Paris Fashion Week Diaries

Paris fashion Week ended not so long ago and with that was marked the end of the Fashion Month, one of the most expected moments in the fashion world. It is sad to think that it is already over, as it seems it has just started. You blink, and fashion month is gone. You only remain with the memories. Personally I have been a PR Assistant at LFW, as I have said in my previous article, but, because my lovely friend Alina decided to go to Paris Fashion Week this season, I have decided to have a little chatty interview with her so that you, our wonderful readers, can experience more than one Fashion Week at a time. So here they are, all the questions and answers, and also, you can find Alina’s work in here.

1. Please introduce yourself for the lovely Estilo-Tendances readers

Hello! I am Alina, a fashion photography student currently doing a degree at Falmouth University. I am originally from Romania, but I’ve lived in the UK for almost a couple of years now.

2. How come you went to PFW instead of LFW?

I have been to LFW last year, and I guess I simply wanted to try something different this time. This and … I think Paris is more my cup of tea than London, because of the style of the designers who are showing their collections. It’s interesting to see different fashion weeks in different countries as well, and I want to carry on with ‘experimenting’ in the next seasons.

3. How did you find it?

It was both good and bad. What I love about Paris Fashion Week, apart from the obviously stunning collections, is the actual street style that is happening all around the venues. People are dressed in a really elegant way and black plays a big role everywhere, so it’s something I can completely relate to. And what I noticed was that people dress beautifully in a more conservative way, which gave more realism to the environment: they weren’t there just to be photographed by bloggers and street photographers, they were there because of their love for fashion. What I didn’t enjoy so much was the way paparazzi treated everybody, and because it was such a major event, they were everywhere, and they are a lot worse that the ones at LFW.

Black & White street style photo by ©Alina Raducea

4. Please give us a daily overview of your stay there:)

I arrived there one day before fashion week started, so in my first day in Paris I tried to find a couple of venues that had more obscure addresses, and, obviously, made the best out of all the walking around: after all, I was in Paris!

Streetstyle by ©Alina Raducea

On Wednesday I went to the Grand Palais for Guy Laroche’s show. The weather was a bit better that day, so my street style was more successful, because people were no longer rushing with umbrellas just to get inside, like in the previous day. I think this was my favourite street style moment; the amount of beautiful well-dressed people around me was to dream of. In the evening I went outside Gareth Pugh’s show. Compared to the classical outfits people were wearing at Guy Laroche, I can say that Gareth Pugh had more of a quirky public.

See also: 67 Famous Fashion Quotes To Inspire You

Streetstyle snap by ©Alina Raducea

On my last day of Fashion Week I firstly went outside the Manish Aurora show. I found it really interesting to see all the Asian influence in the clothes people were wearing there, and to see all the bold colours and patterns, after a few days of just seeing black and desaturated colours. Later on I went to the Balmain’s show, which was in another beautiful venue, quite close to the Notre-Dame Cathedral. You could tell that it is going to be big by the amount of security guards outside more than an hour in advance, but what I didn’t realise was how brutal it’s going to become. We were all waiting outside for quite a while, photographing some big names, but not all of us had the same attitude. Because everybody knew Rihanna was going to be there, of top of the photographers you had all the Parisian teenagers, desperate to get a shot of her. I enjoyed the experience at the beginning, but it was when I couldn’t breathe because they were pushing themselves madly into us, the people in the front, I realised that it’s just not for me –the whole paparazzi experience-, so I left and carried on with my day.

Happy streetstyle snap by ©Alina Raducea

5. Who did you see/snap?

I saw quite a few familiar faces, but I guess my favourite ones were the amazing Grace Coddington and our beautiful Romanian models Diana Moldovan and Andreea Diaconu, who I can definitely say are more beautiful in real-life than in editorial.

6. How did you feel to be part of PFW?

It was a really amazing and inspiring opportunity for me, Paris itself breathes fashion with or without Fashion Week, and the fact that I got to experience it first-hand rather than just read about it, like last year, was definitely memorable.