So I know a lot of people know exactly what I’m studying in Shanghai (Luxury Brand Management) but not exactly what a day can be like as a student here. I really appreciate the many events and that the school organizes for us and I finally feel like a *real* fashion student. In addition, my days are as dynamic and as diverse as I would like. Unfortunately, that also means that some days are extremely LONG. Here’s an example of one.

 

Thursday October 25th.

7:30 a.m. Alarm goes off. Check iPhone messages. Fall back asleep.

8:00 a.m. Properly wake up. Shower. Get Ready. Wrestle with hair.

9:15 a.m.  Aye aye! We made it in time for the Metro today. Nice!

9:40 a.m. Boo. Raining as we leave the Metro. Umbrella in house. Anyway Starbucks run! Black tea latte and Croissant please.

9:50 a.m. Rain means have to take a cab from Starbucks at Metro stop to class anyway.

10:00 a.m. My Austrian roommate Jenni is too impatient to wait for the elevator (which is really slow). She makes us go up a flight of stairs that nobody has ever ventured into before. SIX FLIGHTS. She assures us that walking up stairs is great to “prevent brain attacks”. What about HEART attacks tho Jenni? We get to the sixth floor. The door is locked from the inside. Have to go down to the fifth floor and take the elevator up to the 6th anyway. We are all gasping for air.

10:08 a.m. Skate into Emerging Markets class. It hasn’t yet started. We divide into groups and are required to prepare a pitch for a luxury hotel group to enter one of the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa…BRIC is so 2010) economies. I am selected as a group leader and pick Colombia. We spend most of the class doing research and preparing an amazing Powerpoint presentation.

12:30 p.m. We present our amazing Powerpoint on Colombia and how the public image of the country is changing from un pais muy peligroso to a luxury travel destination (and with it luxury shopping destination) via social media. “Colombia, el unico riesgo es quiere quedarse!” (Colombia, the only risk is that you will want to stay!) We take too long. Only one other group in class can present. AHAHA!

1:15 p.m. Next class at 2. Must rush to lunch at Japanese restaurant across the street with the Chinese students. If you’re in a rush always eat lunch with a Chinese speaker. You don’t waste time trying to communicate. We are done by 1:50.

2:00 p.m. Luxury Communications class. Not the most riveting. Luxury not about the product, about connecting with people’s emotions etc. etc. We discuss PR and our large project for the class.

5:00 p.m. The Programme Coordinator comes in and requests that some of us participate in a photoshoot for next year’s university brochure RIGHT NOW. How can I resist? Snap Snap. Smize Smize.

6:15 p.m. We are given a 2012 Fall Trends seminar by a past student. She is REALLY excited. We all know all the trends already. (Oxblood and black cherry, dark florals, baroque, LEATHER, prints prints prints, fashion designers leaving labels, joining labels etc. etc…shouldn’t we be talking about Spring 2013?)

7:15 p.m. We decide to take a cab home. We almost die. Tires skidding as he screeches to a halt at red lights. I say a prayer for myself.

7:30 p.m. HOME SWEET HOME.

8:00 p.m. Some of our friends from Hult University come over under the pretense of studying. We try to read case studies while they laugh and make general noise. We ridicule them for not knowing what BRIC nations are and for wasting money on their business school degrees when we’re only going to fashion school. Entertaining alternative to the usual quiet atmosphere in the apartment.

11:00 p.m. Hult boys leave. I continue to read my case studies long after everyone else has gone asleep. Topics include Ferrari, food as a luxury, the construction of desire, and a too fabulous to be true resort hotel.

2:30 a.m. Wired. Obsessively look at job opportunities at some large luxury firms (one of my new compulsions) before finally falling asleep.

Do it all again tomorrow…