A Canadian in Paris has the last laugh.
I will never forget day that I was accepted into the Intensive Course for Fashion Design and Pattern Making at ESMOD, Paris.
At 25 years old I was sitting in my parents’ TV room, excited and frightened by the prospect of yet again uprooting myself and starting all over again. This would be my third time doing so and, funnily, it would not be my last.
My mother looked at me and said, defeated, “you will never come back.”
About a week later — and only 4 days after 9/11 — I was on a plane to Paris to check things out (on the first plane, mind you, that left Canada in the wake of this horrific tragedy). I visited the main building of this iconic fashion school, founded in 1841 by the master tailor, Alexis Lavigne, and the world’s first and oldest of its kind which today operates in 13 countries worldwide.
I was IN. I confirmed my attendance for Fall, found an apartment online in the 6ème arrondissement Saint Germain des Près, and skimped and saved and waited until the day that I got on that plane to Paris when my life would change forever.
The interior of ESMOD’s main building in Paris, founded in 1841
First Day of School
At this time, I was totally obsessed with Chloé. Who wasn’t? Who can forget those pineapples appearing on everything form off-the-shoulder tops to the bums of bathing suits?
With Stella McCartney at its helm, and Phoebe Philo as a force majeur as the 1st assistant, Chloé was on fire and I was totally swept up in the brand’s ability to straddle the 70’s and 80’s while being both cute and sexy.
Our small and intimate class of 25 students were huddled in a large studio on our first day of school. We had only two teachers — one for design, the other for draping & pattern drafting. My design teacher was young and had spent the majority of her career as the head of costume design at Club Med. My draping — or modélisme — teacher had spent her entire life at Sonia Rykiel and Saint Laurent.
The first thing that my draping teacher told us was, “at the end of this 8 month course, only 25% of you will graduate.”
With those words of inspiration, we were then tasked with going around the room and individually presenting ourselves to one another. You were required to state your name, which country you came from, and what were your goals after graduating from ESMOD.
There were students from all over — Korea, Poland, Brazil, Japan, France… and then there was me, from Canada.
When it finally came to be my turn, I simply said, “My name is Marika Brose, I am from Canada, and I want to work at Chloé.”
Laughter erupted throughout the room.
“Oh ya Chloé? Why not!”
“Then I want to work at Gauthier! Or Chanel!”
“Go for it, Canadian girl!”
Things like that. (En français, bien sûr).
ESMOD, Paris
My Teacher Wasn’t Kidding
The workload was intense. We had to design one collection per month, and create 3-4 pieces from that collection as well. I worked like a mad woman until all hours of the night, and I loved every minute of it. At the end of each month, I would collapse onto my sofa bed and sleep and drink cheap red wine.
One by one, students started dropping out. Like flies. Mainly it was the fierce pace of work, and the sheer volume, that would send them packing. But sometimes, it was the harsh French marking system that would dissuade them from continuing.
We were told that it was impossible to get a 20/20 on any assignment. Only if you were Yves Saint Laurent himself might it even be possible — but still, it was just a ‘possibilité.’
Once, my design teacher gave me an 18/20. She proudly paraded my assignment to all of her other classes, and at an ESMOD teacher meeting, touting my design prowesse. There was much a to-do about it.
But when word got up to the very top that some random student had earned an 18/20 grade, she was asked to reduce it to a 16/20 which was, apparently, more palatable. She did reduce it, reluctantly.
I carried on, quite happily.
I started assisting as a model dresser and worked at shows such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Léonard.
It was once while working at the Chanel Haute Couture show that I got some fantastic news — I had gotten an internship at Chloé.
Chloé Fall 2001
Ha Ha Ha
I started interning at Chloé while I was finishing up my final collection at ESMOD. Things had become so competitive at school that I was allowed to work from home and make my own hours so that some of my classmates would *not* be able to copy me.
This gave me the freedom to make my own hours at Chloé until eventually being offered a CDD (Contract of a Determined Duration) after graduating — which I did top of my class.
The Chloé design team was surprisingly small. Located above where their former store was on the far west-end of Rue St Honoré, the modest studio consisted of head designer Phoebe Philo, a first assistant who had won the Chloé prize at Central Saint Martins, and then six other designers and two assistant designers including myself.
As an assistant designer, I got to work on a bunch of stuff.
Sometimes I was assigned to figure out some embroidery ideas. Others to work out some jersey draping issues. And then others to work with the fabric buyer which was always a major highlight for me.
Because I did float around quite a bit, I eventually noticed that some silhouettes were popping up more than they should. I suggested creating a collection plan system where I would clean up all of the sketches, scan them, and then put them up on the wall by category.
For example, Phoebe appeared to be a bit obsessed with a certain A-line skirt silhouette. It was appearing nearly every morning when she would show us her sketches.
So when I put the collection plan up on the wall, it became clear that we didn’t need to keep developing it, and that she could move on to other ideas — my favorite one being an American football padded pant she had found in some vintage shop. We all loved them.
Some of my sketches for Chloé Spring 2003
So, I worked at Chloé.
It happened. It was like a dream, and yet it still feels so real.
I was there for only two seasons. Eventually, I asked the person responsible for hiring me why I was chosen. She said very directly: “Because you draw like Phoebe, and I only hire graduates from ESMOD and Central Saint Matins.”
And then I moved to Milan to — yes, that’s right — start my life all over again.
But that’s a story for another time.
xo
Chloé Spring 2003
