Project Runway

The Spring/Summer 2011 Show

The Corneliani Showroom

http://www.corneliani.it/it/index.jsp?goto=negozi#/negozi 

Well...finally started my fashion classes in Italian on Monday. Technically it's just an intensive workshop and my classes start on Nov. 8 but we'll just go ahead and pretend. Damnnnnn it's hard listening to lecture in a different language. The teachers expect me to understand everything they're saying but I don't know all the vocabulary they're using...YET he he. On the other hand, the students are super helpful and encouraging and a few of them can speak a little English; but, for the most part it's all Italian...it's nice finally having to force myself to speak Italian because I've been hanging out with International students who all speak perfect English and are struggling with Italian in the same way. Right when we got to class the teacher immediately started explaining the project we'll be working on for the next two weeks. We're doing this project where we makeup our own fashion house and then create outfits out of materials like paper, plastic, and tape--accordingly! ha feels so project runway-esque it's glorious. Welcome to the House of Toyland. I'm sure I'll have some great pics to follow:) Also took a lil field trip to another showroom today. It was the Corneliani showroom and it was absolutely breathtaking. It's two-stories with 4 or 5 different rooms of clothes, shoes, and accessories for men. Their suits are beautiful and their sartorial collection is entirely handmade. They are super innovative with their fabrics and used special fibers to give their jackets gorgeous effects. This one jacket in particular had this gorgeous sheen to it almost like a sparkle but more subtle. When I asked the showroom manager what they used she said Jersey! Ha a jersey knit...who would've thought;) After the tour and explanation of the companies history (It started in the 50's and now there's 100 mono-brand stores and 17 stores they sell to--the founder has 2 sons that both had 2 sons that work for the company now! ha all boys) we watched the Spring/Summer 2011 fashion show which was held in this amazing garden at the Technology Museum in Milan. The models were effing gorgeous ah ha love those men's collections. After the showroom visit Larra and I took a trek around the city...first looking for a hair salon (passing by the most beautiful buildings from the 1600's and stores upon stores of gorgeous designer furniture--including Fendi Casa) After that, we had written directions from the public transportation website that told us to go to Porta Genova and then walk to our next destination which was Pisotti(where we could purchase materials for our project.) The directions had us walk all the way up one street and then down the canal(until we had reached where we had jus come from) and then continue walking down the canal for 15 more minutes. All and all the trek took us around 45 minutes...then we figured out we could walk to our house in about ten minutes! ha ha ohhhhh well...u think u know ur way around a city and then BAM kicked back into reality. At least we found the Italian version of Michaels and got started on our clothes:) When we got home from it all we got some GREAT news...time to start looking for a new place to live...the guy we rent from who also lives here wants to move in with his gf. ahhhhh i do not wanna haveta go through this again but ohhh well. hopefully we find some place cheaper so i can travel more. time to go to the post office and try to get them to send my package back to my grandma so i don't have to pay 100 euro to receive her gift...ha ha yeah plz nobody send me any xmas presents...it may not cost too much for ur shipping but my taxes are INSANE. well baci e abbracci <3 next post to come after i find out what a milanese halloween is like;)

Oktoberfest!!!

On Friday night I got on a tour bus with a couple hundred other Erasmus students and shoved off to Munich for Oktoberfest. It took about eight hours to get there and when we arrived there was no time to waste. We got in line to get a table and the drinking commenced at 9am! The steins contain a liter of beer and after a couple of liters our group grew to contain some local Germans. "Prost!" Everyone would cheer as we gulped down another liter of beer. Only one problem with drinking liters of beer...gotta go to the bathroom a lot (everyone did) it was like fighting to get a picture of Lady Gaga trying to enter into those four walls. On the way back the delicious scent of bratwurst and sausages lingered in the air. I may have eaten the best hamburger of my life, dressed with grilled onions and so delectable...a bag of warm mixed candied nuts finished it right off for dessert. Oktoberfest wasn't just beer houses. There was also carnival rides, games, and spectacles of watching really drunk men and women walk around in their traditional German dress. One of the fellow students tried to win me a Hello Kitty through a shooting game with fail...it's hard to shoot a gun straight after 4 liters of beer. When we were supposed to go on a tour of Munich everyone got lost and wandered their separate ways. I found my way back to the house of Lowenbrau after grabbing another bratwurst and some fries--i mean ya gotta eat when you're drinking that much--ha. I thought it would be more difficult to get back into the beer house with all of the security guards standing around it but I was wrong. As I dipped under the chain no one seemed to notice my presence because they were wheeling someone else on a hospital gurney...too much beer? Found some other Erasmus students and decided it was safest to stay inside where there weren't four people bent over puking into one trashcan at the same time or just people generally past out among this festival of thousands. The beer house became livelier at night as everyone was singing and on their 6th or 7th liter of beer. After about 5 or 6 attempts of marriage (drunk Germans and Italians really like Americans--especially from California) back to the bathroom again. By this time the wood outside was unbelievably slippery due to all of the spilt beer and woops! out from under me my boot flew up into the air as i landed flat on my back...good thing i couldn't rly feel it at the time but i'm telling you...took almost 3 weeks for my tailbone to stop hurting! ha ha ohhh well a sacrifice to the beer Gods. As the night dragged on the memory became less and less and I trekked back to the tour bus with another student. Unfortunately I thought I wasn't supposed to be at the bus until 9:30 and surprise surprise everyone else was there at 9. woops...add to that another 15 minutes as I waited for a friend to leave the bathroom and the bus almost left without us 45 minutes late! he he needless to say the ride back to Milan was not nearly as fun as the ride to Munich. Everyone passed out and woke up with some of the worst hangovers in history. Oh well...how often do you go to Oktoberfest? {in Munich anyway;)}