HOW I BECAME A LEMON...

I wanted to do this article about my studies because so many of you write emails asking me what my choices were and why I made them. It's kind of crazy because, thanks to you, I look back and wonder about my choices. Because in reality, I've never done it before, I act more than I think. I don't rush headlong into things either, but I trust my gut... I'll tell you about it.

Firstly, I'm lucky enough to have parents who have always supported me, who also saw me as a bit of a UFO, and they must have imagined that I'd never be happy in an economic or literary stream... Because of the glittering dinosaurs, among other things... So I was lucky not to have had to hear phrases like "Pass your Bac S first".

I discovered very early on that there was a bac STI in applied arts, and after a meeting with the guidance counselor, I knew that was what I had to do. I went to a country school and worked hard to get the grades I needed to get into a public high school that offered this option. Yes, there are also private high schools that offer this training, but when your father is a public school teacher, private schooling is a vast concept... And then, it was another challenge to be stuck in public schools all my schooling. So in 4th grade I had one goal: to enter the Lycée François Magendie in Bordeaux to do a BAC STI in Applied Arts. I managed to do it, but I can tell you it was hard: over 40 hours of classes a week, a very feminine world, full of talent, and then the high school, the city and the hormones...

And then afterwards, I had to think about what to do after my A-levels. I remember an interview with my main teacher, Alain Garcia, whom I adored, and my parents, who had come to find out about the "opportunities" that existed in the career path I had chosen. I remember him saying that it would be hard, that I'd have to hang in there and that with a bit of luck I'd meet the right people too. He'd been honest, my parents had just learned that their daughter's future was in the hands of fate. And I was afraid I wouldn't be able to overcome my shyness and meet the right people.

I asserted myself, finally asserting that I wanted to become a designer and enter Duperré. ENSAA Duperré is one of the four public schools in Paris, along with Estienne, Olivier de Serres and Boulle. It always makes me think of the houses of Pouldlard now. But when you're in your final year of high school, you have to put together a portfolio of all your schooling and send it to the schools that offer the different courses you're interested in, and not be closed to plan Bs. So I went for interviews in Roubaix, Cholet and Paris, for BTS in fashion design, and BTS and DMA in textiles, and then I also tried the arts décoratifs in Strasbourg (where I ended up wallowing...). 

1st year project at Duperré around the white shirt, Photos Mike Palace.

You should have seen me at my interviews, a little black H&M openwork shirt dress, red socks and black Melissa plastic pumps... And I'd customized a red cardboard suitcase (like my socks) to hold all my projects. I decorated the inside with red cherry wallpaper on a black background. I'd added flaps to hang notebooks... And I had a huge picture frame under my arm that didn't fit in the suitcase, a saleswoman, on the roads of France, her 12-25 discount card between her teeth. When I think back to when I was 17, I see myself as tiny but brave! In short, after the interviews, you don't get an answer straight away, it takes weeks and in the meantime you have to pass your Bac... Well, I wasn't an excellent student in high school, I did my program a bit à la carte, preferring plastics courses to general subjects. But I still passed my BAC with honors, with 4/20 in Mathematics... Nothing is impossible, and while I was waiting for the BAC results, the school results came in.

1st year BTS "Matière grise" professional project at Duperré. Photos by Mike Palace.

My parents had moved during this period, and the mail had been transferred so it took forever to arrive. And then one morning, after waiting for the letter carrier to arrive, I open the letter from Duperré, I can't read it because I'm so shaken by emotion and my tears are flowing, I'm in if I get my BAC. I'm sitting on the doorstep in the street in the sunshine, I've run out of credit on my phone (2006...), I can't tell anyone... The madness, the party at home, I can already see myself in Paris, my very own Erasmus.

Licence Pro "Patrimoine Anachronique" professional project Photos Garance Li and illustrations Camille Grosperrin.

I'm going to Duperré, and it's not easy to arrive in Paris when you're a piu piu who's just come of age. I didn't know anyone there, and you have to realize that the school is there to train you in a certain environment, but the school won't shape your style. You have to bring your own personality and let it grow and evolve. School gives you the keys and tools to assert yourself, but it won't make you the future Alexander McQueen, if you weren't born an Alexander McQueen. But the school is like a nursery: it's up to you to pick out the information you need to help your project grow. This is very important, and I realize it today when I give interviews to people who have also come from Duperré. Even if the teaching is the same, the result is completely different, I don't feel that there's any "Duperré" stamp, the school doesn't shape you, it guides you to assert your own choices. And I think that's great, but it's very hard work and you can't expect the school to mother its students, they're the ones who draw the contours of their education. Anyway, I graduated with a BTS in fashion design in 2008 and then decided to go on for another year to do a professional degree at Duperré too, 12 months of training between Paris and the university in Marne la Vallée, internships and free time to create a complete collection to present at the end of those 12 months with a thesis. I knew it was my last year, and the one thing I didn't want was to have any regrets. I worked like a deaf woman on a children's clothing collection, and in 2009, I graduated at the top of my class. So all that to say that life is full of possibilities, that in 2009 I'd never have imagined that I'd be here telling you about my career path, the only thing I'll take away is that you always have to give yourself the means to achieve your ambitions, listen to yourself, work hard and never be satisfied with what you can have... you have to dream higher! 

Professional project Licence Pro "Patrimoine Anachronique" Photos Nicolas Hidiro more photos by here.

To read this post in English, click here!