The Genesis of Graey - Part 1

While studying haute couture at the Chambre Syndicale, during lunch breaks I would often walk into Colette, which was literally down the street on rue St. Honore. Colette, for the uninitiated, is quite possibly the most awesome boutique in the world. The boutique is a fairly large space by Paris standards, with three floors. The bottom underground floor is a cafe, the main floor sells accessories, CDs, books, gadgets, fragrances, etc, and the top floor sells clothing. The store is awesome to walk around because the clothes are displayed like art in a gallery -- very sparsely and on mannequins. Most of the clothing is a very tightly edited collection of designer clothing, but there is a corner for high-end t-shirts.

After visiting Colette, I started becoming interested in starting a line of high-end t-shirts. I noticed that most of the tees I saw were silkscreened tees, but there were a few that were embellished, like the Prada and Isabela Capeto tees.

Once I was back in New York, I started to think about ideas of making creative t-shirts. In addition to trying out many different ideas, I came upon this cool "lace" (I found out later that the lace I found was actually embroidered laser-cut satin) and started playing with placing the lace on tees.

Meanwhile, through someone I met at Elie Tahari, I got a job working on the business side of things at Barking Irons, a contemporary menswear line that started with t-shirts. Since most of my previous experience was in designer wear, I wanted to gain firsthand experience of business in the t-shirt market.

I also started trying to come up with names for my line. I didn't want to use my own name since this was my first venture. I initially wanted to use a certain female name, but when I looked into trademarking, I discovered it was already trademarked by many different entities. I finally came up with the name Graey by putting the two spellings of grey together. I wanted a name that was distinctive yet neutral.

Korean BBQ recipe

one thing that i've learned to cook from a korean food cookbook called "A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes" is korean bbq. the recipe is specifically for bulgogi but you can use the same sauce for kalbi. it seems to have almost universal appeal -- my friends are always asking me to make it for them. therefore, i've decided to post the recipe. it's very easy to make, you just have to taste the marinade before you put the meat in it and make sure the flavor is right.

for 1 lb sliced meat

3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp chopped green onions
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp sesame salt (i never use this)

combine ingredients above in a bowl -- this is the marinade. not sure if you prefer bulgogi (thin sliced meat) or kalbi (ribs) but the sauce is the same. cut the meat into small pieces and put it in the marinade and smoosh it around so the sauce soaks into the meat. you can leave it in as long as overnight or you can cook it pretty much right away, but obviously the longer you leave the marinade in the more flavor you'll get.

grill or broil. i like to cook my meat with mushrooms to add a vegetable component -- it's a nice complement.

enjoy!

Henri Bendel Trunk Show

Just firmed up dates for the Graey (my line) trunk show at Henri Bendel! June 19-26th! I'll be on the floor, peddling my Fall 09 collection!

EDIT: Bendel has laid off its entire apparel department. Sadly, this means my trunk show is of as well. :-(

I kind of want this ring by Alexander McQueen

SF

I went to San Francisco this past weekend just to get away from the city. The weather was perfect and the city itself is undoubtedly a nice place to live. It also seems like the perfect place if you are into nature and being active.

But I was eager to return to New York. The city felt small in comparison to New York, and by midnight it felt like everything was closing down. It felt like a sleepy small town. Very tech oriented, not so much arts (or fashion) friendly. I was also reminded of how much I take New York's public transportation system for granted. It's tough getting around SF without taking cabs, which gets expensive.

In college, I wasn't very impressed with Boston either.

Once you've known New York, nothing else really compares -- except for maybe Paris.

I got a call today...

from a recruiter at BCBG. She was interested in interviewing me for a position, but only if I was interested in relocating to Los Angeles. Apparently the design offices for BCBG are all in LA. I'd love to work for them, but would not love to live in LA.

Winning the Lottery in Slow Motion

When the Rochas job fell through, part of me was relieved to return to New York. I had been feeling homesick and missed all my friends back home. Meanwhile, my brother was finishing up his final undergraduate year at Duke University. After he graduated, he flew out to visit me in Paris and then we embarked on a trip to a few different cities in Europe -- Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Florence, and Rome. I drove him crazy by trying to get him to see museums and other tourist destinations; he drove me crazy by insisting on staying in half the time and playing online satellite poker tournaments. He was trying hard to win a spot in the World Series of Poker, which would be in a couple of weeks. He didn't get a spot during our trip in Europe, but once we returned to New York, he managed to finally win a spot the very last day before the tournament began. I drove him to the airport that evening to catch a flight to Vegas.

While my brother started the tournament, I started interviewing for jobs at places including Zac Posen and Elie Tahari. Meanwhile, I monitored his progress online. The beginning of the tournament is spread over several days to accommodate all the players (that year there were over 8000), so in the beginning the progress was slow. However, my brother kept hanging in each day. At first I expected him to get knocked out quickly, but once he managed to stay on past the first few days, I started paying closer attention, particularly once he started cashing (I think the pay levels started at 20K). Each "day" he would manage to not get knocked out, generally staying somewhere in the middle of the pool of contestants, and the pay levels kept increasing -- 50K, 100K, 500K, until my brother was a millionaire! As my friend Ben put it, it was like watching someone win the lottery in slow motion. Finally, he made it to the final table where the top prize was $12 million.

There was one day between the second to last day of the tournament (I think it was day 6?), and the final table. Once we found out Doug had made it, I convinced my parents to fly out to Vegas with me to watch him. Some of my friends watched it on PPV. It was surreal. We stayed at the Palms, where Doug was staying. We were given special passes. Doug had accepted a sponsorship from PokerStars so we had a big dinner with the other PokerStars players and met previous WSOP champions Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem.

The next day we went to the big convention room where they were holding the final table for the Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker. There were bleachers blocked off for the family and friends of each of the nine players at the final table. The playing was really slow -- when you watch it on ESPN they edit it and only show the key hands. When Doug was finally knocked out in 7th place, we were a little relieved that we no longer had to sit in the cold air-conditioned room on the uncomfortable bleacher seating. After he had been knocked out (my heart dropped to my stomach when Paul Wasicka flipped over his pocket queens), he had a couple of exit interviews and we went to the Bellagio to eat an expensive steak meal (on Doug, of course). You can watch his final hand here (start at 2:10)



My dad later scolded my brother, saying he shouldn't have gone all-in, but everyone I spoke to who actually knew poker said he made the right play. He was also the one player at the table who wasn't knocked out by Jamie Gold (the dude who came in first place). As Doug put it, "I was going for first place, not to move up another pay level." If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I'm obsessed with Vincent Van Gogh, and had always told my brother that he would be my Theo. You can imagine then, that his win made me reevaluate what steps I should take next.

How I almost got a job as an assistant designer at Rochas under Olivier Theyskens...

I knew it would be an amazing opportunity to work as an assistant designer in Paris. Once I returned to New York, it would be difficult to find a design position at a place that was on par with some of the fashion houses in Paris in terms of creativity and craftsmanship. This was mainly because the lines in New York that are exciting in a design sense are too broke to hire assistants. On the other hand, there are many houses in Paris that are both commercially and critically successful.

I chose about a dozen houses in Paris where I would have liked to work. These included most of the haute couture houses (Dior, Chanel, etc.) as well as houses that weren't officially considered couture but whose level of craftsmanship were on par with the couture houses, including Rochas, whose work was dubbed demi-couture.

I knew that I had a very small chance of getting a job since the French labor market was terrible and I would need someone to sponsor me for a visa. Nonetheless, I asked my teachers about the best way to go about getting a job. After calling up all the companies and asking them for the contact information for their HR department, I took the advice of my teachers and hand-wrote my cover letters, which one of the teachers had proof-read for me in advance. In France, at least in fashion, it's customary to hand-write your cover letters (lettre de motivation) because apparently that's one way employers judge the character of potential hires.

A week or so later, I received a phone call. It was actually a voicemail since I was in class at the time, and I couldn't believe the message when I heard it. I also received a corresponding e-mail and we set up a time to meet at the Rochas studio in the 17th arrondissement. It was totally surreal.

I got to the Rochas headquarters on a spring morning, and after a bit of a wait in the reception area, I was received in the design studio by Benjamin Edeline, Olivier Theyskens' assistant. He was a slight, soft-spoken and polite man. He told me he was looking for an assistant designer to help with the main collection as well as the Japanese licensed collections. To this day I have no idea why he would hire me over all the qualified people in Paris, but he said there weren't many people who were good at hand-sketching. Once I finished my coursework in June, I would do an internship with them as an "essai," and if all went well I would continue to work as an assistant designer.

I was totally thrilled. What I had thought was impossible -- getting an assistant design position in Paris -- had happened fairly effortlessly. However, a few weeks later, in early May of 2006, when I contacted him for details of my job, I got this response:

Chère Janet,

Je suis désolé de ne pas vous avoir répondu plus rapidement mais comme je vous l'avais expliqué je suis parti une semaine en congés toute la semaine dernière...
En revenant chez Rochas, j'ai demandé les informations nécessaires à la DRH pour pouvoir vous renseigner le plus précisemment possible.
A ce jour, j'ai obtenu une réponse que je n'attendais pas.
Il est malheureusement impossible pour le moment de débloquer à nouveau un budget pour le poste de mon assistante.
Je suis aussi triste que vous. La direction de Rochas tient comme toute société des budgets et des agendas et pour le moment cela ne permet pas d'embauche avant l'année prochaine...

Vous me voyez sincèrement désolé pour devoir vous apprendre une telle information...
Sachez que je suis le premier peiné et malheureux pour tout un tas de raisons.
Je ne voulais pas en apprenant cela hier vous laisser de faux espoirs.

Bonne chance à vous pour votre futur qui je suis sûr sera prospère.

Sincères salutations,

Benjamin Edeline

If you don't read French good, the gist of the message is, "Sorry, I actually just found out that there isn't enough money to hire an assistant right now." I thought it was strange that he would go through the trouble of hiring an assistant and then a few weeks turn around and say that he actually found out there wasn't enough money in the budget to hire one, until I read an article in the New York Times a couple of months later saying that Proctor & Gamble, who owned the house, had decided to close it down.

Haute couture sewing, "pret-a-porter"

In the spring of 2006, during the second half of my schooling at the Chambre Syndicale in the Formation Continue, I took the "stages" called "Vetements au volume" and "Pret-a-porter." The "Vetements au volume" course was the continuation of the "Moulage," or draping course, but now we were working on draping, as the name suggests, garments with more volume. For instance:
It generally took a couple of full eight hour days to drape a garment like these, although a good chunk of time was taken by Mme Saget demonstrating what we were supposed to do.

The rest of my time was spent in "Pret-a-porter," which was the sewing class. We spent two days a week doing machine sewing, learning the basics of how to sew everything from a beeson pocket to a jacket on the machine. Industrial machines run really fast and a lot of the challenge was just being able to control the machine. Our teacher, Mme Albert, was an expert. She could control the machine so well that she could get it to do one individual stitch at a time -- no mean feat.

Fridays were my favorite as they were spent with Mme Rybak, who was in her last year before retiring. She showed us mostly haute couture techniques, involving a lot of hand sewing. Before teaching at the Chambre Syndicale, she had spent around 20 years at Lanvin before they closed the haute couture studio there. In between little personal and professional anecdotes, she taught us many cool techniques although one stood out to me. She taught us how to embroider a piece of lace onto fabric both by hand and using the zigzag machine, and then cut out the fabric underneath.

Apologies - Graey Fall 2009

Apologies for going so long without updating. I have been busy the past couple of months planning a presentation for my Fall 2009 line. It got mixed reviews on WWD but the photos by Pasha Antonov look great:






Despite the economy, I'm hoping someone will pick up the line. May do a trunk show as well.

Another entry about Van Gogh

Despite the fact that the MOMA Van Gogh Colors of the Night exhibit has been up since mid-September, I didn't make it there til recently. I actually ended up purchasing a membership, and have gone twice so far (in one week). I plan to go at least once more before the exhibition goes down.

I get such a visceral reaction from seeing his work, and when I stare at his paintings I try to drink it all in -- the colors, the thick brush strokes (I've been trying to figure out how he got the paint so thick on the canvas without it mushing into the layers already on the canvas), and his choices in using heavy lines sometimes and colors at other times to outline shapes. I did a copy of a Van Gogh painting recently, but it would be cool to do a copy from looking at the actual painting as opposed to a photo, since there is such a three-dimensionality and texture to his painting.

Anyway, I have to say that I was kind of disappointed with the exhibition. Part of the reason is that it's always so crowded that it's hard to just stand and look at the work. And you have to wait. They also didn't have as many pieces as I would have liked. There were a bunch, but I think I was hoping for more of the big ones I'd seen at the Musee d'Orsay and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Or maybe I just can't get enough.

But one thing struck me. It was a fact that I already knew, but struck me again. It was this quote:

"Van Gogh did not pursue a career as an artist until 1880, when he was
twenty-seven years old."

I just turned 27, so this time it was more meaningful to me. I often feel like I am so behind in terms of what I want to achieve, but I realized I am at the age when Van Gogh had just embarked on his art career. It reminded me that I still have time to accomplish a lot.

One has to remember that Van Gogh ended his life, and his career, only 10 years later. Granted, he did work as an art dealer and doodled while pursuing other careers, but I always find it so inspiring that he was able to accomplish so much in that short time. That's also what makes his story so tragic -- who knows what other works he could have made if he had just held on?

What I also find inspiring about Van Gogh is that he accomplished what he did mostly through hard work. He didn't have the virtuosic talent that someone like Picasso possessed, which is evident if you look at his early paintings. The colors are kind of murky and if you look at the Potato Eaters painting, considered his first breakthrough, the figures are grotesque and awkward. Even his figures later on are still kind of awkardly drawn. But he kept working (he was incredibly prolific, especially towards the end of his life, and managed to make over 2000 works over his career) and made some of the most beautiful paintings ever made.

Van Gogh's story is a cautionary tale too. Perhaps he wouldn't have become so famous if he hadn't committed suicide (there is a great scene in the movie She's All That where the protagonist, who is an art student, is recommended to commit suicide in order to further her art career by these two mean girls), but I always wonder what would happen if he had chosen to live. Too often people give up on their dreams when they're on the cusp of something big. When you're really seeking a dream, it often feels like you're not really moving forward, and it would be easier to give up and do something safe. But I don't think I could live with myself, wondering what if?

I love you, Vincent Van Gogh.

Haute Couture Patternmaking

In addition to my draping classes, I was taking patternmaking. Our teacher was a friendly Breton man named Dominique Pellen. He was younger than my draping teacher, and was therefore less traditional in his manner of teaching. He quickly realized that my language capabilities were holding me back and would patiently re-explain things when I had a confused or panicked look in my eyes.

We started with the basics. First we learned about the standard measurements (bust, waist, hips, shoulder length, etc). The first pattern we drafted was a short sleeve, and then we worked on variations, like making it a balloon shape. This was accomplished by drawing lines on the original pattern, cutting on those lines, and then fanning the resulting segments out which would create volume when the pattern was sewn.

Next we worked on the "jupe de base" or basic skirt, along with variations. We also did different long sleeves, then a "chemisier" (shirt), and jacket (probably the toughest pattern) before returning to do bonus sleeves -- the raglan and kimono sleeves. We also learned a little about grading, which was probably the trickiest concept. Grading is when you expand (or shrink) the pattern for different sizes. What makes it tricky is that it's not like enlarging or shrinking something on a copy machine; you have to be aware of how the body changes with a change in size, so sometimes in addition to changing the width you also have to shift angles.

I had never taken a patternmaking course before, but from what M. Pellen explained, it sounded like in haute couture patternmaking, you take more measurements than in ready-to-wear, so the patterns are more precise (again, there is an importance placed on fit). When the patternmaking is done right, things should fit like a glove and follow the contours of the body.

At the end of each course, there is a final exam. I think the highest score you could get is a 20, which would be like if you were working in an haute couture atelier. I was proud of myself because while I was nowhere near a 20, I got the highest score in the class -- this despite not always understanding what M. Pellen was saying and having less experience than most of my classmates. After a few months of patternmaking classes, I felt like I could eventually develop patterns for most garments.

Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne

A couple days after moving to Paris, I started my classes at l'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. The Chambre Syndicale sets the rules for haute couture, and runs the school as well. As our teachers liked to remind us, it's the only school in the world devoted specifically to haute couture, although now they teach ready-to-wear techniques. Initially, I had only planned to take classes there for a few months. Therefore, I enrolled in the Formation Continue, a program designed for professionals with experience in the fashion industry. I enrolled in the patronage (patternmaking), moulage (draping), and dessin (drawing) "stages." However, the drawing course was cancelled due to a lack of students. The classes were 9 to 6 with a one hour "pause" for lunch, and a couple of 15 minute breaks during the day. The draping class was three days a week and the patternmaking was one day a week.

Our draping teacher, Mme. Saget, had worked at a few different couture houses before beginning to teach at the Chambre Syndicale, including Yves Saint Laurent and Courreges. She was very Parisian, which I learned was different from other French people. They are more reserved and proper. We each had a mannequin and she gave us yardages of muslin. She would do a demonstration and then we would work on our own mannequin and try to do the same. She walked around and corrected things that were wrong.

The class was very difficult for me. Unlike most of the others, who were older than me and had had more experience in fashion, I was pretty clueless about draping. Also, the classes were held in French. Although I had taken French all through middle and high school, and had taken a conversational French class in college, understanding what was happening was tough. Firstly, everyone spoke much more quickly than I was used to understanding. Secondly, there was a lot of technical language that I had never learned in my French classes, like "poitrine" (bust) or "taille" (waist). The first few weeks were especially rough. I finally sympathized with my parents, trying to survive in a foreign country, barely speaking the language. I relied on the charity of my classmates, who would glance over at me looking frustrated or confused, and would try to explain to me what was happening.

I was also frustrated with the teacher, who seemed indifferent to my struggles. However, I eventually realized that her style of teaching was different from what I was used to. Although I expected my teacher to come rescue me when I was struggling, she would not approach me until I asked for help. Once I figured this out, things became easier and she was very kind and helpful. The rest of the class found me amusing because I would ask her random questions about her experiences and sometimes more personal things as well.

Draping is a difficult skill, and it's a type of sculpture. We were given sketches and then expected to interpret the sketch. You work with the muslin, cutting it and pinning it to shape it. As much as possible, you want to keep the grainlines running parallel to the "droit fils" or straight lines that demarcate the body from head to toe, so that the fabric drapes nicely. There are many rules to be learned, which differ based on different fabric details, like seam placement and sleeve shapes.

Returning to Paris

After I left Korea, I gave myself a week in New York to get things sorted before I left for Paris. This turned out to be a big mistake.

I thought that I would have more than enough time to pick up a student visa, which the French consulate website said could be processed in a day. I was in for a rude introduction to the shitshow that is French bureaucracy. First of all, when I got to the French consulate, I found that it was only open in the mornings, and I had to wait on line all day just to get an appointment for the next day. When I got there with all my paper work, I found out that I didn't qualify for a student visa because I wasn't attending an accredited university. Instead, I had to apply for a long stay visitor visa, which would take two months to process. Which meant I would have to come back to pick up my visa in a couple of months.

One thing that did go smoothly was finding an apartment. One of my French friends recommended using www.pap.fr, on which I found an apartment on Ile St. Louis, where I had stayed the last time I was in Paris. It's such a beautiful neighborhood, although one of the more expensive areas in Paris.

my street

my building

the courtyard

Apartments in Paris are pretty small but this one was tiny. You can see more pictures of the apt here on my landlord's website: http://avcv.free.fr/photo.htm

It took forever to get my landlord to help me get the internet running, and I discovered that this was a trend. It took a lot of effort to get anything to happen in Paris, like setting up a bank account or anything involving paperwork and the government.

What's going on?

I've been a bad blogger. It's been over a month since my last entry. I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving. Mine was pretty good except for a big fight with my mom before dinner. I ate way too much but it was grand. Then watched Kung Fu Panda. Sadly, animated movies no longer captivate me the way they used to.

I've been very busy over the past several weeks, working on my most recent collection, which is a departure from my previous work. I've done a small collection of silk cocktail dresses, and incorporated color -- I'm a colorist.

After the scramble to get the samples made -- I do the patterns and cutting before giving it over to the factory to be constructed -- I did a couple of photo shoots with my friends. Unfortunately, I won't be showing these photos for at least a couple of months but I was pretty excited about them.

I've been trying to make decisions about what to do moving forward. When you're as emotionally invested in your work as I tend to be, it's tough to make rational business decisiosn.

Korea - Summer 2005

My summer in Korea was a low point, and I struggled with depression while I was there.

Previously, most of my trips to Korea had lasted two weeks at most. The one exception was the summer before I started college, where I spent two months there. However, that summer had been one of self-indulgence. Having finally gotten into college, I allowed myself to do as I pleased -- partying with my friends, spending the money my relatives had given to me, and enjoying one of those perfect summer flings.

This trip was vastly different. I learned that two weeks was probably the best length of time to spend in Korea. Beyond that period, you realized that there was little to do for fun in Seoul besides get drunk. Furthermore, I was there expressly to make as money as possible so I could study in Paris. That summer taught me that I could never make my sole existence about making money. I felt like my soul was dying each day I went to work. Despite getting along with most of my coworkers, and having the chance to become close with my friend Christina, I despised my boss, who promised one thing and gave us another. Despite the strides in technology and other forms of modernization that Korean society was still fairly sexist. I also felt stifled in such a homogenous culture, one which seemed to reject creativity in favor of conformity. I couldn't dress the way I wanted to without expecting to receive stares in the subway or on the street. My relatives told me I was fat, as the ideal was to be stick skinny, with a body more like an adolescent than a woman.

I stayed at my grandmother's house while in Seoul. My grandmother lives with two unmarried aunts and I became close with them -- another of the few good experiences I had while in Korea. One of them in particular was an amazing cook and I loved eating her food.

However, when it was time to leave Korea, I was ready to go.

PS - Part 2

Weronika had learned production the hard way -- by being thrust into it and having to figure things out as she went, encountering one disaster after another. She showed me the ropes and I quickly learned that everything that can go wrong generally does, which made me understand how Weronika had become very paranoid and OCD about things. Whether it was calling and visiting the factories every day, sometimes multiple times a day, or mastering the art of following up -- especially with the Italian mills, who had a tendency to take at least twice as long as they said they would, she taught me the importance of being very careful about clear and direct communication with all parties involved in the production process. I also learned how to think quickly and come up with solutions to problems. One time, I spent days with different interns painting skirts because the print had come out spotty.

Most of the Korean factory owners were delighted to have a Korean person to talk to, and I quickly developed a rapport with them, who were all a little crazy in their own way. Like my parents, once they found out about my academic background, they tried to convince me to switch career paths.

For production, the patterns used for pieces in the show are generally slightly altered to fit a more average shaped body. Once the patternmaker had made the alterations, they were sent to the graders to be marked and graded. Meanwhile, after the orders had been taken, the fabric was ordered in bulk from the mills, who made the fabric specially for us. As I mentioned, the fabric was often late, which was a problem because buyers gave strict deadlines for their orders. Once the delivery date passed, buyers expected discounts or in worst cases, cancelled the order all together. This possibility made our jobs stressful, and we were constantly pushing everyone in the process to get their jobs done quicker.

Once the fabric arrived, it was sent directly to the cutting room, a factory that dealt specifically with cutting fabric in bulk. The markers (basically the patterns in a range of sizes) were sent to the cutting room, and placed on top of the fabric to be cut. Then the cutters sent the cut pieces to the factories, who would have been prepped by us with trim, notions, and labels. The factories would start working on the pieces, although we would have to continually harrass them as they would put our orders to the side to work on bigger orders by other designers (like Marc Jacobs).

When the pieces were finished, we would come back and do an extra quality check on them (generally the factory has someone in-house to do this as well). We would ask the factory to fix anything that we thought would likely catch the eye of a buyer, who often looked for excuses to return items if they didn't sell. Then we would have the factory polybag the pieces and we would ship them to the stores, hopefully by the delivery date. Let's just say that I memorized both the US and International numbers for UPS. The worst part was when they would lose a package that we had made an effort to get out in a timely manner.

Because the company was small, I soon found myself handling other responsibilities as well. At the time, the company had inked a deal with a distribution company called Bluebell, and I ended up taking a trip to Tokyo to present the Fall collection to them. I also helped Shirley in working with Bonnie, our point person at PR Consulting, with press responsibilities, which in one case included dropping off a motorcycle jacket at Rosario Dawson's apartment. Eventually I was put in charge of hiring and managing interns, whose resumes came into the general mailbox daily.

Working at the company was very exciting and I learned a lot quickly. However, after two seasons I became disillusioned with my job. Unlike some other people, it wasn't enough for me to simply be working at one of the hottest companies in New York. I knew in my heart that what I really wanted to do was design, and for my own label. Despite the advice of my close friends and family to the contrary, I decided I needed to quit and go back to school for fashion.

I had always wanted to live for a time in Paris, and I remembered the Chambre Syndicale that my fellow intern at Dior, Karin, had attended. I looked up courses there and found that they had a Formation Continue, courses designed for people who had worked in the industry, since I didn't really want to pursue another full "degree." Because I didn't have the support of my parents (initially), and I was broke, I set up a summer job in Korea tutoring SATs (my expertise) and doing college admissions consulting through a friend to make enough money to pay for a few months of classes in Paris. I had originally planned to take a vacation in May, and instead made that the day I would quit. Shirley hired two different interns to replace me and I spent a couple of weeks helping them get settled in their new posts. After a brief vacation to the UK and Ireland (including my first trip to Scotland!), I was off to Korea.

Episode 12

Watch it here: http://www.graeyny.com

New items in the shop -- 25% off with discount code: FALL25OFF
http://www.graeyny.com/shop

Dear Nicolas,

I wish I could afford your clothes.

PS - Part 1

When I returned to New York, I had a first round interview with Weronika, the production manager over at Proenza Schouler. As their business was expanding (it was a couple of years old at that time, which was late July 2004), so were her responsibilities, and she was looking for someone to assist her in handling the production process, which was mainly in New York at the time. She had been interested in my resume (which I had passed on to the two designers when I met them in the spring) because I had done a production internship and because I was Korean. I would find out later that a good number of the factories they worked with in the Garment District were Korean-owned, and a couple of the owners didn't speak the best English. So she wanted an assistant who could aid in the communication process. Weronika had become friends with Lazaro when they were both interns at Michael Kors.

She seemed to like me and had me come back to meet with Shirley, who was the CEO and third partner (with Jack and Lazaro). She had met the pair through a friend. Once she had spoken to me, she called Lazaro over and he chatted with me a bit to make sure he liked me. I was a bit starstruck again, but he was very nice. I must have passed the test as they invited me to start with them soon afterwards. I was to go through a brief trial period after which I would be hired.

It was an interesting time to join the company. It was still very young, and I was the first full-time hire beyond the original four (Jack, Lazaro, Shirley, and Weronika) who had started out together. The boys had been nominated for the first CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund (which they ultimately won), so there was a lot going on with that, including the filming of the documentary "Seamless." In addition, the three partners were in the process of moving out of the live/work loft in Chinatown to their own apartments. Even then, (when most people would just give me a blank stare when I told them where I worked) there were always celebrities stopping by (I remember dropping an outfit off to Rosario Dawson). I was a little disappointed when I missed SJP's visit to the studio.

Soon after I started working was the Spring 2005 show, held at Milk Studios. It was exhilarating to watch the show after having seen the new "It" models try the pieces on in the fittings. Then of course, the after party at Bungalow 8. Once the show was over, however, our work began, and I was soon initiated into the process of managing the production of high-end ready-to-wear in New York.

Mastercard Priceless Experience 2004

Wow it's been three weeks since my last post. I am not so good at this blogging thing. I've been busy, mainly moving to a new apartment in Manhattan, and settling in. It's great and I love it.

Anyway, back to where I left off. About a week or so after graduating from Harvard, I was on a plane to Los Angeles. The sixteen of us interns were put up in the Universal Studios Hilton for five weeks, with all expenses paid for, plus a small stipend for spending money. In addition, we were given free trips to the Universal Studios theme park, and vouchers to restaurants at CityWalk, a shuttle ride from our hotel. It was pretty surreal. We also got a tour through the different sets and studios of Universal Studios, including the soundstages and the fake New York City. They also treated us to a Hoobastank concert (during which we wanted to rush the stage but were stopped), complete with a limo ride.

The internship was split into two parts. There would be the filming of Hoobstank's next music video, "Same Direction," along with seminars moderated by Lara Schwartz (who produced many of "Puffy" 's videos) with Universal Studio music executives and random people involved in virtually all facets of the music and music video business, including a couple music video directors (Nigel Dick and Dave Meyers -- who had been working on Britney Spears "Outrageous" video before she dropped out of the rest of the tour and began her fall from grace), Kevin Lyman (who started the Warped Tour -- we also got to "help out" and hang out at one of the venues, where I first saw Flogging Molly from backstage), and some people from KROQ.

Now, Hoobastank isn't my favorite band, either, but the process of making the videos was exciting and edifying. "The Reason" was a decently big hit that summer. It was a ballad that had been released with the intent to appeal to soccer moms. They wanted to follow it up with "Same Direction," a more punk rock song that would appeal to their original core fan base.

Early on we met with Brett Simon, a young director who had done the video for The Reason, which was a pretty cool video (probably because it has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song. I also recently realized that he directed that NLT video I love.) Despite the internship being advertised as one where the interns would be directing the video, ultimately Brett had creative control over the project and final say, although he did incorporate our input. Each of us was asked to submit an idea for the two videos (both for Same Direction). One would be a sequel to The Reason video, as it was quite popular, and one would be more creative. Four ideas were chosen (two for the sequel, two for the other) and we were divided into four groups. We were split into groups based on our ideas.

A girl named Rachel came up with the idea of a "Mad World," and I ended up in her group because my idea was similar (I wanted to set it in the 19th century). Our group wrote a treatment, which is basically a detailed summary of the plot of the video, where the band is in an alternate reality where everything is garish and exaggerated. We submitted images of makeup and props as well. Our group's idea was the one chosen for the "other" video but with modifications. Brett anchored the idea with a concrete story -- the video would be about a fifth member of Hoobastank that was cut from the band 17 years prior -- a triangle player. It would depict him imagining what his life would be like if he were still part of the band, concocting dioramas in his basement to embody his fantasies. The four groups were combined to form two -- with the sequel groups together and the "other idea" groups together.

Ultimately, we ended up helping out with both videos but we spent more time on the one we were working on. The Mad World video was filmed in a huge open warehouse type space, where we helped the crew construct the sets -- life sized replicas of the dioramas that we helped the art director construct. Using clever set design and camera work, the video goes from the dioramas to the life-sized replicas. Here it is:


The video is hilarious and odd -- definitely not what you'd expect from such a commercial band. Which is why the band didn't choose it for the official version. I definitely would have chosen it. It featured a cameo of Joan Jett (playing the triangle player's mom, cleaning out his earwax?!) and Dennis Rodman's limousine.

The other video is a prequel/sequel to "The Reason." It was shot at an abandoned restaurant space and the nearby alley. The coolest part was the cameos, which I forgot about until I watched again -- Joel from Good Charlotte, Chester from Linkin Park and...... KANYE WEST! This was before I even knew who Kanye was, or I totally would have tried to make friends with him. I was like, who are these people? I think they are all on the same label, which is why they agreed to do the cameos, during the band auditions for lead singer (they were all pretty funny).

Here it is (it will make more sense if you watch The Reason first, although both videos take multiple viewings to kind of catch certain details).


Looking back, it was definitely a wonderful experience, although I hate to say that the crew members were cooler than the actual band (although Dan, the lead guitarist, seemed cool and was our favorite). You don't realize until you're on a set how many people are involved and necessary for these types of production, who don't necessarily get credit -- all the crew members, camera people, ADs, DP, art director, wardrobe, producers, PAs, etc. I'm definitely still interested in film/music videos and would like to get into that somehow in the future, but the experience was discouraging because I realized how difficult it would be to put together that sort of a project without serious funding or the support of a studio. A successful fashion house generally operates in a similar manner, with the designer in a role parallel to a director, but at the same time, one person can and often does make a dress alone from start to finish. I also didn't like LA, which is where most of the contacts we made were.

[Another random cool aspect of the trip was when I got to meet up with Stephen Stills and his wife, Kristen (whom I had met at Harvard). They took me to a Democratic rally at the Saban (as in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers) residence, and then we bought steak dinners for takeout and drove in his Aston Martin to his house in the Hills. I met his kids and he let me listen to his album in his personal recording studio. Totally amazing. (I recently saw him again when he played with Nash and Y oung in Central Park).]

And so, before I left LA, I set up my interview with Proenza Schouler.

Back to School/Graduation

After returning from Paris, I took a short trip to South Korea to visit my family there. It was soon after the documentary in which I had been featured aired, and a couple random people recognized me on the streets of Seoul... mostly because of my distinctive eyebrow ring (very few people in Seoul have eyebrow rings). I met with the producer to catch up and he gave me a tour of the MBC (the broadcasting company) studios. It's funny how small TV sets are. They use wide-angle lenses to make them look bigger on TV.

Then it was back to school. A lot of things were on my mind. The biggest thing was probably the question on many college senior's minds -- what am I going to do after I graduate? Up until college it seemed that my path in life had been virtually predetermined -- get good grades, keep up the extracurriculars, and get into college. Now it seemed that there were so many options, it was hard to focus.

Graduate school was quickly ruled out. The only graduate school I could see myself doing was an MFA in art and didn't seem like a feasible option. Should I do a second BFA in fashion? Apply for a fellowship? What kind of job should I apply for? I knew that because I didn't have formal training in fashion, it would be difficult to get a design job straight out of college.

I was tempted to try to apply for the sorts of jobs my friends were applying for in finance and consulting but my GPA and background did me a favor and ruled those options out. At that point, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap Inc, and Polo Ralph Lauren were all recruiting for their executive training programs at Harvard, so I applied. I went through the interview processes with all three companies, making it to the final round with each. A&F flew us out to Columbus, Gap flew us out to San Francisco, and Polo flew us to New York.

Along the way, my friend Michelle (who had done the fashion show with me) found out about a career fair at FIT in the fall and we went. It was interesting but the best part was that the original keynote speaker, who was supposed to be Michael Kors, I believe, had suddenly been unable to attend, and was instead replaced by Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez, the designers of a new line called Proenza Schouler.

One woman who had worked in the industry for a while told me that my best bet in learning the business would be to work for a young startup, especially since my ultimate goal was to start my own business. The two that had been getting a lot of buzz around that time (this was fall of 2003) were Proenza Schouler and Zac Posen, and I knew it would be a great opportunity to work for either of them. At the end of their talk, Michelle and I went up to them and I talked to the designers (I remembered Jack from my very brief stint at Marc Jacobs) and I handed them my resume. They said they didn't have a job open at the time, so I didn't expect much to happen from our encounter.

The interview processes with the three aforementioned companies happened in a succession with A&F finishing in late fall, Gap finishing in early spring, and Polo finishing later on in the spring. (Funnily enough, I ran into a Galliano intern at the Polo final round interviews.) One after another, I made it to the final round only to not get hired. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that I was more interested in design than being placed in the training programs, but I also knew deep down inside that they weren't the kinds of jobs I wanted, where I would be another cog in a corporate machine. However, I was still devastated. I wanted some sort of security, reassurance that I'd be OK after I graduated from college.

If security was what I wanted, I probably should have chosen a different profession.

In the meantime, I had also been half-heartedly applying for fellowships and admission to FIT. My mentor had introduced me to Kenneth Cole, who did a talk at the Kennedy School some time in the fall related to his book, which was about how he advanced causes he supported through his business and vice versa. I wrote a thank you note to him with my resume enclosed, and soon got a phone call from his HR department. We met but when I realized that they didn't really have a separate design department for clothes (at the time the clothing design was done out of house), the talks stopped.

I was also focusing most of my efforts on my VES thesis, which was studio work about the nexus of art and fashion. We were each given studio space and a fairly generous budget for materials based on our proposals. Doing the thesis proved difficult in a number of ways. Firstly, I felt pulled in all different directions. I really wanted to do a painting thesis but there is a bit of a negative bias against painting, which is often viewed as backwards and old-fashioned. Since I was exploring fashion, I was encouraged in critiques and discussions to do photography and performance, media which interested me less than painting. Secondly, I had a hard time managing myself, being disciplined and putting in regular studio time -- something I still struggle with today. I would work in fits and spurts. My thesis reflected these problems. While I received decent marks at the final review, they were less than what I had hoped for because my thesis didn't feel resolved. Rather, my reviewers said it felt more like an exploration of ideas than a comprehensive project. I included paintings, photographs, and performance, but each component seemed like a separate project. They didn't really work together. I was very disappointed with my work and when it was over, wished that I had stuck to my guns and done more of the representational photorealistic work I had started out doing.

Spring rolled around and I was feeling pretty depressed. I was disappointed with my thesis, I hadn't gotten any of the jobs or fellowships I had applied for, hadn't gotten into FIT (although I knew the portfolio I submitted was poorly done), and wasn't sure what I would be doing after I graduated in June. I felt lost.

However, I soon discovered that God did have plans for me.

Sometime in the spring, I found out that I had been chosen as a semi-finalist for the Mastercard Priceless Experience Internship Contest, which I had applied for on a whim when I had seen info about it on a e-mail to the house list. The internship would involve living in LA for several weeks and shooting a music video. The initial application was a very short essay on why you are interested in music videos. For me, music videos was a great intersection of my artistic interests -- fashion/visual art, music, and film. I think they had chosen 32 semi-finalists. To be chosen as a finalist, you had to submit a video of yourself, discussing your favorite music video and why it was your favorite, without using clips of the actual video. My family friend Casey had shown me a bunch of Guns N Rosesn and Michael Jackson videos when I had visited Yale for the Game in the fall, and I chose November Rain, partly because I liked the dramatic costumes (especially in the wedding scene), and discussed how fashion plays an important role in music videos.

I found out a few weeks later that I had been selected as a finalist, and would be flying out to Los Angeles a couple of weeks after graduation.

Soon after that, I got an e-mail from the production manager at Proenza Schouler, telling me that there was an opening and to contact her if I would be interested in an interview. We corresponded and I informed her I was definitely interested but would be going to Los Angeles for several weeks after graduation. She told me to contact her when I was back in New York.

By the time I graduated, I was still unsure of what I would be doing after the summer, but I was feeling more hopeful as I prepared for my upcoming trip to Los Angeles.

Why I Love Scotland -- long version

I might be obsessed with Scotland. When it comes up in conversation, people ask me how I became so obsessed. As with most things that one loves passionately, it can't be reduced to one simple reason.

First of all, it might be helpful to talk about why many Americans love English culture/people/stuff. It's because of a certain duality. America inherited much of her culture, at least in the beginning, from England, as a British colony. At the same time, English culture is distinct from American culture (some say America doesn't have a culture because its culture is a mix of the many different cultures of the immigrants who have come to this country, so it's hard to pinpoint one distinct culture). So you've got the English accents, the sharp wit, the quirky creativeness (the British invasions in music, the YBAs in contemporary art, the talented fashion designers that continue to come out of Central St Martins). In short, Americans like English culture/people/stuff because it's foreign (different) but not too foreign, like, say, Sri Lanka, which feels less accessible.

So having established that, Scottish culture/people/stuff can be characterized by what I've described about England but more extreme. The accents are more distinctive, less common (at least here in New York), and more exotic than your standard English accents. Scottish people do "strange" things -- they eat haggis, wear kilts, play bagpipes, speak Gaelic, but they're still part of the UK (remember the shared heritage) and pretty much speak the same language as us. For such a small country (around 5 million, about a tenth of the population of England), it has managed to churn out some of my favorites -- one of my fave bands (Franz Ferdinand), one of my fave designers (Christopher Kane), etc. There are probably other artists/designers/musicians that I haven't mentioned or maybe don't even know about -- every so often I'll delightedly discover that something else that I love is from Scotland! And come on, who doesn't love the movie Braveheart?

How did this insanity all start?

Well, I will tell you. Remember, this is the long version.

Growing up, I had a few Irish-American friends. My town was very Jewish, but there was a decent sized Italian- and Irish-American population. My Irish friends were cool -- hard working but also fun-loving, and always ready for a drink (yes, we're stereotyping).

Fast-forward to junior year of college. After having been classically trained as a violinist, I decided to join an "acoustic-electric progressive symphonic folk rock group." I was trying to figure out what kind of pickup to use, and in the process became friends with the premier fiddle player in my class at Harvard, Gabe Jostrom (check out his band). He introduced me to a few different artists, including Ashley MacIsaac, a Nova Scotian (i.e. New Scotland) fiddler, whose music was the most interesting to me. Since American bluegrass/folk music has roots in Celtic music, I became more interested in Irish/Scottish culture as I learned more about improvisational violin music.

Fast-forward again to the summer of 2004, after I graduated from college. As part of the Mastercard Priceless Internship program, we got to hang out at one of the locations on the Warped Tour. With the other interns, I snuck backstage during the set of Flogging Molly, an Irish folk-punk rock band. The set was electrifying and I was excited by their instrumentation, including a violinist. Their lead singer sings with a thick Irish accent and references his childhood in Dublin. As I became a big fan of the band, I became more interested in Irish culture. Flogging Molly's music was so vibrant and energetic, but the words were sad and melancholy. It was an interesting dichotomy and I loved listening to the different instrumentation. The traditional touches were refreshing after listening to so much commercialized crap with the same synths and electric guitar sounds.

I went to another Flogging Molly show that fall and also decided I wanted to visit Dublin, to see the place which had inspired such lively and spirited music. I got a chance that spring, but was a bit disappointed. I'm not sure what I was expecting -- maybe a quaint and pretty city that was lively and spirited like the music. There were parts that were like that, but the city was in a transitional state, developing. There were more industrial and urban sections that looked more like your average American town. There was a sadness about it, which made sense given the lyrics in the songs and the history of the city. In short, it failed to meet my expectations.

However, during that same trip, I had scheduled a day trip to Edinburgh (I think because I had also become a fan of Franz Ferdinand that fall because of my boss, who liked to play it at work). Edinburgh was everything that I had expected and hoped for in Dublin, and hadn't expected for Scotland. During that day trip, we did a tour of the city, including a requisite visit to Edinburgh castle. The city is breathtaking in a majestic way, and I loved walking on the cobblestones in the Royal Mile, feeling like I was back in the Middle Ages. I was delighted by the tour guides wearing kilts and the accents that I could barely understand. I fell in love with the city and Scotland and decided I wanted to come back.

What I love about Scotland is that same wonderful feeling of surprise I felt when I visited Edinburgh. That feeling you get when you experience something unexpected but wonderful. Although I have only managed to go back once so far, and very briefly, every once in a while I'll hear about a new designer or musician or trend or news (like this) from Scotland that is wonderful/awesome/hilarious in an unpredictable way. My friends make fun of me, but also encourage me by sending me articles they find about Scotland.

I half-jokingly say I want to marry someone from Scotland although I have never actually met any cool Scottish (from Scotland, not American) men in person (and there don't seem to be many in New York). My answer may not satisfy most, but I would ask that before you write me off as nuts, you should really visit Edinburgh! You would understand how J.K. Rowling wrote her Harry Potter books there (yup, another awesome thing that came out of Scotland, although Rowling is actually English).

That is all.

The Evolution of an Haute Couture Collection - Aftermath

The day after the show, the studio was very quiet. It was the last day for three of the interns. Most of the designers were away, probably on vacation. Siria and Natalie were busy working on sketches/designs for the haute couture clients. Marie organized some leather samples for Sophie, and Karin and I cleaned up the studio. It was hard to believe that a couple of days ago the studio had been filled with people -- Steven, John, Francois Toledano, a writer doing a story for the New Yorker, workers from the atelier including the heads, Sophie and Rafael, other assistant designers, models, two women taking polaroids of each model --- and now it was totally empty. There wasn't much to clean; it had already been mostly tidied up.

After our last lunch all together at the cantine (the employee cafeteria), we watched a video of the show, which was already done. Then we watched the version televised on Paris Premier the night before, which had interviews with John, and clips of John and Steven watching the models walk around in the toiles of the dresses.

Afterwards, we just kind of chilled. It was a little sad that it was all over. We exchanged contact info. Rambert gave us each a gift. It was an earring, shaped like a nail, in a pretty white Dior gift box with a matching ribbon. Karin said Steven must have been pleased with the show because she hadn't gotten anything after the last show.

I had two more days left. the next day things picked up because a woman had ordered 65 dresses, so Siria was hard at work, sketching the models. She asked me to photocopy the fabrics at 40% so she could use them for her illustration. I ended up making 6 copies of each fabric sample because reducing them in size made them too small. Then I fit the copies together to try to resemble a miniature version of the fabric. Then Siria took the collaged photocopies and cut out the dresses she'd designed from them. With her markers and watercolors, she deftly worked on the photocopies to make the illustrations look more photorealistic. Since she had so many models to do, we worked this way for the rest of the day, stopping only for lunch.

On my last day of work, Siria showed me how to cut out dresses from the photocopies I had made. Once she showed me, I realized how easy it is. So I helped her cut them out so she could put details on them. I was glad that Tiana had showed me how to use the color photocopy machine, because the tricks she had showedme came in handy. For instance, Siria had this cream colored lace she tried to color red, but when she used the marker on the photocopy, you couldn't see the lace. So I used one of the tricks Tiana showed me to photocopy the lace in red.

At some point, Steven, who was already back, had ordered some Chinese takeout, but he gave it to me and Caroline when John called him out for lunch. Through the course of the day, different groups of people would watch the show on video in the reception area of the studio, including Steven. I tied to watch his reaction, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Before I left for good at 6PM, I got different people's contact info. After I left, I bought myself a pair of shoes I had been eyeing, and went home to pack.

The Evolution of an Haute Couture Collection - Part 4

Not having slept at all, we returned to the studio at 9:30AM. First I went to the Grand Salon to see if they needed any help. They were madly finishing up their work, working on the final dresses. All of the designers helped with the finishing touches, ruching a skirt or sewing sequins.

After a while I went up to the Atelier Flou. We helped Rambert get the dresses down one by one as they were finished. The "petite main" who had finished the dress would put it on a hanger and then we'd put a polybag over it. Then we'd take the elevator down from the fifth floor (where the ateliers were) to the second floor, down the steps to the studio (there was a half staircase between the second floor and the design studio), where Nicolas (one of the production managers) and other people were packing up the dresses for the movers. They were making sure every dress was there, noting the label on the dress.

We finished at around 1:30PM, when we all got into cars to go to to the Hippodrome d'Auteuil, where the show was being held. With our backstage badges we were able to waltz right in. On one side there was a temporary makeup rooms with tables with mirros, stools in front, lights, and makeup artists putting on finishing touches on some of the models. There were photographers and cameramen everywhere, madly taking pictures and interviewing the models.

Here is Sam, one of the designers, helping Jacquetta Wheeler with her outfit.

We went through the flap to the dressing area, where the models had begun to put on their outfits. Each model had a clothing rack, with her name and polaroid photo posted on a piece of oaktag above the rack. Her clothes were on the rack, and the dresses were helping them get into their clothes.

Alek's rack.

A dresser helping Stella Tennant, probably my favorite model.

There was a huge sign tacked above the entry to the catwalk with words of inspiration.

The lineup.

We ran around, helping dress the girls, taking pictures -- it was nuts. I managed to introduce myself to Andre Leon Talley.

Karolina KurkovaStephen Jones adjusting a hat.Natalia Vodianova.a closeupMarie, lacing up Alek's corset.me with Valery Prince and another friendly model.

The models were all very tall, and with their heels they seemed gargantuan. We had been told that we would not be able to watch the show but at the very last minute, before the girls went out, we dashed into the auditorium to try to find a place to watch the show.

The show itself was incredible. It was amazing to see it all come together. The interior of the space was vast and there must have been at least a couple hundred people inside. The space was totally darkened except for the spotlight on the models, and the wall of photographers at the end of the catwalk whose flashes were going off nonstop. The soundtrack we'd been hearing in the studio was on full blast in the auditorium. Elizabeth Hurley and Jack Nicholson were among the many VIPs.

One by one, the models filed out on the catwalk and they all looked magnificent. Steven and John had added touches like torn up shirts around the models waists and tape on some of their fingers to really conjure up the essence of the theme of the dance. Some had gestures to act out as well, like a girl who lifted up her skirt for the audience.

A couple of girls actually slipped. The really high heels coupled with the extremely voluminous and unwieldy dresses made for a dangerous combination. After the last model, Ai, had filed off, there was a pause. The music started again, and the audience clapped for the finale with all 50 girls filing down one after another. Then the music stopped. Another pause, and even before the music began, people were whistling for John, who came out in a crazy outfit, his hair all wet as if drenched with sweat. He stopped a couple of times on the catwalk, snapped his head, looking down at the audience (the catwalk was raised). There were security guards following on the sides, I guess to prevent any crazy fans from chasing him.

As soon as he'd disappeared, we ran backstage again, where the models were busy getting undressed and the designers were chatting. Eventually everyone made their way to the makeup area, in front of which servers were pouring Moet into plastic champagne glasses. We all got glasses and chilled. We watched as the Arnaults made their way out, snapped by the paparazzi. Natalia Vodianova and her husband were also snapped.

With the other interns, after the show.

With Mr. Kyuin Chae, or "Queen," his nickname (although I think he's straight).

Gradually, as people left, it got quieter. Caroline and Aurore, two of the interns, left with a couple of people from the lingerie department. Karin, Marie, and I (the other interns) asked Sophie to call us a cab to get us back to the office. Instead, we ended up taking an Espace back with Mme Riviere. Then we went back to the office, where Siria and some of the production people were already back to work. We chilled a bit, and then went home. I had dinner, and then slept for a long time.