September 26th, 2011

This past weekend was so nice!

DISCLAIMER THIS POST IS REALLY LONG

BUT there are a lot of pictures. so read at your own risk!

Saturday afternoon Natalie, Ashley, Brittany, and I went to Giverny. We found a company who does tours inside and outside of France, and they had an afternoon tour of Monet's house and gardens. It was the perfect day! Sunny and warm.

I have always loved Monet and the Impressionism movement in art. It was such a treat to finally see the flowers, lilly pond, and country side that inspired him so much. If you ever get the chance. you MUST go see this place. It really is breathtaking.

The flowers themselves were incredible. Never mind that the surrounding area was equally as beautiful. It's no wonder that Monet felt the need to paint and capture it all.

Archways like this went down the middle and sides of the garden. There were certain paths we couldn't go down, but even still there was plenty to see!

My friend Natalie and I in front of Monet's house. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, but it was incredible, let me just tell you!

It was unbelievable how blue the sky was that day. Perfect weather!

Friday our whole group got to go to Versailles for the day. We could not have asked for better weather!

Let me tell you, Jordan and I had the best ice cream in the world. I have never tasted vanilla with so much flavor in my life!

Sunday we went to Rick Owens and signed our contracts to work the shows and in the showroom. Natalie, Brittany, Ashley, Dr. Ellis, and I went to the American Church in Paris for church in the morning. It was nothing like Vintage 21 or Salem Chapel, but it was nice to be in a place of believers who all spoke English!

Phew! Sorry that post was so long. I will try to be better about keeping up with posts and such!

Love,

gigi

September 21, 2011

The past few days have been the same. Class, food, goofing off around town.

Today we got to go to Premier Vision, the fabric trade show where over 200 countries come to sell their fabrics to buyers and manufacturers and designers. It was incredible! I wish that the floor plan had been more open, it was hard to go into the stalls and see the fabric without feeling like we were intruding on business deals and such.

Since we couldn't see as much as planned, Jordan and I decided to go grab Quick, a French fast food place, and go sit in the Luxembourg Gardens. Let me JUST SAY it was perfect weather for this.

The people watching was fabulous. In the shade it was kind of cold, but luckily Jordan and I found a place in the sun!

Enjoy the pictures! I have stolen them from Jordan since my camera is dead and I still haven't found a charger.

Tomorrow we are going to Versailles! I can't wait to see the gardens.

Until then!

Gigi

September 14-18th

LONDON CALLING

And you better BELIEVE I answered that one!

I fell in total and complete love with the city.

The atmosphere.

The people.

The fashion.

The art.

The history.

The Dover Street Market.

The everything.

It was just completely incredible. We had a woman named Wendy lead us around and she was phenomenal to say the VERY least. She was so amazing. Funny. Eccentric. Outgoing. Warm. She went above and beyond. Wendy sometimes works for TrendUnion and works on projects for them, but she is also a freelance journalist, styles bands, and does a bunch of this and that.

We took the EuroStar (bullet train/chunnel) and got to London in about two and a half hours.

It wasn't a bad trip at all. We were all so excited for the accents and ENGLISH. As much as I love the French language, even I was excited to be able to get around, order, and converse with people on the street in my own language.

The majority of our time and educational excursions were based on visual merchandising and what is new and happening in the world. We went to so many stores and looked in so many windows. It was incredible! I absolutely loved just walking in and out of stores, looking at displays, incredible windows, all of it! Instead of giving you a play-by-play, I thought I'd give you a list of the stores that we went to intermixed with other fabulous things that happened. Go ahead, call me lazy, I know I am the queen of bullet pointed lists. Or numbered lists, you can ask Hannah Dawson about those!

1. Harrod's
2. Harvey Nichols
3. Selfridges (fave)
4. Liberty
5. Dover Street Market (maxwell, aggressive dance moves, writing alone, beanie, icey blue and warm eyes, nerves, chris, clash magazine, comme de garcon 88 pound shirts, there is so so much more about this store that I can't even begin to explain)
6. MY BIRTHDAY we had Japanese for dinner
7. Tiger Tiger club after dinner for dancing and a delicious margarita!
8. Hyde Park (peter pan, diana memorial, horses, beautiful weather, sunny, warm, plenty of cute dogs, swans, lake, so much more)
9. I am moving to London. #asap
10. The awesome lady who did Jordan's makeup at YSL. She was so inspiring and cool. She was so helpful and gave us a few things to do on our free day.
11. Mastering the Tube after one day. If only the metro was as easy as that!
12. "Power of Making" exhibit at the V+A museum. LOOK THAT ISH UP RIGHT NOW it was awe inspiring and breath-taking

I think that's it for now, I don't want to overload you. If I remember anything else, I will most definitely do another London post. Don't get your hopes up. I can guarantee it won't be poetic or anything, and I would bet all the money I have in the world it will be a list! Haha, hope you guys are enjoying keeping up with me!

love,

gigi

DSM

Only a few people are going to really going to understand this post. But I knew that if I didn't write about it I'd forget it, and that is NOT something I wanted to do.

Today, at DSM something marvelous happened. We had to go back and take another look. I bucked up and took a risk, and it worked marvelously in the end.

I have to go back and peruse the ground floor again. We might possibly bust out an aggressive dance move (and score a leading role in an up and coming author's novel).

I'll let you decide what happened...

love,

gigi

September 9, 2011

Today was pretty chill. I didn't have class until 2pm so I was able to get up and get dressed and get ready and such, which was nice. I had kind of a fashion experiment day today with a scarf I had bought the other day, I thought it was successful. Regretfully I didn't get a picture :(

After class a few of us headed to MonoPrix (a smaller version of Target where we usually buy groceries) and on the way Amber and I stopped in a store to look at pants and blazers. I have been searching for a blazer for a while that I really like, and FINALLY FOUND ONE! It was so exciting.

Monoprix was so busy, so we tried to get out of there as soon as we could. Also, neither Amber nor I had eaten lunch so we were starving.

Note to self: never grocery shop on an empty stomach

Since we knew we were cooking roast chicken for dinner, and it would be a while till we ate, a Nutella crepe on the way home was A MUST. Needless to say it was the best purchase of the day.

Our roast chicken was so delicious. It wasn't dry at all!

We ate sort of late, around 8 here, and so after we just went up to our friend's apartment to hang out with some of the other girls.

I had thought I was going to Disney tomorrow, but I think my plans have changed and I am going to the Eiffle Tower with Amber, Kelsey, Talisha, Bani, and Shelby tomorrow. It should be a blast! Pictures to follow for sure!

Love,

j

September 8, 2011

First of all, sorry I haven't posted in a few days!

Our schedule has been quite crazy.

All of our classes are getting mixed up because of different things we are having the opportunity to get to do! Which is a-ok with me. Flexible is my middle name!

So seeing as the past few days have run together, I will just leave a bullet point list of what has gone on in the past few days (forgive me, I know bullet point lists are lazy and lame. I promise this weekend I will post something good!)

• we scored a paid internship with Rick Owens (look him up)
• we get to dress models for the Gareth Pugh show...he has dressed lady gaga...#enoughsaid
• a fashion/trend forecaster came and talked to us for about 3 hours, it was the most interesting information thrown at us at the most rapid speed ever. i learned a lot and can't wait to go see their summer 13 reveal next tuesday
• not this friday but next we will have a whole day at versailles! i think im going to spend the majority of my time in the gardens seeing as i have seen the inside
• french class has been fun! agnes our teacher from PAA is super nice and patient with our horrible accents
• the people here are a lot friendlier than i thought! except the landlord here, she yelled at us when we came in last night because she said our heels were making too much noise. i am going to make an effort to be mindful of my noise level as there are families in our building
• had the best crepe ever the other day! chicken, cheese, tomato, salt and pepper #epic
• MY UKULELE CAME TODAY #enoughsaid
• Claire, Jordan, and i are going to Eurodisney on saturday! look forward for pictures from that.
• i had a really awesome quiet time today. the lord has been really faithful to me in prayer this summer, and i am trying to be very intentional in my prayer life and relationship with him. i know if i keep my heart and mind open to him he will have so much to teach me this semester. i just can't wait to see what it is going to be!!
• it has gotten cold! the fall has arrived :) i crunched leaves on the way to school today which was so fun!
• there is a high school and elementary school near our apartment building, they are always everywhere! it is so fun to watch them hanging out after and before school just like we did!
• there is also a deaf school across the street and over a few blocks from us and they got let out right as Amber, Claire, and i were going to the grocery (they were nutella-less tres disappointing if i must say myself)
• we found our hangout officially i think. it is called Le Crocodile and so cool. the bartenders already recognize us, we must learn their names. they are very patient with us and our slow french and confusion
• hmmm i think that's it! if i remember anything else i will post it again

sorry again for this short post! I will try to do better!

September 4, 2011

the marc jacobs sign outside of his store at palais royal

beauty

bows, y'all don't be surprised that i find them wherever i go!

Window display at Lowe's

Bani and I at the Eiffle tower

At Palais Royal

The Gardens at Palais Royal

It is already starting to look like fall, oh what's that building you may ask? Don't worry, just my future apartment

The Eiffle Tower, what else?

The most beautiful window display I have seen in a while. It was at Lowe's

September 4, 2011

Today, we had a tour of the city. We had to meet at the school at 9, which was EARLY seeing as the night before was a Saturday. As the day started it was kind of grey, but as the day wore on, it got nicer and nicer.

Our first stop was the place above the Eiffle Tower where it is really easy to get in a shot of the whole tower. It was so nice! It had stopped raining and the clouds were parted just so, it was beautiful. All of us were really excited about it; we finally felt we were in Paris!

After the Eiffle Tower we stopped at the Champs Elysse and other side streets with all of the high fashion and designer stores. It was so cool! Our next stop was the flea market for lunch. Bani, Jordan, and I found a place called Les terrasses de Cayenne and it was delicious. I got the “chevre chaud” which was baked goat cheese on arugala with tomatoes. Bes. Salad. Ever. I can’t even begin to explain how good it was. It began to rain so we headed back to the bus a few minutes early. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and so we headed off to our final stops.

Our next stop was Palais Royal. It is one of the oldest sections of Paris, and is where the first Jewish people settled in the city. There were many small fashion stores and gorgeous vintage shops (thought of you COURTNEY SIMMONS) around the parameter of the gardens.

An artist had created several column- like sculptures in one of the little areas and it was so cool! They were all different heights and we all took pictures. Finally we made our way to the area of the city called “La Mari” which had so many fashion stores and little boutiques and patisseries and such. We will definitely be going back there.

We came back to the apartment and crashed. Being on our feet all day was killing us!

All in all though, it was a fabulous day!

Love,

Gigi

Sorry!

So I totally messed up! Only one of the pictures I tried to post showed up. I am trying again, so we will see if this works!