Ma Chérie,
The first part of our day began with a presentation by the members of a French software company who have created Advanced Fashion Software, an exciting product useful for Fashion Designers, Product Development, Merchandisers, Visual Planners and Store Planners. “Wow this would be great and easy to use” commented a number of students who also classified it as “one of the best appointments so far”.
Wednesday afternoon in Paris. The temperature is 'tres chaud' but
that does not deter the FIDM students from spending their afternoon
with two of FIDM's Advisory Boards members.
First stop is Maison Pery where the students are introduced to 'high
jewelry' and see first hand all of the steps which go into fabricating
jewelry for such well known high jewelers as : Cartier, Van Cleef and
Arpel. Bulgari, and Boucheron. From 
design through casting, polishing,
setting stones, polishing again and final finishing. The students were
awed by the fact that no one talks about price. What is Important is
that every part of every piece is of the highest quality and as close
to perfection as is humanly possible.
After a break, our group split into two with some at the House of Lesage and others visiting a fashion designer who creates custom made bridal gowns as well as dresses for the entire wedding party. “The ones for the mother are a bit more subdued” he explained, “as the important person that day is the bride.”
When asked what advice he would have for the students Christoph replied “work, work hard and don’t worry about sleeping!”
At Lesage, students saw a hush hush preview of the couture embroidery being done by the atelier for Dior and Chanel for the Haute Couture showings next week. All were blown away by the creativity shown and by the archived embroidery samples from past collections of Vionnet, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Schiaparelli and Balenciaga.
A bientot,
Lanie & B.B. from Paris
For more on FIDM Study Tours to the major fashion cities of the world (New York, Paris, Milan, etc.), head to FIDM.edu.
