My favorite fashion moment of 2012: The Dior Show.

So I waited until new years to do this little post about probably my favorite event of 2012, and as you probably know it’s been the Dior show during Paris Fashion Week. 

So where to start, what to tell you? Honestly, I have no idea. It was only 1 hour but I’m definitely never going to forget it! Should I give you a review? You can probably find 1000 of them online…should I just tell you the story? Boring!

One year ago I would have laughed if somebody told me that I’m going to get invited to a Dior show. And now I’m sitting here laughing that it honestly, really happened.

As you might now, I never ask for invitations. I wait until I get them. Why? Because I feel like an intrudor if I beg to get an invitation. I prefer knowing that the people who asked me really want me to be there. My terrritory is mostly outside the shows, and I adore it… but then one evening I checked my mails and got a message saying that I’ve been invited to the next Dior show. 

Wait…what? After reading the message 100 times, 100 text messages and 50 calls, I decided that it was probably not a joke. And indeed it wasn’t – one Friday afternoon I was at the office and got ready to go. I remember that I was worried that I wouldn’t find the location. Do you know what the location looked like? When I got there I honestly had to laugh – it was difficult NOT to notice that huge white building on this even bigger square in the middle of Paris.

A red carpet? Mama, I wanna go home. So I stayed outside for the longest time even possible and just stared at Kanye West getting in. I felt much better after that. So after 10 hystery calls my boyfriend convinced me that I should go in (what a good decision – I don’t wanna look back and say that I didn’t attend the Dior show because I was scared of a red carpet!!) and I waited for an “empty” moment on the carpet to RUN in. Today I know for sure that I feel lost on red carpets– especially if I know that Anna Wintour and Kanye West stood on them before. I guess at the same time I’d have a problem if I felt good on them. Inside the magic continued(yes, It started already when I saw the location!! It felt so surreal.) This huge huge white space with window openings and pastel coloured silky courtains blowing in the wind (where did the wind come from?!)…wow. I stopped for a second, stared and tried to calmly enjoy this wonderful location – but then I needed to find my seat. Usually that’s feasable, but when you have to deal with different rooms it gets more complicated. So I just decided to find a well-dressed young man in a suit (they usually help!) to bring me to my seat. Luxury. I tried to convince him that there was something wrong with it too – it was Front Row. But no, he then convinced me to just sit down – there was no mistake with the seat. Strange. The strangest feeling was indeed that I didn’t stand, first of all, and that I had space for my legs. After figuring out for 10 minutes where to put my bag and what to do with my legs – and I already have short legs. I texted the whole world how happy I was. Done. I mean I could have left after that, even just this bit of the event was enough to make me the happiest person. But then the show started. It was wonderful. I’m not going to give you a review on how amazing it was now, but on how it felt for me. Usually I sit in the very private front row of my computer at the office or at home staring at these wonderful pieces – and let me tell you they already look breathtaking on a screen. But when I saw them “in real life”? It changes everything. It changes the whole way you look at a collection. For the first time I saw clearly, without people in front of me, not too far away, from every side, all the volumes, the details, the shoes, the makeup. A dress can seem simple on a picture, but when you see the back of it it becomes a piece of art. The sleek hair combined with the glamourous-over-the-top eyemakeup, it just worked with the simplicity but yet constructed, opulent clothing. It was amazing to see how in every piece, there was a new story told: Raf Simons brought his own, minimalistic but yet feminine signature and combined them perfectly with the classic Dior signature. The suits with the perfect tayloring and subtle details were just perfect and my personal favorites were the wonderful long skirts combined with a simple black turtleneck. I already looked at these silhuettes when Raf Simons showed his first Haute Couture collection and remembered how wonderful chic they were. Opulent but yet modern, classic without being boring. People always ask me what kind of dress I’d wear for a big occasion – well I wouldn’t wear a dress but I’d wear this. 

During one short moment I stared at a model walking out and thought: there I am, I came to Paris 4 years ago with the dream of seing a fashion show properly once, get to know fashion a bit better, and now I’m sitting here. The first picture I ever cut out from a magazine was a photo from a Dior show. Time passed, a lot of hard work and now I finally got the reward for it.

After the show I sat there and waited for a bit, until I got out of the tent and took the metro back to the office. For the rest of that day and probably week – I walked around with the biggest smile on my face.

I’m always going to appreciate situations like that one. They are always going to scare me too, in a good way – because it just feels surreal what happens to me, and I’m never going to forget how lucky I am. To see that people appreciate my style, me my work and support me, is the best feeling in the world. Fashion has been around since I was a child, and now, for the first time in my life, it feels so much closer than just a picture in a magazine.

As a conclusion I can say that I hope that 2013 is going to be a year in fashion, with lots of new experiences and breathtaking moments…I came to paris 4 years ago, and I’m not done here yet!