January 18.
A couple of days after my friends’ wedding in Kochi, India, my body screams ‘Europe’. I had been in the country for just over two weeks and, although my spirituality and humility were nurtured by the experience, my body wasn’t. 5 days, a full body infection, and 41C temperature into my mistake to eat a bloody milk sauce, I was craving comfort, bland food and tap water.
After a long flight from Kochi, I arrive in Paris to a balmy afternoon. It’s time for this season’s Fashion week and people on the streets are not shy about showing this off.
While some are simply hinting S&M with deconstructive leather belts, others embrace the season with full-on bird costumes or bratty Carhartt-infused frat boy charm.
Considering it’s still January, there are suspicious numbers of people wearing sunglasses, especially for an indoor setting at night, and footwear kind of explodes on the streets, turning the badly paved alleyways into tiny catwalk events.
Shoes is also why I’m in Paris at this time of the year. I had recently finished a hefty article about shoes and their societal context for functional apparel magazine TECHUNTER. 19th January is when the print launch took place, and I couldn’t resist the visit together with four of my closest friends.
During the event, we met intriguing people, including the hosts, who had put together an incredible event. Writers, photographers, designers, and various sorts of connoisseurs filled the venue, exchanging stories and business cards. The whole vibe was cool and dynamic, very sleek, and artsy. There were DJs and many important people looking at their phones and flipping through the magazine, which, at the point of release, was more of a book than a magazine. This launch had set a vibe for us to meander the cold streets of the City of Love, clutching a can of beer each and J-walking all over Paris’ city center.
Turns out, finding food around 11pm isn’t as easy as we had thought, even in the fashion megapolis. This led us to casually dine in a little restaurant, sharing the space with only one other table: the founders of a big streetwear brand, who wanted to attract both my sister and I as employees at the time…for free. After we had both refused the generous offer then, we had nothing left to do at this point, rather than exchange awkward glances and casually eavesdrop on each other’s conversations.
I don’t know about you, but during big events I like to find my little nook of creativity, realizing I don’t feel as important as all the people there, and trying to keep it that way. I always find cringe creeping up on me every time I give myself a little too much credit for something. Maybe it’s deep rooted in my inability to brag, my painful humility or just the fact I’m secretly a very judgy bitch, who hates being around self-important individuals.
Either way, I escaped fashion week in one piece, having only seen a couple of showrooms and with failed attempts to visit others, while my friends were getting impatient with my creative FOMO.
After all, working in Fashion doesn’t make one a fashion girl…or does it?
P.S. Biggest THANK YOU to the TECHUNTER team for the opportunity to join. You’re the best!
Photography: Personal archive, TECHUNTER magazine (Liam Furneaux)