Months ago, I had pulled off a rush sewing miracle for a bridal designer friend of mine. She was so grateful, and mentioned that she hoped to be able to return the favor to me sometime in the future. I promptly told her that I would love to go to Paris with her sometime. She travels a lot and Paris seems to be one of her popular places to go. She later gave me the dates she would be in Paris in January 2024. I scheduled a two week trip to Paris that sandwiched those dates nicely. And that was that. And my sister wanted to go with me, so that was also that.
At the October 2023 ASDP conference in Denver, I met many people who had been to Paris, and received good advice for my Paris trip. I also attended an amazing class on couture sewing. This class seemed to speak to my heart. It was all about excellence and careful sewing. I told the teacher that I had a new meaning for the word impeccable. I pondered the difference between my bridal alterations work, which is a frantic dance between working with a dress that obviously wasn’t custom sewn to fit the bride, quick deadlines and a brides’ budget restraints. Pretty much my work is the opposite of couture sewing. The contrast between my job and hers was stark and a little painful. Yes, I do beautiful work and the dresses fit lovely, but certainly not on the same timelines needed for couture.
A month later, a teaching friend from ASDP flew out to my home to film her baby bump method for altering bridal gowns. As she was ironing her samples, we discussed my trip to Paris. She told me to google the dates to see if there were any events going on during the time I was going to be there……FASHION WEEK!!! I had no idea!
Of course! That was why my friend would be in Paris those 3 days. Those were the haute couture days. Oh my gosh! My sister and I bought very expensive tickets to one of the fashion shows, and our expectations were low. We assumed we would be in the back row, but we were excited that we could even get tickets at all.
When I mentioned fashion week to my friend that was meeting me over there, she said she didn’t want to over promise anything, but she hoped we would have some fun opportunities while we were there.
At this point, I should mention that I have never traveled overseas, or really traveled much at all. I am a mother of 5 who worked from home as she raised her family. I have always worked very hard sewing to help provide for my family. As my children grew up and started leaving the nest, I had the opportunity to take care of my parents in my home. My sewing business worked well for this situation also. My parents have both passed, and I am grateful for the extra love we built into our relationship.
I am not a fancy person. I am a minimalist, with a clothes closet that has plenty of breathing room. I have always wanted to travel, but family commitments have made that difficult in the past. But the phase of life that I am in right now has doors opening for travel that didn’t exist before. So here I go to Paris….
To be continued
