Another Fashion Night

 At times I feel like my entire life is work; today I was at school for 15 hours, and though I will be doing something fun tomorrow I’ve also brought home a huge bag of work to finish up on Sunday. But earlier this week I was invited to one of the most “Milan” experiences that I could hope for!

Picture from Vabene’s facebook- I don’t own it!

One of the girls in my class has brought in these awesome, vibrant watches to show the class a few times.

As it turns out, her mother is president of Vabene Watches. Every year they have a cocktail party to launch the new designs and I got to go! My life is so fancy now! Heehee 🙂 Anyways, before the party I went into the city with Julia, the music teacher at my school. Everyone I’ve met at school has been so friendly, welcoming, and fun; it’s such a great community! And, (personal victory!) I had a super tight dress hanging in my kitchen for months last year, both a taunt and an inspiration, waiting for me to lose that college weight and fit into it. I’m so happy I could finally (a year after buying!) wear it. Woohoo! After getting ready and having some wine and snacks we took a taxi over to Il Tempo Dell’Arte on Via Dante. Let me just say that I knew we were there before even walking in because there are two big, beautiful bodyguards that I see waiting for my little girl most days after school and both were guarding the building. I’ve never talked to either before but was feeling supa’ fly in my little dress and so we said “Buonasera” to each other. It was very romantic.

Fancypants night out in my fancypants dress

I don’t even have words to describe how the night went.

After telling the women at the door whose guest list they could find us on (!!!), we went upstairs to find a few more coworkers and a few parents. There was great music playing, and amazing aperitivi and champagne being passed around. Watches were displayed like art on the walls on transparent neon backgrounds, shown by the year they were designed. More watches were worn by mannequins that were grouped in threes and wrapped in saran wrap (it sounds really weird but visually, it was interesting, unique, and fun!). Between the watch displays were paintings that were done by the WinArts group. It was all very modern, which usually isn’t something that appeals to me, but in this case it was just so exciting and beautiful!

The city at night!

The woman who was throwing the party had asked me before, “Do you have any friends?” I’m working on finding humor in the language barrier and cultural differences that affect conversation with Italian people, but sometimes it takes me aback! I mentioned a few posts ago that I had to ban the “Are you in high school?” question in class, but had told all of the students that I’m 23 years old. As it turns out, the mom was only asking because their aupair is 24 and she wanted me to meet him! She’s mentioned it a few times now, and the second I said “Hello” to one of the other mom’s of a girl in my class (the mothers and the daughters are best friends), she grabbed my hand, gave me this intense, super excited look, and just goes, “Josh!” (that’s the aupair’s name) and sprints me across the room in her stilettos to meet him, weaving in and out of all the party-goers. Awkward. He ended up being pretty cool, but I didn’t really get to talk with him at the party. I’ll hopefully have time to talk about the school’s awesome Halloween party another day, but we chatted that night and he’d for sure be a fun person to travel with, or even explore Milan with!

The woman throwing the party is, from what I’ve heard, one of the most… affluent… woman/families in the school… actually, in all of Italy. The crazy thing is though, while most parents pick up their children from school in their highest heels, completely made-up, and in their best designer clothes, I’ve never seen her in anything but jeans and a tee-shirt. Both her and her husband, who I’ve only ever seen in a sweatshirt, jeans, and Chuck Taylor’s (I believe he and his father own a bank? Maybe? From what the daughter has mentions, it’s what I’ve gathered?), are down to earth, sweet, and amazing. The two of them, though, all dressed up for their big event, were literally stunning. They were so ridiculously beautiful that it was actually hard to make words happen. The father was telling me about his wife starting this great company as a way to bring watch design from Germany to Italy, and I just kind of nodded and smiled a lot…

All in all, it was one of those things that made me feel like I live in Italy.

I’m making an effort to keep from reverting to my comfort zone (cozy in my apartment with some wine or tea, a book, and Jurassic Park) and to take advantage of where I am. I feel so lucky to be having experiences like this. I knew going to Milan would mean being in a fashion capital, but I love that I’ve had two nights out already that revolved around this amazing fashion world.

Julia and I at the end of the night