Buongiorno a tutti! This past week has been quite a busy one. I thought I would be enjoying my final days of leisure relaxing around my apartment, eating gelato. Alas, I ended up having a semi-full schedule of events that I am still trying to recover from in the midst of starting school. Now I find myself looking forward to the weekend to correct my sleep deprivation. It’s a hard knock life.
The trouble all started last Thursday. A few friends planned to get together for the
Vogue Italia's Fashion’s Night Out, Firenze, which the local stores had been aggressively advertising in the days prior. We had actually planned to go salsa dancing at the Rotunda that night and thought that Fashion’s Night would be a great way to start the evening off before dancing the night away. Little did we know just how fabulous Fashion’s Night would be. I guess we should have taken cues from the fact that the "local stores" are all the top designers and we are in Italy, the design capitol of the world. In fact, I really don’t quite remember what I expected because my thoughts about the event from the time right before the event are now a complete blur. It is like I was reborn on Fashion's Night Out because it was full of so much fantasy and wonder. The best way I can describe it is like being Cinderella arriving at the ball--FABULOUS! The Italians were all decked out in their best, stylish, evening attire. There was Prosecco being served in volumes on the streets and in the stores, with food, sweets, you name it. A crowd of paparazzi flocked the rich and famous down the cobble stone streets. There were DJs playing music in the stores and under tents. Stores were giving away freebies, or special items at discounted prices specifically for the event. Store merchants were shaking their groove-thangs in the streets. It was like a fashion amusement park, just tons of attractions. Needless to say, it completely blew us away and we never made it to the Rotunda. We hung out on the streets until it all ended, not wanting to miss a moment of the excitement and we topped off the evening with a Model For A Day photo shoot for Bongi Eyewear. We had our makeup done and did a quick photo shoot. Crazy. But did I mention that it was fabulous? Check out the pics.
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| Fashion's Night Out |
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| Franca Sozzani, Vogue Italia, Editor-in-Chief |
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| Aniya--Live and On Air |
I stumbled out of the pumpkin and into my bed in the wee hours of the morning despondent because fashion fantasy land had abruptly come to an end and a few hours later I started orientation for design school. By that point, I was operating on pure adrenaline but I got through it. I met my classmates and and some of my teachers, who are an awesome group of people from all over the world.
There are 14 students with whom I will be studying, from varying backgrounds. What we all have in common is a true passion to explore this exciting, yet vague concept of contemporary jewelry design. One of my teachers described contemporary jewelry as almost every type of jewelry yet at the same time undefined because contemporary essentially only means “now.” So anything that is not “traditional” would qualify. It seems overly broad but I think that’s what I like about it. You can create whatever you want and still get recognition for it. In fact, the more different you are, the more you are lauded for your work. So unlike my past occupational endeavors.
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| My Smock! |
Following orientation, since I had only a few hours of sleep following Fashion’s Night and wanted to feel rested and ready by Monday for the first day of class, I decided that I should take care of a few things around the house and buy my supplies for school over the weekend. Exactly what a good student should do, right? Not Aniya. Instead, I decided my time would be better spent on Castiglioncello Beach with my friends Maria and Kayla, soaking up the sun and enjoying the last days of summer with a spritz in hand, Italian style. The beach was beautiful. It felt like I was on a little holiday break.
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| Last Days of Summer 2013 |
The next day, I celebrated El Grito with Maria and other friends at Ristorante Messicano Tijuana’s. I am happy to report that Tequila and I got along very well; I can fully recall all the events that transpired that night and woke up early the next morning alone in my bed.
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| My Date for El Grito-- Maracuja Margarita |
Hangover-less but still a bit tired because I'm not a 26 year-old anymore although I've been acting like one, off I went to the first day of school with a tiny pep in my step rather than Mary-Poppins-three-heel-clicks-in-the-air style like I had hoped for.
Gold Workshop was my first class of the day. I would have taken pictures of each machine but I don’t know that it really would have captured the complete effect of the type of work that goes into creating jewelry. For those of you who still have the image of me stringing beads on a thin wire in your head, it is my goal to disabuse you of this notion. There are so many elements that are necessary to create a piece, including very high temperatures of heat, acids, machines that pull, machines that pound, saws, hooks, screws, measuring devices, swatting mosquitoes, etc. So the first day we spent time talking about safety precautions and what we could and could not do in the workshop. We eventually did start working on our first assignment but didn’t get far because the start-up process is slow due to safety considerations. I’ll share more about the first project in my next entry to give you something to look forward to. All in all, it was uneventful, which is a good thing considering it was the first day of class; however, I did cut my finger so there was blood shed but it just solidified my veteran status in the workroom.
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| The Workshop |
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| Another shot of the workshop |
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| Antique engraving machine. There are only a few of them in the world. |
My design class met later that afternoon. It was very, very interesting to say the least. I haven’t really sketched since I was...a child so needless to say, I’m gonna need to put some extra time in in that department. The good news is the quality was comparable to that of my colleagues, which means that it wasn’t so bad...or it could mean that all of us are not so good. I’m banking on it being that we weren't so bad but could be a lot better but I know we’ll find out soon enough. The biggest takeaway from this lesson was when my teacher told us that now is our time to be free. This time in our careers as designers is the best time because now we can do whatever we feel inspired to do. We don’t have to worry about following rules or working within “the lines.” She encouraged us to remove our boundaries and push ourselves farther than we thought we could go. This is exactly how I feel about my life right now. It was so inspiring to hear her say those words and to know that my colleagues felt just as moved by them as did I. I think we are off to a great start.
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| My Workstation. I love my tools! |
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