Day 43: Monday, February 28, 2011

Kevin comes THIS WEEK!  He will be here on Friday.  How fabulous :)

4 days <3

Day 41: Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Vogue business card we constructed for ourselves

After getting denied entry to the Prada Show on Thursday, we decided that desperate times call for desperate measures.  We knew the Emporio Armani show was on Saturday and we really wanted to go.  So last night, Lorraine, Dawn, and I decided to make fake Vogue business cards.  We used our own names but we all claimed different job titles, ie Beauty Director, Accessories Columnist, Fashion Editor.  We went to the copy store in the morning, printed them, cut them out, and WAL-AH!  (See right).  It was a very simplistic card, but it looked legitimate enough!  We figured as long as we were confident with it, we had a shot!

Outside the 2011 Fall/Winter Emporio Armani Fashion Show

Once again, the first thing we did upon arriving at the show location was examine the security.  And of course, it was very tight.  There were men in suits standing at the front and side entrances and people with invitations lined up outside.  We inconspicuously hung around the doors for a bit, people watching and gazing at the outrageous outfits.  And while we were out there, I felt like I was famous!  People were taking photos of my outfit and even asking me to write down where I got each article of clothing.  Of course, I made everything up.  My entire outfit was probably under $100.  I said my $5.99 skirt from Forever 21 was Versache, my $20 fur coat also from Forever 21 was Gucci, etc. :)  After a bit, Lorraine and I noticed there were three separate lines to get in the door.  One for those with invitations, one for the photographers, and one for the press.  Well, we decided that being from Vogue, that made us press.  So we waited in that line until they began letting people in.  When I got to the front, I nonchalantly gave my card to the woman with the list of names.  She looked at it and said, "Oh, you're the Beauty Director from New York Vogue!"  Naturally my response was, "Yes, yes I am!"  She then looked at her list for my name.  When she didn't find it she said, "I don't know why you're not on my list, hold on one second please!"  She put her list down, immediately wrote me a seat card to fix the mistake, and IN I WENT!! :)

We're IN!

Once we got in, we had absolutely nowhere to go, but we made sure to keep walking before anyone could change their minds about letting us in!  We were one of the first ones in, so it definitely wasn't incredibly obvious where we should go.  We walked around in circles for a bit, then finally found the entrance.  And the venue was incredible.  The seats were completely escalated, so there wasn't a bad seat to be had.  The runway was completely illuminated in front of a wall-size Emporio Armani logo.  Once again, there was a tree of photographers posted up in front of the runway and stage crew running around like crazy people.  We went to find a place to sit, but there were sealed invitations on every seat.  We decided to sit in one anyways until someone asked us to move.  Which they did, about 5 minutes later.  There was standing room behind all of the seats, so we found a front row spot there and waited for the show to start.  However once it did, I moved down a couple stairs and snagged a seat there :)  I got the first couple minutes of the show on video, but then my bloggie died! :(  I was super bummed, but I still got some pretty good pictures!

Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2011 Fashion Show

The Emporio Armani Fashion Show venue

Emporio Armani

The only spruce of color in the entire show!

 It was such a great show!  Even though the entire line was completely black (with the exception of the picture above) it was still so much fun.  The music was great, the crowd was bouyant, and the clothes were spectacular!  The models in this show walked right off the runway.  Usually they walk down, pose at the end, then turn around and walk back.  At this show, they walked right off the runway and out the door!  It was very interesting.
Tina Turner was at the show, and the crowd went insane when she came in;  apparently old school American artists are really big in Italy.  Giorgio Armani himself also made an appearance at the end of the show, just for a second!  I've noticed that they don't come out for very long.  At the Alberta Ferretti show, the Krizia show, and now the Armani show, the designers come out for about five seconds, give a quick wave, then disappear again.    

The show was held at its very own theater in Milan

Day 39: Thursday, February 21, 2011

Before the Krizia fashion Show

Day two of fashion week in Milan! Caitlin, Emily, and I got all dolled up then headed for the city to see which fashion shows we could get into today. We started with the Krizia fashion show at 2pm. We actually hadn't heard of the designer, but after researching we discovered that she is actually a well-known Italian designer that has been infamous in Europe since the 1950s. When we got there, there were dozens of people surrounding the doors, with security men standing guard. We quickly realized we weren't getting in the front door, so we decided to scope out other options. We found another door off to the side that looked like it led to the same building, so we entered. Two other girls had walked in this entrance before us and lucky for us, they caught the brunt of the security. As soon as they walked in, the man from behind the desk immediately stopped them and started yelling at them in Italian. We took this as our cue to proceed. I stealthy slipped passed them as they were conversing and made my way to the next room. And amazingly enough, the next room was the venue for the show. The room was set up just like the Alberta Ferretti show; there were rows and rows of seats, a perfectly lit up run way, and a tree of photographers posted up in front of the room. Once we entered the showroom, we kept walking right through it as if we knew exactly where we were going. We walked up the stairs and snagged front row balcony seats. We decided that besides the obvious front row seats, the balcony seats were the best seats in the house. The seats on the ground weren't escalated very much, so unless you were in the very front, you can't necessarily see very well. So needless to say, we were stoked with our seats. Once again, we were in the doors about 30 minutes before they were actually letting people in, so we decided to keep the picture snapping to a minimum in an effort to not draw attention towards ourselves. Once the doors opened, they were popping champagne at the door and giving it away to the guests that entered. It filled up very quickly, there wasn't an empty set to be had. About one minute before the show started, the stage crew took the cover off the runway. There is always a cover on the runway before the show; they don't want any dirt, footprints, or dust to contaminate the runway! Immediately after taking it off, an oblivious photographer comes from backstage and clumsily walks across the perfectly polished runway, leaving white, dusty footprints across the entire stage. Everyone started booing and yelling at him! I felt kind of bad :( Once the show started, it was about 15 minutes of tall, skinny, blondes all with platinum pixie strutting down the runway. I recorded the show again, here's the link:

Krizia Fall/Winter 2011 Fashion Show

After the show, we went down to the runway to snap a few pictures! Right when I got there, two girls asked me to take their picture. I had a lot going on; I had my camera, my bloggie, my purse, and my cell phone all in my hands, but stupidly, I decided to take her camera too. And the second she let go of it, it crashed to the floor because I had no grip on it whatsoever. It was clearly my fault, so I leaned down and picked it up right away. However, something definitely broke when it hit the floor, because there was a message flashing across the screen (in Italian of course) and it wouldn't let me take any pictures. At first I pretended to take a picture, but the girl definitely called me out..."there was no flash, it didn't take," she said. So, I had no choice but to confront her and show her that it wasn't working. It was really, really awkward. I made Caitlin and Emily abort mission take-pictures-on-runway and bail ship immediately. I just wanted to get out of there before she hunted me down for 100E or something! I felt terrible!!!

After Krizia, it was off to Prada. However, we didn't research how to get from this show to the Prada, so we were in a bit of a bind. We exited the building and looked for any clues whatsoever. We saw a couple buses waiting outside the venue...so I decided to see what the deal was. The driver told me that the busses were going to the Prada fashion show, but that they were strictly for the Press. After a quick begging session, we were on the Press bus on the way to the Prada fashion show :)

On the press bus from the Krizia show to Prada

Some diva at the Prada Show

We definitely weren't as lucky with getting into this show as we were with the last one. The security was insanely tight. We realized right away that we weren't going to be able to get in the front door. There were security guards standing shoulder to shoulder in the entrance way, letting only one person in at a time, after a close examination of their invitation. We walked around to the side where all the photographers were waiting to enter. We tried to blend in with them for a second, then realized it was way too obvious. In fact one of the photographers even turned around and said, "next time you want to blend in with the photographers, you might want to try a different outfit." They were all wearing jeans and sneakers, and we were wearing skirts, dresses, high heels, and blazers. We didn't 

exactly fit the part. So, we met up with the other girls and settled for standing outside and just being part of the chaotic environment. I gazed at outfits and enviously watched the lucky people who got to enter for about 30 minutes, then decided to head back. As we were walking back to the tram, a large steel door opened as a car was pulling out. All 10 of us immediately walked in, but were instantly stopped by security. It is definitely harder to be discrete when you are traveling with so many people. I am still convinced that if it just been a few of us, we would have been able to sneak past security when that door opened!

Day 38: Wednesday, February 24, 2011

I wanted to make this a separate post because I didn't want to spoil such an awesome journal entry!  On the way back from the fashion shows, I caught someone stealing my wallet out of my purse IN THE ACT!  It was a super crowded metro and I was wearing my long, black crossbody purse.  As I was getting off, I felt a tug on my purse.  I immediately turned around and grabbed it, checked inside, and sure enough...my wallet was gone.  I looked up and saw this man right next to me, looking off into the distance, like he was trying to avoid eye contact.  I screamed at him and he started to walk off.  He was wearing a crossbody bag too, so I yanked it from behind and started yelling at him to give it back.  He started yelling back, so I just opened his bag and started searching for it.  After a couple seconds, a woman pointed to my wallet on the ground a few feet beside the man.  I guess when I started chasing him he threw it aside.  I know for a fact he took it though, because the wallet was 10 feet in front of where I was when I realized it was gone, so there was so way it fell out of my buttoned purse.  I was so happy I found it.  It had everything in it!  Both my credit cards, 50E in cash, my school ID, my metro pass, my license!  That would have been such a s bummer.  But I got back it back and that pick-pocketer failed for the day! 

Day 38: Wednesday, February 24, 2011

Outside of the Gucci Fashion Show

So today, FASHION WEEK IN MILAN OFFICIALLY BEGAN!  We had class today from 9am - 12pm instead of 10am - 1pm, so we could have more time to meander around the city.  However, our teacher ended up letting us out at 10:15! :)  We headed back to our apartment to grab some food, change, then hit the city.  There are dozens of fashion shows going on everyday, all week long, and our teachers told us to try to crash as many as we can!  They told us to show up, act confident, come up with alibi if there is no name-list at the door, and kind of just act like you own the place.

So first on our list was the Gucci fashion show at 2pm.  We took the tram and got there around 1:30.  There were hundreds of people outside, so it wasn't difficult to find!  And it was like nothing I had ever experienced before.  The second we walked up, photographers started taking pictures of us and our outfits...we felt like celebrities!  I was wearing my Jeffrey Campbell heels, and people would constantly come up beside me, crouch down, and take a picture of my shoes!  I guess Fashion Week is the one time where you can take pictures of random people and not have to hide behind someone else to do it.  There were photographers everywhere!  Twice, we had someone come up to us and ask us "who we were," because they thought were somebody famous!

Checking names on iPads at the Gucci Show

Security at the Gucci Fashion Show

So as far as getting into the show, it was next to impossible.  There were three entrances, all with a minimum of 5 security guards at each.  The front entrance had three security guards at the curb, backed by three more a couple feet back, backed by two more at the door.  So, there was no getting in that way.  Moving on.  The side entrances were a lot smaller; and had about five security guards shoulder to shoulder all with ipads checking peoples names.  Well, since obviously our names weren't on the list, we decided to move onto the next entrance.  And this one was exactly like the last; security guards shoulder to shoulder.  BUMMER!  So, since we decided there was really no way to "sneak" in, we decided we might as well just ask!  We told them we were fashion study abroad students who would love the opportunity to see a big fashion show, and if we could just stand in the back that would be awesome!  They were not intrigued by us at all, to say the least.  It was still awesome to stand outside and stare at all the lucky, impeccably dressed people with the golden Gucci tickets walk in!  The invitations to this show were leather, with a gold face and engraved writing.  

The Golden Ticket...we didn't have one.

People look so much cooler with Golden Tickets

Photographers were obsessed with her outfit.

Checkered pants and a bow-tie :)

Round glasses are my new addiction

Famous fashion blogger from Bryanboy.com

Hanging out before the Alberta Ferretti fashion show

Afterward, we headed to the Alberta Ferretti fashion show a couple blocks away.  As we were walking up to the building, we noticed the security at the front entrance was looking pretty similar to the security at the Gucci show.  However, once we crossed the street, I noticed a random door on the side of the building that looked like it hadn't been touched in years.  It was old, rusty, and dirty.  But, it looked like it led to the same building, so I decided to give it a whirl.  And MUCH to my surprise, IT WAS OPEN!  I peeked my head inside and saw a sign that said "backstage" with a few men standing next to it.  We were kind of hesitant at first, but then we just decided to GO FOR IT!  Everyone put their game faces on, and we all walked right passed them like we were supposed to be there and knew exactly where we were going.  We followed the signs towards the backstage...we figured if we can get backstage, we can definitely get to the front!  We finally reached the backstage and there were girls standing outside the curtains who apparently were part of the staging committee.  We decided to blend in with them, taking on that alibi.  After a few minutes, we saw a curtain that looked very promising.  We peeped our heads through, and sure enough...it was the stage with hundreds of chairs and cameras and lights :)  It looked amazing.  We walked through the curtains (once again, like we owned the place) and just stood against the back wall.  They weren't even letting people in the doors yet; the only people there were photographers and models!  We snapped some pictures then decided to separate and see how we could snag some seats!  We quickly noticed all the seats had name tags, so this was going to be an issue.  A little bit later, I saw a security guard grab some chairs from a back wall and move them to the front for some people.  The second he walked away, Emily, Caitlin, and I grabbed three more, and lined them up just like the others!  We couldn't believe it...when people start coming in, there were people with invitations sanding behind us while we were sitting in chairs!!   

Alberta Ferretti Fashion Show

The invitations

Finally, about 45 minutes after the show was supposed to start, the lights dimmed and the show started!!  I noticed that there were stairs leading up to our seats...which could definitely double as seats!  Right when the show started, I scooted down to the first row and watched the Fall/Winter Alberta Ferretti 2011 Fashion Show from front row center.  It was unbelievable.  And I managed to get the entire thing on video.  Check it out :)

Alberta Ferretti 2011 Fall/Winter Fashion Show

(click link above to watch fashion show)

After the show, we hung around for a few more minutes taking some pictures and taking in the scene...because how often do you get to sneak in through the back door of a designer fashion show?!  Not very often.

Emily and I after the show

Alberta Ferretti Fashion Show

Hanging out with Bryanboy at the Dolce and Gabbana cocktail hour :)

Afterwards, it was off to the Dolce and Gabbana cocktail hour.  They were serving free wine and it was open invitation!  There were new collections displayed all around the store and lookbooks on the tables.  There were also people doing hair and makeup; it was really crowded, but still a neat experience to top off an unforgettable day!  Getting into that fashion show made this entire study abroad experience so much more exciting.  I'm studying fashion, in the fashion capital of the world, during fashion week.  It doesn't get much better than that :)

Milano loves fashion:)  This slogan is EVERYWHERE in the city right now!

Day 35: Sunday, February 20, 2011

Emily and I basically sleeping in line at the airport

Like every Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early to catch our flight home.  For some reason, we can only find Sunday flights that leave at the CRACK OF DAWN (aka, 10am) and it's always a huge bummer when our alarms go off.  We made it to the airport pretty painlessly, then went straight to our gate to get in line for our seats.  We just camped out on the floor for about an hour before we started boarding.  I was exhausted and wanted a window seat so I could fall asleep on the trip home!  And, it paid off.  I got a window seat, and was asleep before the plane even took off :)

 Looking the exact same on the way home, like hell. 

It's always a bummer when we land back in Malpensa though, because we are still so far from being home.  Like I have written a million times before, we still have to take a 45 minute bus ride back to Centrale Train Station, then a 30 minute metro ride back to Romolo station, then a 10 minute walk home.  And all we ever want to do after a weekend of traveling is crash in our beds!  Which we did, right when we got home, just like we always do!  When we woke up, we went to apertivo.  However, it was back to the usual; we left completely full but unsatisfied because the food was terrible.  I spent the rest of the night skyping with my family and Kevin.  12 days until he comes - finally, light at the end of the tunnel! 

Day 34: Saturday, February 19, 2011

Again, the most adorable man having
the time of his life entertaining people

Today we didn't get as lucky with the weather as we did yesterday.  It was SUPPOSED to rain everyday this weekend, so the fact that we got one beautiful day was fabulous!  Today however, was rainy, cold, and not fabulous at all.  But we knew it was going to rain, so we saved all the indoor things to do today.

Outside of the Royal Palace - but inside the gates this time!

Seeing as last night was a late night, this morning was a rough morning.  We didn't get going till about 11:30am, and even that was a struggle.  We skipped the Starbucks, but we did go back to VIPS.  Really??  It was terrible the first time!  Not one person liked their meal, and we went back.  And once again, no one liked their meal (again, with the exception of the Oreo milkshake) and we were all unsatisfied after finishing.  After breakfast (or lunch?) we headed to the Royal Palace.  We waited in line for a bit, paid 5E to get in, then immediate awe began.  As we learned yesterday, there are 2,800 rooms in the Royal Palace, and each one is unbelievably different.  They are all so incredibly intricate...with extravagant designs covering every inch of the walls, beautiful furniture in every room, and crystal chandeliers and light fixtures everywhere!  Each room was a different color; there was a yellow room for drinking tea, a study that was green, a humongous dining room that was blue, etc.  The dining room had a 200 person table!  It was all so neat.  (PS - You are not allowed to take pictures!  However, naturally I did anyways; I managed to sneakily take about 10 shots of different rooms, but then I got caught!  And the security guard took my camera and made me delete almost all of them!  I still have a few, but I was not happy.)

Not going to lie, this is a picture of a picture! But apparently its the Royal bedroom

A room made completely out of porcelain 

The intricate ceilings never cease to amaze me

Afterwards, some of the girls went to some museums while others walked around and shopped!  Naturally, I opted out of the museums and chose to shop :)  There was tons of great, affordable shopping by our hostel, so we headed back that way.  We spent the afternoon leisurely walking around and buying a few things here and there.  Eventually, we all met back in the hostel to shower and regroup.  We decided to skip the VIPS meal (for real this time!) and find some real Spanish food.  We walked around for awhile, asking every local we could find for a recommendation, but for some reason no one could give us an answer?  Finally we found this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant with only one waiter that didn't speak of lick on English, but, shockingly, had fantastic food.  We couldn't really  understand anything on the menu, so we all just ordered a bunch of things and shared them.  It turns out that Spanish food is basically synonymous with potatoes, because every single thing we ordered was some sort of potato.  There were fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes; pretty much any kind of potato you can think of, we ate.  But it was actually very good, and for once, we all left full AND satisfied.

By the time we got back, it was already about 1am, and we had to leave for the airport at 7am.  I talked with Kevin for a little on the free wifi the hostel had, then went to bed :)  All in all, it was a fantastic weekend.  We went to some classic touristy places and did some typical American things (like stand on street corners with maps bigger than us, looking at every street sign in an effort to figure out where the heck we were...10 times) as well as went to some really neat local places.  Madrid...CHECK!    

Day 33: Friday, February 18, 2011

All of us ecstatic to have Starbucks!

Today was an awesome day.  We left the hostel around 9am and walked outside to a beautiful day.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was the warmest I have felt since I've been here.  I was able to walk around the entire day in just a light leather jacket; it was fabulous!  Upon leaving, we immediately fled to the Starbucks that was conveniently located right next to our hostel.  They don't have Starbucks in Italy, and because we flock to anything American, everyone was willing to spend 6E on a cup of not that awesome coffee.

Plaza Mayor

Afterwards, we went on a tour.  A FREE TOUR; so that makes it even better.  A company called SANDEMANs New Europe offers free tours in a bunch of cities around Europe.  The tour guides are all really young and energetic, and they advertise in hostels, so all of the people in the tours are also really young.  There was about 20 people in our group, and they were all students studying abroad, visiting Madrid for the weekend just like us.  The tour was about 3 and a 1/2 hours.  Madrid is a beautiful city.  There are awesomely cool houses, the Royal Palace is unbelievable, and the city is SO clean.  And it really shocked me; being such a big city, one would think there would be litter and pollution, but there's not.  From the streets to the public transportation, everything was pretty much spotless.

Chasing bubbles in Plaza Mayor :)

Our tour started in Plaza Mayor, an old square that is now considered the center of Madrid.  It is lined with both new and traditional shops and completely overpriced restaurants.  The square used to be used for many things, like bullfights, soccer games, markets, and even executions.  Now it's mostly just a pretty plaza to visit and people watch.  From there, we walked to Botin, the worlds oldest restaurant.  It was established in 1725 by James Botin and his wife.  Hemingway was a frequent visitor of Botin, and now it's both a touristy spot but also a favorite restaurant of many locals.

Guinness Book of Worlds Record certificate
for the world's oldest eatery

Botin, the world's oldest restaurant.  

Santa Maria la Real de La Almudena

From there we walked down the streets of Madrid and our tour guide told us cool stories about a million different spots.  We stopped at the Santa María la Real de La Almudena.  The capital of Spain was switched from Toledo to Madrid in the 1500s, however, when Madrid became capital, it had no cathedral.  The Spanish began construction of this cathedral in the late 1800s, and didn't finish until the 1990s!  It was beautiful though; grandiose and intricate, so i guess the 100 plus years of work paid off.  After the cathedral, we walked to the Royal Palace.  It was absolutely humongous; our tour guide told us it has 2,800 rooms (more on that later, we did the inside tour on Saturday!)  It is considered to be the official residence of the King of Spain, but he doesn't actually live there.  He lives in another palace on the outskirts of Madrid, and visits the Royal Palace on the select dates.    

Emily and I outside the Royal Palace

Royal Palace

Afterwards, we took a stroll down a few streets that reminded me of Las Rambles in Barcelona.  There were people dressed up in costume but standing frozen like statues, people playing instruments, others dancing, and tourists everywhere!  The weather was still beautiful so it was so awesome to just walk around the whole city. 

Headless man

The most adorable old man I have ever seen

Trying to crack them :)

Embracing the beautiful weather

We literally could not tell which one was real

After the tour, we walked around Parque de Madrid.  There was a lot of neat architecture around it and cool looking plants and trees.  We acted like little kids for a bit, climbing in the trees and playing in the park :)

:)

Emily and I in Parque de Madrid

The girls at the entrance of Parque de Madrid

The girls in Plaza Mayor before the Pub Crawl

Afterwards, we grabbed some food at a terrible restaurant (per usual).  It blows my mind how hard it is to find good food on this continent.  I don't know how people live here their whole lives.  GO TO AMERICA people...the food is SO much better.  After dinner, we headed back to the hostel.  The same company that offers the free tours also sponsor a pub crawl every night Wednesday - Sunday.  We all showered then met back in Plaza Mayor at 11:00pm.  There was about 30 people in our group, and we all left the plaza around 11:30.  The pub crawl was 12E and consisted of 5 different bars and 1 club.  The first bar was all-you-can drink beer and sangria for an hour, then each bar after that came with a free shot, and the last club was free entrance and one free drink.  It was definitely a cool way to meet people, however, the execution of it was terribly inefficient.  But that's usual for Europe.  We always feel like things are ran so inefficiently!  But it was still really fun; we were with a really cool group of people, so it was fun to meet some new people and see some new bars!

Getting the most out of my all-you-can-drink deal :)

Amanda, Emily, and I during the Pub Crawl

One of the bars we went to was a salsa dancing club!  It was packed with both locals and tourists, and one of the locals tried to teach me some moves!  I think I caught on pretty well :)

 We ended up at a 7 floor club around 2am.  It was absolutely huge!  I couldn't even count the amount bars they had!  And there were also so many little rooms that looked like VIP rooms, with huge colorful couches and chairs, neon tables, light up floors, etc.  It was so much fun!  We danced until about 5am, then headed back.  Oh what a night <3