Florence Fashion Show
Yup. You read that right. A Florence fashion show.
Before you get too excited, it’s not what you think. With the group I went with, we also had an opportunity to do a weekend in Florence to compete in a fashion show. It was something that the company I went with put on.
The interning group had several other places they put interns such as Florence and Paris and a second group in London. The rules of the competition were that we were given a certain dollar amount we were allowed to spend to buy clothes for the fashion show. One piece that we were supposed to have in our ensemble had to homemade in some way and we had to create two outfits that was inspired by the city we were interning in.
There were two other girls in my group and we decided to draw fashion from Camden street style which is really different from any other part of London. They are mostly known for punk and grunge street styles. So we drew influences from the Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, the Ting Tings, the Sex Pistols, and more.
It was a really hard thing to do because our internship schedules didn’t match up and by the time we got off of work, all of the stores were closed. So we did what any other college kid would do: We shopped in Florence the night before the fashion show 🙂
Somehow we did it though!
We left for the airport at Stansted in the middle of the night on coach bus to take Ryanair to Pisa first. We didn’t have to meet everyone until the next day in the morning, so we decided to spend time at Pisa. It was so hot, I thought we would die, and I was so tired because I hadn’t been to sleep yet. I stayed up all night and didn’t sleep on the plane.
The next day we did some exploring in Florence and met the group. We went to the Gucci museum and the Ferragamo museum. The Gucci museum had all of their bag designs, but also had some famous celebrity dresses that had been made by them. The Ferragamo museum was different and disappointing. Sure they had some of the shoes there, but it was more of a shrine to Marilyn Monroe. All of her dresses, Ferragamo shoes (even the broken ones since she was notorious for breaking the heels on her shoes due to clumsiness) and all of the conspiracy theories surrounding her demise. It was obviously not what I expected.
Later that day, came the hardest part. We had to hand out flyers and get people to come to our fashion show. We won that part of the competition, but we almost got into serious trouble doing it. The internship company didn’t do their research. Did you know it’s illegal to hand out flyers unless you’re standing in front of the places you’re marketing for in Florence? Yup. We got a talking to from the police. Luckily we were foreigners and they gave us a warning because we didn’t know any better. Marketing in front of the club we were holding the fashion show at was terrible! It was down an alley no one walked by. We gave up.
Later that night, some study abroad kids had come that we handed a flyer out to. Super exciting! They were the only ones that showed up too lol! So we won that part of the competition but ended up losing the fashion part to the group from Florence. Total bias! Everyone in the audience liked our outfits the best (just a by the way).
Check out our style (and keep in mind we were cool and innovative for 2012):
That night was a doosy. We got free shots since we bought the club out and we were out so late. One of my roommates didn’t even come home until 8 in the morning. Another one stayed out even later than that. That day we went to Fiesole before heading back home (and by home, I mean London). It’s one of my favorite places. We saw the oldest church in Tuscany and the Roman Amphitheater and Etruscan Ruins.
And after that, our guide arranged for us to have a meal at one of the best restaurants ever! It’s up the steepest hill in the town and at the top is the San Franciscan Monastery. But before that, is an amazing restaurant. And I’m not telling the name because that’s my secret weapon as a travel agent (so if you want to know it, book with me and I’ll tell you). We ate out on their terrace while they just kept bringing out food for us to taste. We didn’t even order. They just kept making us food and bringing bottles of wine.
Florence was absolutely amazing and I loved it so much! I’m sad I only spent a few days there and that it was such a blur. I only slept 6 hours that whole weekend. I can’t wait to back someday and get to explore more of what Florence and Tuscany have to offer! ❤
Adventuresome Nicole 