I finally met Jean who is the owner of the boutique with Lillian. He was really nice in explaining to me and Miina the history of Metal Flaque and also how we could all help each other make our time here beneficial to all parties. He made it a point to include us in everything and explain all facets of the business, which I really appreciated.
Then unexpectedly Marion called me over to help her with some alterations. I was super excited to finally get to work on something design related! I had to take apart this wedding dress and use the lace fabric to overlay it on another wedding dress. Surprisingly, I wasn't as nervous doing this as when I interned at DvF and had design projects. But I still took my time to carefully work on the dresses to make sure I didn't ruin them and to make them look really nice. When I was done, I showed Marion and she said she was really proud of me and that I did a great job! She said she was especially pleased because it was a complicated first project, but that it came out really nice! She then told Veronique and said that I could continue assisting her with the alterations, which made me reallllllllly happy! I couldn't wait to call my mom to tell her all about it! That I was actually in Paris working on couture designer dresses! It also felt really amazing to be a part of making a bride feel happy and beautiful for her wedding day!
In that moment, I felt like all the hard work and money I spent to change careers and to pursue my dreams were worth it! Even if nothing comes out of this, I will always have these memories and the fact that I tried will be enough for me! :)
Later in the day, Miina told me some friends of hers from an exchange program she did in Bangkok invited her to this After Work party and told me to go too. I thought why not?! And I'm so glad I did! I had such a fun time and felt so free and happy like I didn't have a care in the world! We had to bolt from work taking the metro to Champs Elysees to Ice Bar by Haagan Dazs to line up because if you don't get there by 7pm, it's really hard to get in and open bar will be over by the time you get in! I was really surprised that Haagan Dazs had a bar too! Weird, but cool! I really like how the French are so polite and how they greet one another! When I was introduced to Miina's friend, Sebastien and his friends they were perfect gentlemen and gave us both a kiss on each cheek. Sebastien works at Pricewater House Cooper in France and Nicolas and Romain, both work at BNP which is one of the biggest banks in France.
When we got inside, we stayed by the bar and kept getting our glasses refilled with champagne over and over again for like an hour and a half! The champagne just kept flowing! Meanwhile, Miina and I kept grabbing bites of food on the table like chocolate chip cookies, brownies with walnuts, waffles, chips 'n salsa, cous cous and lots more!
When the open bar was over, the guys decided to keep on buying more drinks of red bull and vodka and we were all definitely happy, silly, crazy drunk!
We ended up on the dance floor and kept taking silly photos for the rest of the night! We were all there til the end of the night where we then tried to go to some other club on Champs Elysees, but it was getting really late and I had work in the morning so I ended up going home after Miina and I were running around the streets taking pics of the Arc de Triumph and almost got runned over! haha
Miina and her friend Sebastien stayed to go clubbing and I guess good thing I didn't go! haha poor Miina had a reallllly long night! After they went clubbing, Sebastien's phone got stolen right out of his hand and they had to call the police so they were driving around Paris looking for the guy that stole the phone. Miina didn't end up getting home til like 5am! We both went to work pretty hungover and felt like crap all day. We're both like never again! lol
Luckily, we were both able to make it through the day ok and I got to work on more alterations with Marion. I think I worked on 5 or 6 more dresses the whole day! I have been doing a lot of hand sewing couture techniques so hopefully I keep getting better at it! Marion is so awesome! She's really helping me learn and do lots more projects including teaching me French, along with the other people that work there. And she's going to try get me into a fashion show for fashion week with one of her designer friends she used to work for. She's had such incredible experience working at Balenciaga, Chanel, and lots more. Marion said it's all about networking, personality, commitment, and working hard. She said people will notice your work ethic and drive and will help you and remember you. I asked her if she thought it would be hard for me to find a job in Paris permanently and she said it's not impossible if I do the things she mentioned. It gives me some hope and I will definitely try my hardest to network and work hard! Marion didn't go to a big time fashion school in Paris, in fact she studied to be a history teacher and then mostly taught herself and had some great mentors that helped her along the way. She found her job at Metal Flaque through networking too. This designer she did some work for told her to go check out Metal Flaque when it first opened. There she met Veronique and 6 months later, Veronique called and said they needed someone to help with alterations and remembered Marion, who she thought was really professional and would be great for the job. Would be awesome if they called me one day and hired me permanently!!!!! Ya never know right?! Here's hoping anyways!
Oh I also to see the Arc de Triumph again when I was running an errand at work! So nice!!! I quickly walked Champs de Elysees too and got to see all the nice stores of things I can't afford hehe
Got work tomorrow, but a long weekend to look forward to because there's another holiday on Monday! Yeah!!! Bonne nuit!!! Bisous Bisous! oxox
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