...took place on Friday. Of course, I am very prepared: syllabus - check, lessons plans for the first 3 week session - check, contact with the excursion director - check, adresse of the Sorbonne building where I'll be teaching - check....
Laurent suggests that I take the 86 bus - Oh, it will drop you right in front - ha! Not only did it take me 35 minutes to even find the street, I didn't have the classroom number. But alas, I arrived in plenty of time, started to arrange my desk and suddenly realize that I had left the 60 photocopies of the introductory survey and history of Rose Bertin at the photocopy shop all the way back in the 11eme. Merde.
So, winging it, it was. First class had 10 fairly interested ( notice I didn't say interesting) high school students. One cute little gay boy. The rest: girls from the US, Madrid and Puerto Rico. The 2nd class had 14 with not a single guy and several thoroughly disaffected girls from NYC and LA. Apparently both classes will be filled with 15 each, starting tomorrow.
So, first days topics: intro to course, expectations, final project, and then dove into the topic of style. Where do these kids come from? What infuences their style? Do they know who and why they fired John Galliano?
Then historically, we started with Louis XIV, went quickly to Louis XVI, related Marie Antoinette & Rose Bertin (charting her rise from shop girl to Queen's couturière) to the movie made by Sophia Coppola and moved on to first les sans-culottes - relating fashion or clothing styles to politics and society - and then on to
Les Incroyables. Did they know that John Galliano's graduate show from Central Saint Martins was based on Les Incroyables? Breathe...
Devoir: purchase their style cahier where each day they will record "Qu'est-ce qu'on a vu dans la rue?"...their trendspotting revue.
A demain...
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