Ever since I accepted my place on the course last March I knew there was a trip to Paris on the cards, sure enough over the summer the letter arrived detailing a trip over the valentines period. Ever since the day the letter came I'd had a bubble of excitement about going to the home of fashion and the city of love, it served as an incentive on the tougher days at Uni, counting down to when we would be rewarded.
We all arrived at our pick up point, feeling fresh and excited despite the early hour (6:15am!!) however this optimism didn't last long. It soon became apparent that our coach was missing, cue the entire group being herded into the local college canteen to await another coach, luckily we were allowed to dash out and refuel on coffee. The coach being late destroyed all the original travel plans that had been made for us, cue a wait at the Eurostar whilst we were all rebooked onto a train and a long wait at the hotel in Paris once we'd arrived. Our whole first day was written off as everyone was too tired to even venture out of the hotel for dinner.
Day 2 - Premiere Vision
Another early start but today we were doing what we came to Paris for: Premiere Vision. I was incredibly excited to visit this trade show after being told lots about it by my tutors and friends who'd be before, and it didnt dissapoint. Despite not being able to take any photos of my own or collect any samples the visit was still incredibly inspiring and my notebook quickly filled up with trends and key fabrics and companies that I liked.
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| Looking down into the main hall of premiere vision |
One of my favourite parts of Premiere Vision was the trend film that was on show, it proved incredibly inspirational and it was a quick and easy way to see the key trends in one place. The forums that Premiere Vision put together within each fabric family ie prints, jersey, denim etc proved very helpful and helped to show the smaller trends within the overarching themes of the season.
Day 3 Sight Seeing
Other than our scheduled trip to Premiere Vision our time was our own to explore Paris, our only requirement was to come back from Paris inspired, so with that in mind we decided to make the most of our only free full day and explore the centre of Paris. We started with the big one; the Eiffel Tower.
Although we didn't have the time to go up it, it was still amazing to see the Eiffel tower for real, and it was much bigger than I was expecting. We then walked through Paris taking in the sites of the Louvre and the Grand Palais en route to Concept store Collete.
Collete was another inspiring visit, with hand picked items in all departments it really is the go to shop for everything thats going to be on Trend; although I must admit finding Topshop Makeup for double the price was quite funny for us all. We then found various pastries to snack on before taking the Metro to Montremarte to take in the sites of the Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rogue.
Day 4 Flea Markets & Home
On our final day we chose to visit the famous nearby "les puces" (fleamarkets), these were another inspiring part of the trip. Despite not being able to take many photographs I was able to buy some gorgeous but expensive trim and pick up items for future projects: old keys and postcards.
However by the end of the week, despite coming back very inspired, we were all exhausted and excited to be properly going home the next week. I'd definitely recommend taking a trip to premiere vision for any aspiring fashion or textile students
FFF x
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