About a week ago Claire sent me an e-mail announcing she would come to Vienna and would like to meet me. What? ME? CLAIRE SHAEFFER? I nearly fainted! She introduced herself "I am a sewing expert and author; my area of expertise is the haute couture. The designers I know best are Chanel, YSL, and Dior." As if I hadn't known.....
Of course I revised my schedule and so we met at her hotel and TALKED almost immediately about fashion, couture, tailoring, business. After three hours we felt obliged to have a little tour de Vienne. I mean, wouldn't it be a bit embarassing if she'd been with an aborigine and had only seen her hotel's lobby?
So we had a little walk while we still were talking. I made some stupid mistakes telling her that in the old days there were couches in the courtyards (instead of coaches) and I mispronounced angle so that it sounded like ankle. But Claire is not only a wonderful person, she is also great at forgiving.
Today we met Patricia Delzo de Edlmayer at her workshop where I usually see my clients and she showed some of her dresses and jackets. She even provided Claire with some secrets of the trade that hadn't been revealed to her in Paris or London. Yes, Vienna rulez!
Claire told some really interesting stories about her big passion, the Chanel jacket. No, it's not only a quilted Cardigan with bound buttonholes and a chain at the bottom seam. There are a lot of very refined details that makes a Chanel jacket. So I'm looking forward to this autumn when Taunton Press releases her new book which is solely dedicated to her collection of Chanel jackets. I'm sure we will learn a lot from it.
Thank you, Claire. It's been a joy and great honor meeting you.
left: Claire and Patricia
right: Claire and me (in a silly facial expression)
