Saturday, July 14, 2012

Ca y est...first week of classes complete...

...I am lucky enough this summer to be in Paris again and teaching a course in Fashion & Design to students from all over the world. I have two sections of 20+ students each and they are great - all high school age - interested, respectful and so far, they are all showing up for class(!) So, the week went something like this...DAY 1: Intro, Syllabus - Purpose: to introduce the student to the world of Paris Fashion including a brief history, the definitions & workings of Haute Couture vs. Pret-a-Porter, current designers in Paris (independent & artisinal, Trendspotting & Fashion Forecasting, Dress & Identity, and Careers in the Industry. Three excursions will be taken to different museum exhibits as well as boutiques and designer ateliers. Classroom time will include both in and outside of the building using the streets of Paris as our major resource. The kids filled out an introductory survey, i.e. who they are, where they are from, what music they listen to, what is their personal style, etc. We discussed observation and commentary with opinion as opposed to judgement and launched our first assignment of: Qu'est ce qu'on a vu dans la rue? (What did you see in the street). They were to return the next day with 3 things they observed in the street, on the metro, etc: trends, styles, details...

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Back in Paris...

Favorite shop in a very long time: RA, the Parisian counterpart to the Antwerp boutique. So happy they are here...I have always adored L'Eclaireur but I can barely afford anything there anymore. In the day, I could by Ann Demeulemeester there or Dirk Bikkemberg's shoes and I still love the selection at the rue Herold shop. So..., RA focuses on small little known designers, capsule collections and is on a lovely little street a few blocks from our appart. Not exactly an unknown, but I did buy a lovely Gareth Pugh dress there on Friday.
RA, 14 rue de la Corderie 75003

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Two Ships Passing - a conversation

Please join me tonight:

"Two Ships Passing" with Andy Campbell & Gail Chovan
Feb 9 6:30pm UT campus, Art Building, Rm 1.110

The Visual Arts Center in the Dept of Art & Art History at UT in collaboration with the art publication Pastelegram, presents Two Ships Passing. Often said of two people who meet for a brief but intense moment, this conversation explores pertinent topics in the creative community. By inviting a unique pairing for a dialogue, this remarkable series aims to establish a reactive space where ideas will be exchanged and unexpected conclusions will be gained.

This first edition of Two Ships Passing concerns the methods of dealing with the Profusion of Pictures in magazines, photographs, the Internet, documents, and other assorted ephemera - instead of a single work of art. The conversation explores the idea that artists and historians today see far more images much more quickly than they did a few decades ago, and the ways of sifting through and studying an abundance of images have changed in response.

Andy Campbell is a respected lecturer in Art History in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. His work focuses on the visual and material culture produced by gay leathermen of the 1970s and contemporary artists who revisit and remake these visual and material documents.