10. January 2023 | Von Julienne Seifert 

My everyday life at Istituto Marangoni Paris

Between exam stress, fashion exhibitions, and the holiday season.

My everyday life at Istituto Marangoni Paris

Christmas is in a few days and i’m already back home for my 3 weeks of christmas and winter vacations. The first term of our semester abroad is over and so are the first exams and project work. In this blog entry I want to talk about my first two months of uni life and what else I did in my free time.

In the first blog entry I couldn’t tell much about what uni life at Marangoni is like, and only knew about the schedule and how life might be. Now I know and experienced a lot more. And what I can say after completing the first half; it’s somewhat challenging, but in a good way. Since i’m already in my 5th semester and have already heard a lot of things in economics and fashion business through the earlier semesters, it was a refresher for me in some topics.

Nevertheless, the last weeks before the due dates were quite stressful. One day I worked on this, the other I studied for that. Given that the semester is divided into two terms, we have modules that end after the first term: Project Management, Microeconomics and Applied Economics/Fashion Business. And for these we have already had the exams and written project work. It’s similar to having midterms.

 

For Microeconomics, a purely economic subject, as well as applied economics, a subject in which we took a closer look at the fashion industry and the business behind it, we each wrote a one-hour exam. This was structured a bit differently than at Macromedia, as it only contained compulsory tasks, which were relatively short or even posed as multiple choices questions. For Project Management we had to, as the name of the subject says, plan a project and start managing it.

In a fictitious cooperation with the Galeries Lafayette we had to plan in a group of 4 a concept corner with the topic sustainability and work on areas like a competitor analysis, swot analysis or risk management, but also think about how the corner should look like and choose the respective brands. In the end, the whole thing had to be handed in as a report and completed with a pitch presentation. And the project wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. My group put a lot of time and nerves into our work, but we always remembered that we should enjoy this project, so I had a very pleasant time and almost forgot how much nerves and time I actually invested in the end. And trust me, if you love fashion, like the business behind it but also have fun playing around with design and creativity, Istituto Marangoni is the perfect place to go to.

The lessons themselves are similar to those at Macromedia and are mostly interactive lectures. Most of the time we had uni 4 to 5 days a week, sometimes at 8:30am or 5:30pm and sometimes even on Saturdays. It may sound a bit strange at first but it was just a matter of getting used to it and not such a big deal in the end because every day is different anyway. Sunday and Monday could be a free day, Tuesday to Thursday we went to school, Friday we met for the project and Saturday we went to school again. But the next week would look different again. So going to uni on a Saturday didn’t really felt like going to uni on a Saturday. And besides we also got the opportunity to learn from tutors who work in their profession during the week and then took the time to share their knowledge on Saturdays. This is incredibly inspiring because we got a completely different insight into the fashion industry and a direct contact that is rare at Macromedia; at least at the Leipzig campus, my home campus.

Naturally the free time was a bit shorter than before, but still I had the possibility to visit a museum or an exhibition on a free day or Sunday or even after the uni; or to go out for a delicious meal or to explore other beautiful corners of Paris when the weather was a bit nicer and warmer. Especially nice, and I have to say so far the most stunning exhibition I have ever seen, was the Dior exhibition at the La Galerie Dior next to the Avenue Montaigne. This is very very well done and presented; really so dreamlike that even once I teared up looking at the couture dresses from the past seasons. The exhibition is unlike the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition not free for us but with a reduced price for students of 8€ it is definitely worth it, I would certainly go there a second time.

As mentioned at the beginning I already went home a few days ago for christmas holidays, yet I was able to experience some time of the pre-Christmas season in Paris. But to be honest, I imagined it would be nicer, a bit more charming. Indeed, there are lights on almost every corner, every luxury store from Dior to Burberry has its own christmas decoration and there are also christmas markets around the city, but if you come from a somewhat smaller city in eastern germany then it’s not quite as cozy in comparison. Nevertheless, I couldn’t miss the biggest christmas market in Paris, or as the french say, la marché de noël, in the Jardin des Tuileries and even went there twice. From a german food stall to larger rides, you can find everything, but you should pack a little more money if you want to eat or buy something, because prices are also very high there. My favorite place during the pre-Christmas period in Paris has been the somewhat smaller Christmas market at the Hotel de Ville. Between many fir trees and a children’s carousel, you can drink a vin chaud (Glühwein) in a very cozy environment and watch the lights while Christmas music plays in the background. The Champs Élysées was also very nicely decorated and looked very christmassy with the many lights. Still, even at this time of year many tourists hang around there, which makes it not always so pleasant.

Unfortunately there was no snow in Paris so far but let’s see what happens in January and February when I go back to Paris and start the second part of the semester. Until then I will be able to rest over the holidays because we are already done with the exam and project work so I can devote myself to family, friends and myself over christmas and new year. How it goes on in the new year, you will read in the last blog entry when it’s already time to say, ‘Au Revoir Paris’.

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