Recently I got the opportunity to work at a couple shows at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. I can surely say that it pretty much fit every image that fashion movies have created. It was just as chaotic and glamorous as these movies portray. It was full of people running around hectic and models being hurried onto the catwalk. It was everything I ever imagined and more.
I worked for Rick Owens (during Paris Mens Fashion Week), Tony Ward, Alexandre Vauthier, and Yolancris. For each show my job was to dress the models. For this job I had one model to dress and I had to get the clothes on and off the model without damaging everything. I also had to make sure everything looked correct on the model. Being haute couture fashion week, everything was hand beaded and very delicate which made this job a bit more tricky than it may seem. Some of the models would wear two outfits during to show which called for a very quick change. Let me tell you being fast and delicate do not go hand and hand. To be backstage at the shows I had to wear black head to toe at each show. I thought I owned a lot of black until this week.
Even though I was doing the same job at each show, my experience at each one was different. Each show was held at a different venue, was a different size, and had different garments. They were also all run very differently. Some shows were very strict about no photography, (one time we all had to turn in our phones before entering) others were very relaxed. All of the aesthetics and inspiration for the collections were very different too. The garments I got to work with included men's streetwear, beautiful beaded evening wear and delicate tulle pieces. Despite all the differences of these shows they all had something in common: absolutely beautiful artistic creations.
It was such a cool opportunity to see all the workings of backstage and to see what all goes into creating these shows that I have watched online for many years .As a fashion student who has imagined herself just being at a fashion show let alone working backstage this was a dream come true.