes, but on average, they begin 20-30 minutes late.  The three runway venues are (in order of size): the Theatre, the Stage, and the Studio.  The fourth venue, which was created when the tents moved to Lincoln Center (I believe) is the Box, which is a space for presentations (as opposed to a runway show), and usually overlapped with runway shows.

As the social media manager, I met with the IMG marketing coordinator starting in mid-January to learn the ropes and figure out our strategy.  I managed the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week website, Facebook, and Twitter. 

The main function of the website is to display the schedule of the shows, but starting the Spring 2011 season, the website also featured photos (taken by Getty) of each designer's show, as well as video (this season shot by InDigital).  In addition, the website features a Scene section with photos from each day of the event, as well as a news section, which features news about designers and advertorials about sponsors.  During MBFW, we had four different types of articles -- Designer Did You Know, which contained designers' responses to questions we asked, such as what kind of music was on their iPod; From the Front Row, which were questions we asked to Front Row guests at the shows; Backstage Beauty, where our haircare sponsor TRESemme shared what they were doing with hair on the runways; and Guest Blogs, which were posts by people involved with Fashion Week, like models.

It's hard to say how many people actually read the news articles, since the individual posts did not have unique URLs.  During MBFW we had a couple of news articles a day.  We would link to these articles from our Facebook and Twitter accounts.  On Facebook, our strategy was to limit our posts to no more than one per hour, as to not exasperate our followers.  We also limited the amount of sponsor content we posted on our Facebook page.  In addition to linking to news posts from the website, we also created albums of different themes we noticed on the runways, like maxi skirts.  We also linked to articles about our designers, and posted the YouTube videos of the shows created by InDigital.  I also ran around the venue, taking photos and posting them sometime on Facebook and Twitter.  I had an all-access pass so I could walk around all the venues and their backstages, which was cool.  My boss encouraged me to go to as many shows as possible and tweet about what was happening there, and around the venue, where there was a lot happening with sponsor events.  I used HootSuite to schedule tweets for each of the shows, as well as tweeting live from the event, although that didn't always work so well because there were so many people taking up bandwidth inside the tents.

In addition, we ran a couple of contests to increase our followership.  One was a Street Style competition, where our followers were encouraged to submit photos of themselves wearing one or more items designed by one of our designers.  The other was a Twitter contest, where we asked people to follow us and tweet about their favorite Fall 2011 looks.  Over the course of the event, we managed to gain over 9000 Facebook fans and 5000 Twitter followers.

Here are some of my favorite photos I took with my iPhone from the event: 

Christian Siriano backstage before his show.

Shoes backstage at Rebecca Minkoff, I think.

Betsey Johnson being interviewed at the Diet Pepsi lounge in the lobby.

Cool hand decorations made from wire hangers, I think this was at the Binetti presentation.

Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl soundchecking before the Rebecca Minkoff show.

Behnaz Sarafpour presentation.

Tim Gunn talking about his experience at Parsons at the American Express SkyBox.

Vera Wang backstage before her show.

Gwen Stefani watching the run-through before her L.A.M.B. show.

Blogger BryanBoy with his friend -- he was very friendly!

Style icon and Vogue Nippon editor Anna della Russo.

Cool airbrushed pattern on a wig backstage at Betsey Johnson.

Julie Stiles getting interviewed backstage (I forget which show this was).

Michelle Trachtenberg heading to her seat after being backstage before the Rebecca Taylor show.

It was a fun couple of weeks.  My interns said I had the best job -- basically getting paid to attend the fashion shows -- but it was very hectic!  It was a great experience though, and cool to see how the PR teams of the designers, sponsors, and IMG worked together to provide maximum exposure.

Balenciaga Fall 2011

It's been a while.  I'll post an update soon, but the Paris shows are in full swing, and my favorite one, Balenciaga, didn't disappoint.  Here are a couple of images:

I love the print.  The texture of the jacket is pieces of faux leather woven together.

My fave model, Stella Tennant.  She's in her 30s at this point, with a couple of kids, but I've noticed her on the runways and in editorials recently.  I've loved her ever since I saw her at the Dior show when I was an intern there.  I think she's around 6' tall.  Androgynous but beautiful!

 

Amazing accessories!

I'm not sure how he does it, but there's something about Ghesquiere's work that elicits a visceral reaction for me.  The clothes and accessories are probably a little bit over the top for most people, but for me they are a perfect balance between craftsmanship, artistry, and wearability.  He's always pushing the envelope and the clothes always feel fresh and new, but rarely (to me at least) do they feel costumey.  I also enjoy that they give the wearer a feeling of power and strength while still feeling feminine.  The Balenciaga girl isn't a girly wallflower.

I'm not there yet, but his work is definitely an inspiration to me.

Rachel's Wedding Dress - Part 5

In my last post, I promised professional shots of Rachel's dress once she gave them to me and here they are.  In early January I flew out to Northern Kentucky for her wedding.  Her family was super nice and I had a great time, in part because I had a fun date. :-)

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but Rachel looks absolutely gorgeous.  She bought some costume jewelry in New York which sparkles in the photos, and a cute vintage veil.  In the photos you can also see the crystal belt she sewed better.  She had her makeup done but I believe she mostly did her hair herself.

Here she is with her mom in their foyer.

Me and Rachel. :-)

Glamour shots:

Playing violin at the wedding

Rachel's little bro walking one of her bridesmaids down the aisle.

The beautiful bride with her dad.

The eager groom.

The bridal party.

The newlyweds.

Balenciaga exhibit in New York at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute

Yesterday I went to see the Balenciaga exhibit curated by Hamish Bowles here in New York.  It's at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute on 68th and Park.  The exhibit is only up for a few more weeks so I decided to catch it while I could.  If you want to catch it, here is info on the hours and admission.

Gallery Hours: Mon. - Thurs.: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. ; Fri.: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. ; Sat.: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: $15 for adults; $10 for students, seniors, and Institute members.

The exhibit consists of two large exhibition rooms displaying garments and hats, plus a third room that shows a video of models walking around wearing different outfits.  The pieces were curated through the lens of their relation to Spanish history and culture.  For instance, for each garment displayed on the ground floor, the corresponding placard showed a painting that would have inspired the piece.  On the second floor, there were references made to flamenco dancers, bullfighters, and religious garb. 

I'm a big Balenciaga fan, and it was just amazing to see so many of his garments displayed.  You could see the details and the way they were cut up close, and it was inspiring to see the work of someone so dedicated to his craft.  It reminded me that although it's easy to get caught up in all the hoopla surrounding fashion, what's really important is to develop work that's worth getting excited about.

This piece was probably my favorite in the exhibition.  I want to figure out how he draped that crazy sleeve.

Interesting article on the state of the luxury fashion business

Business of Fashion has a great article written by Pierre Mallevays, Founder and Managing Partner of Savigny Partners, a boutique advisory firm focusing on specialty retail and aspirational brands.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.businessoffashion.com/2011/01/bof-exclusive-getting-the-luxury-fashion-business-model-right.html

Some snippets:

How a designer label makes money:

The traditional designer brand business model is not for the faint-hearted. Typically, a design-rich but loss-making main line is invested in with the aim of capitalising on its cachet through a cash-generative diffusion line and, eventually through lucrative licensing deals. This model not only takes years to generate returns, but the ride is also a bumpy one with no guarantee of success. Christian Lacroix is a prime example of a label which, despite heavy investment in its main line/couture business, never saw the more commercial side of its activities take off sufficiently.

Pre-collections, cruise/resort, pre-fall, holiday...

These inter-seasonal collections tend to contain more commercial pieces than the main collections, often have more accessible price points and now account for the bulk of sales of a fashion brand. This is also music to retailers’ ears whose aim it is to get fresh stock into stores, so as to give customers a reason to come back, and shift the stock as quickly as possible.

On the importance of merchandising...

There the model was clearly in need of an urgent fix, but on an ongoing basis the role of the merchandising team, working with the design and product teams on one hand and the marketing and sales teams on the other, harnessing the creative talent and editing down the creative output to what will work or generally help the band, is absolutely critical. This helps to ensure that the market reception of the collection will be as good as possible, but is also true — and increasingly importantly so — in a world where the number of deliveries has increased and where efficient re-ordering and replenishment is where the real money is made.

On how developing a retail business increases the bottom line

Beyond this point, retail presence offers a number of advantages. First and foremost the ability to capture the retail margin – a fully-integrated fashion retail business can generate gross margins up to 80 percent (and sometimes more!), as compared with a wholesale business margin of 40 to 50 percent. Retail presence also allows for more control of the brand image and presentation. This is particularly important as a brand evolves as it can often get stuck in a time warp, with retail buyers ordering variations on what sold well in the last season instead of following with new products/designs, often seen as more risky.

...

White elephants such as this previous Jil Sander store never made good retail propositions, but you could understand why some management teams were keen on them: retail really helps drive wholesale. Department store managers will never own up to it, and we are sure Barneys and Bergdorf top brass were horrified when Lanvin announced the opening of its Madison Avenue store in the summer last year, but over time (and more quickly than people think), whatever turnover is temporarily lost for the neighbouring department stores will be made up and more, as the brand benefits from increased awareness, more prestige and a stronger, more complete image as a result of its own retail presentation.

Blue

Blue is my favorite color.  Here is another song I wrote, sung by my friend Allison Moll. (For the first 10 seconds there is no video.)

How my line started killing me

I came across a quote recently on Business of Fashion, which sums up how I've been feeling quite well:

At Cloak I was doing production, I was doing business, I was doing financing. It kind of killed me, actually. I was doing very little designing. The key thing at Versace was that I just got to design; it got the juices flowing again. Now, with my own collection, I get to design more, which is what I want to do. I don’t pretend to be a businessman. You have to be to a certain extent, but I also want to work with people who know what they are doing.

Alexandre Plokhov, speaking to BoF about shutting down his celebrated cult menswear label Cloak, moving on to design for Versace, and then launching a new, eponymous label, one of the best new collections for A/W 2011 as featured in this short, sharp fashion film by Douglas Keeve.

Writing about the tough times in developing my line is difficult, mainly because it's hard to air what feels like failures in public.  If I put things in perspective, there were a couple of factors working against me:

- The recession made business difficult for everyone.  In fashion blogs, in the past year or two, I read constantly about labels and boutiques folding.  Buyers became conservative, sticking with established designers (like Marc Jacobs) over lesser known labels.  And consumers were just not buying things, or buying when things were heavily discounted.

- Like Plokhov, I was juggling all aspects of the business myself, in addition to trying to support myself through other means.  It was exhausting, both physically and emotionally, and when you're trying to do many things simultaneously, it's hard to do each thing well.

- Startups by nature are destined to fail.  I think the statistic is a 2% survival rate, and I imagine the number could be smaller in fashion, where luck plays a bigger part than in other industries.  

In short, the line, "It kind of killed me" really resonates with me.  I felt like I wasn't doing anything particularly well, be it designing, or running my business, or just living my life.  I felt guilty about hanging out with friends instead of working and was constantly worrying about how I was going to pay my rent and other expenses.  My parents were worried about my future.  I would go through bouts of depression and question what I was doing.  The instability of my lifestyle was killing me, and I also realized I thrive in structured environments, which I couldn't provide for myself.  I also felt that I was running my business in survival mode rather than in a planned and organized way, and it didn't feel sustainable.

On a side note, my music "career" benefited as a result.  I found myself drawn into the music scene because long before I was really involved with fashion, I had been playing violin (since I was seven) and was friends with musicians who asked me to play with them on shows.  Through this I eventually started writing my own music and started recording and playing it.  The great thing about music for me was that it was a creative outlet where I felt less pressure to succeed and was able to be involved in and feel like I was making progress with not too much effort.  The bad thing was that it served as a distraction from fashion, kind of how sometimes people cheat on their significant others when their relationships aren't going well.

I didn't want to give up on my line, but I felt that I needed to take time and figure out a better way to do things.  I started figuring out my next move.

Selling dresses in a recession

It's been a while since I last wrote a post documenting my efforts with my brand, Graey.

When I last left off, I had decided to do a small production run with my Fall 2009 collection even though the trunk show with Henri Bendel had fallen through, on the blind faith that I could sell the pieces through consignment at a few boutiques.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.  Had I paid closer attention to financial forecasts, I probably would have realized that things were going to get worse before they got better, and there was probably a good reason that Bendel's laid off their entire clothing buying staff, but hindsight is 20/20 right?

I sold consignment through a few boutiques and a small online retailer, with mixed results.  A couple of the boutiques and the online boutique (a great one called Sunday Brunch) were able to sell a few pieces here and there.  The best performer was the least expensive piece, the kimono dress.  I learned the hard way that in this recession, consumers were a) not buying as much b) only buying at heavy discounts c) sticking to designers they'd heard of rather than trying out smaller lesser known labels.

Also, I might have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  Consignment, although a great opportunity to get a buyer to try out your merchandise in their store, has its pitfalls.  It's hard to say how much of my lack of sales was because of the recession, but when buyers have your merchandise on consignment, they have less of an incentive to sell your goods because if it doesn't sell, they can just return it to you, whereas they bear the burden when they buy the merchandise. 

In sum, although I was able to sell some pieces through retailers, we didn't sell as much as I had hoped.  I also tried to sell pieces directly through other methods.


GenArt which recently folded due to - surprise! - financial troubles (but apparently is relaunching) was an organization that championed up-and-coming designers.  Twice a year, they held a SHOP NYC event, which was a big bazaar with alcohol and other sponsors, and a DJ spinning.  Although I did manage to sell pieces at this event, they were mainly my less expensive knits, and I barely broke even on the entry fee.

Some friends and family also bought pieces.

I also held a couple of independent sales at a storefront I found in the East Village, with mixed results.  The location was probably not ideal in terms of traffic and the kind of customer who shops in the area, as my dresses were mainly targeted at the type of clientele that shops at more chic West Village boutiques.

Additionally, I got in contact with someone who held sales at Chelsea Market and was able to sell some of my knits inventory at one of his sales.

A while ago, on a friend's suggestion, I opened up a shop on Supermarket, which is kind of like Etsy but curated so that the selection is not quite as extensive so that the chances of someone buying your product is higher.  After putting my products on the site, I didn't really pay much attention to it, but every once in a while I got a sale, even from a customer in Austria. 

I probably won't be doing any production runs without guaranteed (well, as guaranteed as they can be) buyers for a while.

Magic Mirror

This song is kind of about struggling with anxiety and depression while pursuing my dreams...

knitting machine!

A while ago I bought the Ultimate Sweater Machine.  I've always wanted to get a knitting machine but real ones are fairly pricey, I was able to find this one on eBay for around $60, so I thought it would be a good intermediary machine.

It was lying around my apartment for a while, when I decided to make a scarf for my friend Pooja's birthday.  If you recall, she bought this Jitterbug coat during our trip to Maine: 

I figured it would be hard to find a matching scarf so I decided to knit one.  I tried to pick colors that would match the coat, although without the coat on hand I wasn't 100% accurate.

The knitting is done by moving the carriage back and forth across the metal needles.  It's very satisfying because you can do the knitting in a fraction of the time it would ordinarily take.  I think this took me around 4 hours to do in total? 

The finished product.  I followed the instructions that came with the book, which told me to undo every other stitch for a more loosely knit scarf.  I tied the yellow tassels by hand at the end.  I am looking forward to playing around more with the machine.

Some inspiration

Happy new year!

The reason I started this blog was to provide insight to other aspiring fashion designers.  A little over a year ago, I got an email from a fashion student asking to interview me for a paper she was writing for school. 

A couple of days ago, I got an email from her:

Janet,
I know this is super random, but I thought I'd update you on what that paper I did on you (over a year ago) has inspired me to do. I'm going to France!
After what feels like a billion scholarship applications and competitions I finally won the Blanche Payne Award for my design work and it has helped finance my trip to Paris.
I'll be studying French for a semester at the Sorbonne and then fashion at Paris American Academy during the summer with hopefully an internship throughout.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for being an inspiration, and someone I look up to in garnering the courage for my adventures. I know going to Europe's not that big a deal to some people, but for someone like me (a broke college student with no financial support from anyone) it's monumental and hopefully will be life changing.

Best Regards,

Calli Roche

P.S. Any 'must sees' you can recommend while I'm in Paris?

It seems she's already gotten some press of her own, and it was really inspiring to hear about how she worked hard to make her dream of going to Paris come true.


To answer her question, some of my favorite things to do in Paris:
1) Musee d'Orsay - I love Van Gogh and Impressionist paintings, and they've got many great ones here.  Also, unlike the Louvre, the museum is a manageable size, and you can pretty much see the whole thing in a couple of hours.

2) Boutique visits - I love checking out boutiques. 
- If you go to the 8th arrondissement (around av. Montaigne), you can visit the flagship boutiques of most of the luxury French brands.

- Rue St. Honore in the 1st arr is another destination for chic boutiques, including probably the best one in Paris, Colette.

- I also enjoy walking around the Marais, which has cool boutiques, cafes, and bars.

3) I used to live on Ile St. Louis (connected to Ile de la Cite), where there are cute little gourmet food shops and some nice restaurants as well.

4) Another cool place to hang out is in the 10th, near the Canal St. Martin.  There are a couple of bars along the water which are cool to hang out at.

Paris is such a beautiful city.  It's fun to just walk around, explore, and find a cafe or bar to relax at and people watch.  It's also hard to go wrong with food, whether it's just walking into a restaurant or going into a boulangerie and buying yourself some treats.  Paris me manque!