Happy Thanksgiving from Italy!

As I'm sure you all know, Thanksgiving is strictly an American holiday and therefore Thursday November 24th was just another normal day in Italy.  But, as a group of Americans we could not imagine a year without one of the best holidays! Lisa, the head of the Fit in Milan program, thoughtfully invited us all over to her home for a BIG American style Thanksgiving with a turkey and all!  The food was amazing and the dessert even better!  It was a much needed 'escape' from Italy.  It was such a wonderful night with all of my family here in Italy.  I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving. 

Starting to set out all of the yummy food!

Dessert table:)

Sydney and one of Lisa's beautiful cats

Sydney and I

Elena's beautiful daughter enjoying the Pie!

Dig in!

Group Shot

Everyone was full and sleepy by the end of the night...Binna taking a classic post-thanksgiving nap

Biennale Art Exhibiotn in Venice

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Venice for the world famous Biennale Art Exhibition!  It is an exhibition that takes place every 2 years showcasing up and coming artists from all around the world.  The Biennale was started in 1894 by the Venetian City Council.  The exhibition is centered in two areas of Venice; the Giardini, which houses pavilions for each country in which that countries art is displayed, as well as the beautiful and old Arsenale, home to large instillation done by up and coming artists.  To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement.  All of the art overwhelmed my senses and was the most inspiring experience I have had in Italy thus far.  On top of all of the wonderful art, Venice itself was inspiring.  It appeared just as quaint and beautiful as I ever imagined.  One day was not enough to take in all of Venice. I will most definitely travel back to explore the city more later in the year. 

Leotard Project- Body Contour

I have not posted in a while because my internet has been acting up and going incredibly slow.  Anyways, a couple of weeks ago we completed our first draping assignment, the leotard.  Our draping class this semester is called body contour and focuses on working with cut and sew jersey knits.  All of the fabric is provided to us by the Politecnico, but it is not always the greatest colors.  For this project we were given pink and purple bi-stretch jersey.  I did not personally love the colors so I took it as an opportunity to experiment with dye!  Here are the results....

A group of our classes Leotards- we had no restrictions on this project and thus were able to be entirely creative!

Everyone's turned out so unique and creative

This is mine.  With the dye I was able to get a beautiful deep purple.

I used corset style detailing to add shape to the leotard.  I used the Zig-Zag stitch to add feminine details.

I also played with ruffles and used a pearl finishing to add extra volume to the ruffles.

This is Yoshi's Leotard.  It was my favorite out of the class! So adorable how she placed the hearts in contrasting colors.

Happy Halloween!

Sunday night Sydney and I threw a Halloween party! Halloween is not celebrated all that much in Italy so we decided to have a party and make sure that everyone had the chance to dress up!  Sydney and I dressed up as Wolf Dress Forms.  It was such a blast. We hope to have a lot more parties in the future:)

Wolf Mannequins

Group Shot

Nerds

Black Eyed Pea and Sweet Tart

  

Viaggio a Firenze

This past week we took a 4 day long class trip to Tuscany.  It was such a beautiful and memorable trip jam packed with tons of museum trips and factory tours! It is nearly impossible to fill you all in on all of the amazing experiences, but i will try:)

The first day we arrived, we spent the day traveling around Florence.  After we dropped our bags at the hotel which was situated only a block away from the beautiful Duomo of Florence, we set off to view what seemed to be a pop up of all of the famous works of art in my art history book in the Piazza della Signoria.  From there we trekked up a large hill and went to the Bobili Gardens and the Museum of Roberto Capucci, a historic Italian Designer.  The next day we left early on a bus to go to the small town of Pronto about an hour outside of Florence.  Pronto is known for their woolen factories and we were able to tour the most prestigious yarn spinning factorys as well as a famous wool recycling factory.  We finished off the day off with a trend researching presentation in a well known fashion bookstore right outside of Pronto.  The next day we took the train to Pisa where we got to walk around the museums, churches, and utterly famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.  After a relaxing morning we went to Emilio Cavallini factory, the most famous Fashion Designer for Hosiery & Bodywear.  This was one of my favorite visits by far! The trip was also filled with visits to the Uffitzi Gallery Museum, Gucci Museum, and Stefano Ferragamo Museum with private tours in English! It was such an inrpiring educational experience that I will never forget.
(I apologize that the pictures are out of order.  I am still trying to figure out how to work this blog.  Just read the captions.)

Ponte Vecchio Florence at Night

Dyed wool ready to be spun into yarn

Finished result of spun wool yarn

Yarn spinning machinery

Famous wool recycling company in Pronto

Part of the long process of preparing old wool garments to be re spun into new yarns

Leg chandelier at Emilio Cavallini

Extra tight mannequins at Emilio Cavallini

The leaning tower of Pisa!

Church of Santa Maria Novella In Florence

David Sculpture in the Piazza della Signoria

View of Florence from the top of the Bobili Gardens

Me, Kourtney, and Yoshi at the top of the Bobili Gardens