Rachel Dagdagan // February 2012 1

Dreaming in coutureStudent Anh Duong contemplates the importance of buying food over fabric while studying in the capital of couture

The first night I met Anh in Paris, she let me sleep on her couch. Well – it was more like passing out than

falling asleep. I woke up six hours lat-er to the same scene I had closed my eyes to: piles of fabric and patterns, the air peppered with random swear words muttered in French. Shortly after, Anh left for school, and left me in the empty apartment. Such is the life of a student at the most prestigious fashion (and only cou-ture) school in the world: sleep is a luxury, and there’s no time to notice little things like a stranger sleeping on your couch.

Fast forward nine months, and Anh Duong is about a month into her third year (of four) at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Cou-ture Parisienne. Founded in 1928, it’s the old stomping ground to some of the best known names in fashion (Yves Saint Laurent and Lagerfeld ring a bell?). Notoriously tough (they automatically cut one-third of the class each year), and taught only in French – what made Anh choose to pack up her life and move from the

sunny shores of Southern California? “I had spent a lot of time in Paris and I really loved it here. When I was serious about applying for schools, I thought about who my favorite de-signers were, cost, and how much I liked the city the school was in. My favorite designer at the time was Yves Saint Laurent. That narrowed down my choices. Paris was my top choice. I love Paris. And pastries.”

An easy decision, based in passion – but a decision which required seri-ous preparation. “I learned French, worked on my portfolio, did a lot of photo shooting for things I’ve made,” Anh elaborates. “I was asked to design for a fashion show at the Museum of Contemporary Arts San Diego, and featured in Riviera Maga-zine. I think that helped me get into school, and was able to start directly as a second year student without much prior knowledge.” To top the mounting stress, Anh was accepted to the school in June 2010 – with

classes beginning in September. “I already had a trip planned to France for three weeks to take French class-es, so really I only had eight weeks to sell all of my stuff, get my visa sorted, and move.”

The move would have been sim-pler, also, if Anh had recently fin-ished high school or college. But, at 29, moving to Paris meant giving up a lifestyle she’d grown accustomed to. Until this past summer, Anh was the owner of a successful hair salon in San Diego, California. “I want-ed to do something more creative, something that had longevity. Hair comes and goes and it gets cut off. I sacrificed my annual income of about $100,000 by coming to school. I used to work only 9 or 10 months out of the year, and travelled the rest of the time. I had a nice lifestyle, a 1500 square foot loft in San Diego near the beach, had a cleaning lady. Now I compare prices on which thread I should get.” Jokingly, she adds, “The

2 Rachel Dagdagan // February 2012

worst part is being poor and choos-ing fabric over food.”

Anh’s appreciation for fashion was planted early on. “I wouldn’t let my Mom out of the house with certain outfits when I was a little kid. She used to get so frustrated with me. She was a seamstress ever since I could re-member and I used to help her with little things. She used to take me to fabric stores and shoe shopping all the time, so really I blame her.”

Though a sartorial interest may have begun with her mother, Anh’s traditional Vietnamese family never wanted her to take on a creative ca-reer. “My parents were never sup-portive of anything creative really, I guess that’s why I want it so bad.”

Fortunately, Anh was already used to going against her family’s wishes. “My parents thought it was a bad idea for me to do hair. Then I opened my salon, and they were happy because I was a business owner.”

When the time came to announce her move to Paris, Anh was well pre-pared for the response. “When I told them about school they thought it was a bad idea. So when I got into my school they were sad.” Now, she’s beaten the cycle of disapproval. “My parents realised later how good my school is. My Mom brags now.”

With a little over a year of formal couture training, how have her views changed? “I appreciate it, greatly, es-pecially Givenchy and Christian Lac-roix (R.I.P.)! It’s sad that there are so few couture houses, but at the same time I understand why it’s a disap-pearing art. Not many people can af-ford it, and not many companies can afford to keep it alive.” Explaining further, “I appreciated haute couture from a pretty young age, but for me currently, I’m less interested in de-signing couture. It’s a difficult mar-ket. I’d have more interest in luxury pret-a-porter, shoes and accessories.”

Despite a desire to go into pret-a-porter, Anh is still putting in couture training hours. “It has been harder and more time consuming than I had imagined. Even more difficult than starting my salon. We are in school about 35-40 hours a week, and spend about the same time on projects [outside of school]. I have time to go out on Friday evenings, but that’s about it. Then the next day, I’ll regret it. I usually go to the flea market or thrift store. When it comes down to it, the flea market and thrift store is often for school anyway.”

The hours and projects will only intensify as the end of the program looms near, with the realisation that getting cut from the program is a huge possibility. “I always get stressed out, but I think I do OK.”

The focus is getting through the program, with just 15 months until completion. “I started a lot later than most students, so having a degree is something I’m really serious about,

and also learning as much as I pos-sibly can.”

At the end of the day, Anh appreci-ates everything her move to Paris has afforded her. There are advantages to going to the world’s only couture school. “I love how much exposure we have to luxury and couture brands here. The teachers are also great and a lot of them still work in the indus-try. One of the textiles teachers is vice president of the Textiles Association in France, and my sewing teacher helped Dolce & Gabbana when they first started.”

As a future in the industry is quick-ly becoming reality – much more so than when Anh moved to Paris just over a year ago – we discuss her fu-ture while planning our ‘Thanksgiv-ing in Paris’ expat dinner. Anh muses – “I would love to stay here in Paris. We all want to make our mark in his-tory, don’t we?” -R.D.

an end-of-term celebration