You never know who you’ll meet in a hot tub — and no, this is not an open letter to Penthouse.

One Sunday last month I took the kids to a local haunt of ours, a traditional bath house. It’s a great place to spend a day. There are showers, hot tubs of varying temps, saunas, “cold saunas”, heated stone floors, massages of varying types — you can easily spend 5 or more hours lounging and being pampered. (For example, if I got an hour’s massage, a full body exfoliation and enjoyed the saunas and baths, I would pay approximately $70. JUST the saunas and baths, $12. No time limit.)

 ANYWAY, I was sitting in the hot tub next to another white woman, approx. 25 years old. She was looking slightly lost, so I struck up a conversation. It went something like this:

Me: Hi. Where are you from? (Note: I was a little less abrupt, but I’m skipping the boring niceties)

Her: I’m from France, but I’m half New Zealander.

Me: Ah, that explains your interesting accent! What are you doing here in Seoul?

Her: Actually, I’m a fashion designer.

Me: (Blink, blink)

Her: What?

Me: Sorry. It’s just that you usually hear, “English teacher” or “I’m here on business.” Also, I’m going to be going to design school in the fall for fashion design!

Her: That’s great!

Me: So what kind of design do you do?

Her: Haute Couture.

I’m going to interrupt here to explain haute couture to those of you not familiar with the term. You’ve probably seen pictures of gowns on the Paris runways where you’ve looked at them and said, “No one would ever where something like that in real life!” THAT’s haute couture. It’s basically fashion’s experimental laboratory, and only a very small number of designers (I think it’s currently 15) are allowed to even use the phrase with their designs. It’s very strictly controlled by the French government. Those gowns are almost completely hand sewn and extremely intricate. Oh, and purchasing one is usually the equivalent of buying a new car.

On with the conversation:

Her: I’m actually an assistant designer. My boss brought me here (to the baths) to relax before our big rush because we leave for the Paris shows in 10 days.

(A Korean woman approximately my age with a dazzlingly crooked smile — oh, fully nude as we were, btw — joins us. Again, get your minds out of Penthouse mode.)

Her: Ah, here’s my boss. Oops, it’s my turn to be exfoliated. Excuse me.

I’m not going to transcribe, but rather describe, how the rest of the conversation went because said designer only spoke French and Korean, her assistant Madeline spoke French and English, and I am barely literate in Korean and only picking up odd phrases here or there in French. It was interesting to say the least!

It was also slightly embarrassing, because the designer, Ji Haye, is actually quite famous in France and Japan — and I didn’t have a clue who she was! (And of course, I googled her as soon as I got home. Here’s a couple of sites I found on her:

video of her 2004/5 collection:

http://www.ftv.com/online/page.php?P=846&id=10948

Her website:

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jihaye.couture/accueil.html

She was one of the youngest — and the only Korean — designers ever to be invited to show at Paris’ haute couture shows. Once I saw the websites I recognized her work, even if I didn’t recognize the name. She is currently designing for a Japanese couture house in anticipation of being named the successor (of a Japanese designer whose name has escaped me today).

She was so incredibly nice, she invited Donna and I to tour her atelier the next day!!!!!

Okay, to get how exciting that is, imagine someone saying to you, “Yesterday I bumped into Yves St. Laurant and he invited me over to watch him work.” Unthinkable!!!!!! And it happened fully naked in a hot tub! (Seriously, am I going to have to slap your mind out of the gutter?!)

So next time I post, it’ll be about the tour — with pics!