I know it’s been forever since I posted anything new, but I feel like my life has been going too fast to breathe ever since I started packing to leave Korea!
Those of you on my email list have already heard all the stories about the actual move and the family vacation and how I cried in the airport parking lot when I sent my family back to Korea – so I’m going to skip all that and focus on the design stuff!
Well, on the family vacation we stopped to get a tour of my new school, FIDM in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. It’s a FANTASTIC building, with its own attached park, open to the public. It’s like a little oasis amongst the office buildings and parking lots.
We met the admissions advisor who’d so graciously walked me through all the steps of getting admitted, financial aid, etc. since December of last year, Tara. She gave Donna and I a tour of the building (Jason, after being in a car all day wanted to play in the park, so Sang just saw a couple of things and then headed out with him).
On one wall were hundreds of ORIGINAL Dior sketches from the 60s on up donated to the school by one of the Bloomindales. That was a big highlight for Donna. Starting the next day all her sketches completely changed to a new style. It was awe-inspiring. Wait — let me scan a couple in and let you see for yourself:
The backseat of my car was littered with these when she left. But that’s cool because it means I get to keep them!
The most impressive part of the school for me was the library. Not only do they have fashion forcasts (showing what colors, silhouettes, materials, etc. will be used 6 months, 1 yr, 2 yrs from now — Yes, they do plan that far ahead!!!), biographies, magazines, etc. etc. about fashion, they have a huge collection of actual clothing dating as far back as the 1700s for students to examine. I’m drooling!
There’s also a museum/gallery on the ground flour where they were holding an exhibit of Emmy-award-winning costumes, past and present.
They also have a thrift/consignment store where all the proceeds go to the scholarship fund for the school. I picked up a brand-new (donated by the company) Tadashi blouse for $25 THAT ACTUALLY FITS ME!!!!
Oh, and some trivia for you Project Runway fans: Two of the current season’s designers are FIDM grads. Kelli was auf’d a couple of weeks back on the Lipstick Jungle challenge (blonde, tatooed), but the coffee filter dress she won the first challenge with is on proud display in the upstairs lobby. The other graduate is Leanne, who (as far as WE know) is still in the running.
I returned once since the tour to meet with a career counselor, Cynthia. We re-worked my resume to fit this industry, and I got some job leads. One of them was with — wait for it — Monique Lhuillier! (Remember my post about my M.L. dream? Go back and look at it, in case you haven’t. I’ll wait. <cue elevator music>) Of course, I’m not the only person who applied, but it’s nice to see that someone up there is at least listening!
The school is having orientation week the first week of October, and that includes a job fair for part-time/internship positions. So if I don’t find anything by then, at least I’ll get a chance to impress some people face-to-face (thinking positive here!)
I also went out and bought myself a sewing machine. The one I had in Korea was actually a friend’s, so I didn’t bring one over with me. I had to go to three different places, but the third had all the brands in it, so JACKPOT! (I kinda guessed it from the name of the store — ALL BRANDS — but since it was in a town I was not yet familiar with, I did the aforementioned roaming.) I now own a cool Janome machine, which has both regular stitching and stretch stitches, and a drop-in bobbin casing!!! (For those of you unitiated in sewing machine mechanics, trust me: It’s a cool machine!)
I have also ordered an adjustable dress form so I can make clothes that will approximately fit me when I’m done. Good thing it’s adjustable, too, as I’ve already dropped an inch all over my bod since I got here (yeah!). I’ve started a project already: I’m taking basic patterns, starting with a pants pattern, and making it out of muslin to tailor it to fit me WELL. Once I’ve got all the adjustments made, I can start sewing up those aforementioned clothes for myself, and play with some variations on the patterns.
Today, however, my body and brain needed to crash and do nothing. Writing this blog has probably been the most productive thing I’ve done since noon (it’s 9:30 now!), but I needed a day where I wasn’t crossing 3-5 things off my to-do list, or even think about the to-do list. Come to think about it, I did three of the things on my list by noon. So I say I deserved it <insert smug grin>.
So that’s it for me for now. I won’t promise to leave you hanging again that long between updates, but I certainly will try not to!
Oh, and Happy Chusok to everyone there in Korea!
