One New York Model Perfects the Art of Living Like a French Girl During Paris Fashion Week Inline
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk1/11“Sometimes a blast with a bunch of your best friends and other times long and uneventful, castings are the standard way to meet the high and mighty of the fashion industry and—hopefully—book jobs!”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk2/11“Fittings and sleep deprivation go hand in hand, as fittings usually occur the night before a show and are no instantaneous process—no effort is spared nor detail neglected when the realization of a designer’s vision is at hand. Seams must be altered, shoes soled, jewelry paired, bags stuffed, and belts hole-punched. At the end of the night—sometimes with the first light of dawn—an abstract concept or sketch on paper has been given life. Quirky hours and sleep loss notwithstanding, I find fittings to be consistently wondrous things.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk3/11“Meeting interesting people: As a model, my itinerant job exposes me to quite a parade of characters, like the dresser at Isabel Marant a few days ago who assured me that dog walking was more lucrative than babysitting; hadn’t I ever tried it?”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk4/11“Blistered feet: Pediatric woe is an inevitable by-product of show season. You may not imagine that shoes could actually create blisters in such short periods of contact, but once you try wearing a few new, cutting-edge—literally—pairs of shoes every day, sans socks, you’ll quickly come to understand!”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk5/11“As someone who reveres craftsmanship and beauty, it’s a thrill for me to be able to represent the brands I find myself regularly ogling through store windows. These black chiffon shirts belonged to my retro-punk outfit at Isabel Marant, and take my word for it: It looked much better in real life.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk6/11“Start your day off like the Parisians—that is, with a delicious, not-exactly nutritious breakfast. A fresh croissant, crispy on the outside, stretchy on the inside, is the holy marriage of butter and dough . . . and pairs lamentably well with a hot café crème.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk7/11“Get serenaded by a street musician—it’s not hard to arrange. On nearly every subway at nearly every hour throughout the day and city you can find singers, saxophonists, trumpeters . . . I even saw one guy playing a harp! When you hear ‘La Vie en Rose’ warbled by a solo trumpet in a near-empty metro car late at night, you can’t help but feel drawn into that magical, heartwarming romance Paris is so famous for.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk8/11“Grabbings hot chocolate with a friend is the best way to break up the stream of castings and remind yourself that in addition to a lot of other things, Paris happens to be the capital of sugary treats! Especially when the hot chocolate you’re grabbings is no less than ‘the best hot chocolate in Paris,’ according to Coco Chanel, and as far as I can judge rich chocolaty things—which is pretty well—the best hot chocolate ever, at Angelina. Thick as gravy and rich as Trump—but a good deal more palatable—it is just extravagant enough to make a rainy hour in a hectic day feel like a special occasion.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk9/11“My favorite part of Paris—besides the pastries, of course—is the architecture. If you have time enough to walk somewhere rather than take the metro, go for it—every alley is a feast for the eyes.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk10/11“But amidst all this hubbub of work, it is important to occasionally pause and remind yourself that you are in fact standing a few hundred feet from the Eiffel Tower over there, or perhaps around the corner from the wonder that is Notre Dame. Because, though shows may change, and trends and tastes fluctuate from season to season, the one circumstance in all of Paris Fashion Week that never, ever alters is Paris.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zuzu Tadeushuk11/11“Get Inspired: Write a poem in a spare moment—it helps evoke the city’s abounding literary past. Because it’s sometimes refreshing to shoo that fashion parrot from off your shoulder, and listen a little, taste a little, contribute a little to the indomitable essence of Paris. You see? Life on the edge need not always feel hectic—sometimes it can simply feel French.”
