spruced by marlene

I arrived in Paris last night, and after spending a very relaxed evening drinking red wine at Café Crème in the Marais with Sandra, my roommate for the week, we hit the ground running today. Well, she did. I discovered that I still have much to learn about Paris during Fashion Week. Such as: remember to charge the batteries for your camera before leaving for the shows or you will have to spend an extra two hours in your apartment instead of taking pictures (admittedly a great apartment. It’s got a huge balcony with a view of Montmarte. A faraway view. But a view!)

I’ve also got to improve my skills at stepping aside when Anna Wintour’s bodyguards come charging towards me, because they are Anna Wintour’s bodyguards and they don’t really care if you want to photograph her. Then again, there are so many others to photograph. I’m not quite sure what I expected, but the number of outstandingly glamorous and wonderfully dressed people here is overwhelming. Let me start by showing you these two: Catherine Baba (who has a mob of photographers following her everywhere she goes, much like Wintour) and the beautiful Candice Lake (What a name!). I met her today and she wasn’t just kind enough to give me some Fashion Week advice (“Don’t leave your bag where you can’t see it!”), but to put her own camera down for a moment to let me take her picture. Isn’t that a great outfit? And these are her “work clothes” that she runs around in all day, going from show to show, taking pictures. That’s another thing I have to figure out: my work clothes for Fashion Week, especially because it’s summer here when I had expected autumn. But first let me have another glass of red wine and look at Montmarte at night. Oh, I think I like Paris…