Day 6

Are you ready for this??

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my fashion journalism teacher:





This guy is frighteningly fantastic. That’s how he described the museum he took us to today (The Wallace Collection), and I thought the description fit him very well also. Have you ever met someone and known instantly that you would never meet another person like them on this planet or any other for as long as you live? Well, if you haven’t yet experienced an interesting person like this, allow me to describe one I met today. I have to say beforehand, though, writing about this guy will hardly do him justice. Words really can’t encapsulate the character that is Robin Dutt.

The way you see him pictured above is exactly how he entered the classroom. All the students were waiting and talking when he came in about 15 minutes late. As soon as he appeared, there was complete silence as everyone eyed this man curiously, not quite sure whether to giggle or remain composed as he stared back at us from the doorway, cane in hand and top hat over one eye. The silence was finally broken when he said, “Good day,” in his lovely British accent. We eventually learned that he was anything but a silent creature by nature, because once he started talking about the complexities surrounding the journalism world, he didn’t stop for much. He has worked at the school around twenty years, and has written for Vogue, The Sunday Times and Elle, among many. He is a vegan, does not own a cell phone, a TV or a refrigerator and still drives a car from the 60s daily. I’m telling you, once-in-a-lifetime kind of person.

He had us all go around and introduce ourselves and talk about who we were, specifically who we were as writers. Everyone, with the exception of myself and about three other people, basically had no interest in pursuing journalism as a career, which I expected because this is a university known for its fashion program after all. He was, however, glad to know that most people in the class had a love of fashion and were open to learning about how to become better writers. He went on to explain that the class would be made up of three general assignments, a mid-term and a final - all written articles. This class will no doubt be my favorite if you couldn’t guess. For one of our assignments, he wants us to pick a piece of artwork, furniture, decoration, ect. from the Wallace Collection and write a fictitious article for one of Elle Magazine’s sections. It’s all right up my alley.

Once he was done explaining the syllabus, he told us to meet him in front of the school after a 15-minute break, and we would all walk over to the museum together. As the whole class stood in the lobby of the main entrance 30 minutes later, we started to understand that punctuality might not be Robin Dutt’s strong suit. One of the janitors, who had noticed us standing there for awhile, asked us who our teacher was. We told him, and he just smiled and nodded like he already knew the answer to his own question. When we asked if our teacher was known for running late, the janitor simply responded, “He’s known for being late, but worth the wait.”

When he finally did show up a short time later, a girl mustered enough courage to ask him if she could get a picture of him. We all looked at him to see his response, wondering if he would take her question the wrong way, because for all we knew he might have thought his getup was completely suitable. He stared at her with slight shock, and then said, “In front of this ugly truck?! Wait until we get to the museum, it’s much more architectural.”

All of that actually took place in my second class of the day. The first was Trend Forecasting, and it seems just as interesting for different reasons.



The lady who teaches that class is Virginia Grose, and let’s just say she’s no Robin Dutt. She still seems very knowledgeable about the fashion world, but is definitely not as much fun to listen to. Not that I’m complaining…if I had two professors like Dutt it might be a little much. For that class, I will be taking inspiration from all the world around me – things like art, clothes, fabrics, colors, ect. – and coming up with a trend board to present to the class on the last day. I’m not completely unfamiliar with trend boards, but my experience is limited so I guess I’m just slightly concerned, but positive that I will gain a lot of knowledge through the process of putting everything together.

Overall, I’d say the first day of classes went very well. There are definitely some moments about today that I’m sure I will never forget (I couldn’t even if I tried). It seems like it ended as quick as it began, which is a good sign. My teachers wasted no time in getting us into a routine. I actually have homework to do tonight! Ugh…

Oh, these are just a few of the pictures from the museum. It was gorgeous, and I took WAY too many pictures to post all of them.