Food, Fashion and Film--One Woman's Story

Seattle native Cheryl Pegues is only one of countless Americans who has moved to Paris and made a life there. But she may well be the only one who has made that life by working in three of the industries that the French hold most dear – cuisine, fashion and cinema.

Pegues’ Paris story begins less than auspiciously, with an invitation to spend the summer with a college friend that turned unexpectedly into four months of living in roach-infested hotels. Not the best introduction to the City of Light! But undaunted, she returned three years later for a longer stay. She supported herself with a position as an au pair, and eventually found work in the culinary field. From catering, baking for a tea salon and prepping in a Japanese restaurant, she graduated to running the kitchen at Les Petites Sorcières in the 14^th arrondissement when the chef of the restaurant suddenly resigned.

Pegues pursued her culinary career on both sides of the Atlantic (including operating her own business – The Illustrated Plate Caterers) until, for health reasons, she had to give up the profession. It was then that she began to explore her lifelong love of textiles as a possible avenue of employment. She says, “I was always the one who would lovingly starch and iron the damask table linens for Thanksgiving; the one whose favorite place was a fabric store…I can look at lace and transparent fabrics all day, spend hours in museum exhibits or in vintage clothing stores. It goes way beyond love. It's a kind of obsession. For years I mistakenly lived under the guilt of buying WAY more fabric than I could ever make into anything in my lifetime. One happy day, I realized that I was quite simply... a collector; and that she who dies with the most fabric wins. I want to win.”

And she is winning! One summer, after her first year of study at the Apparel Design and Services Division of Seattle Central Community College, she returned to Paris and dared to inquire about the continuing education classes for design professionals at L'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. She happened to be wearing a jacket that she had created, “using an Issy Miyake Vogue Pattern and all of my old and newly acquired skills. I had 'French-finished' all the inside seams…” According to Pegues, the director of the school asked to see the jacket and was so impressed with it that she accepted Pegues into the program on the spot. The budding designer received her certificate in Draping on the Mannequin in July 1995.

Since that time, Pegues has created fashion accessories under her own label. Though her first attempt at self-employment as a designer failed, she discovered that she has what it takes to be a true artiste, a creative spirit who is not afraid to trust her instincts and to act upon them. She began with a set of 25 jewelry rolls made from scraps of fabric that she had saved. Though she was certain that no one else could like them, she sold them all of them in one day at a small Christmas crafts sale. With her self-confidence thus bolstered, she went on to create two collections a year (time permitting): one at Christmas and one in the spring.

Pegues was asked to give fashion and shopping tours for an American travel company. This exposure led to her appearance on a half-hour travel TV documentary on shopping for sewers in Paris. This attracted the interest of, the American Sewers Guild and the Sewing Workshop in San Francisco, who invited Pegues to present lecture-demonstrations on sewing and fashion in the US for a time. She then began lecturing on sewing to American groups visiting Paris. She went on to design costumes for semi-professional musicals staged at the Middle and Upper Schools of the American School in Saint-Cloud, near Paris.

Despite all of the work that she was doing, she found that she needed an additional source of income. To this end, Pegues accepted a part time position at AFDAS, a school that provides English training and other continuing education for entertainment professionals. And while she hoped that the contacts that she made through this job would help her to find a position in costume design in the film industry, she was surprised to find a different door of opportunity opening for her.

A friend to whom Pegues had begun giving private English lessons worked for the production company that won the Oscar for Best Documentary (March of the Penguins). The friend told Pegues that she would be the perfect person to monitor the English-language aspects of a bilingual docudrama called La Grande Inondation. Pegues’ responsibilities would be to coach the actors, verify the screenplay and assist the director during the shoot.

Two months later, Pegues was hired. She found herself being given increasing responsibility, almost by the day. After working with the casting director to decide on the first cut of the 50 or so “English-speaking” French actors who had auditioned, she was asked to rewrite the test material to better judge their performances and to establish to criteria for the next cut. The following day, the director asked her to observe all of the second tests and read to the actors being tested from behind the camera. Two days later, the casting director, the producers and the commercial director from New York asked her to make a presentation to express her opinion as to whether or not the concept of a dual-language film would work with English-speaking markets. Her answer would determine whether or not the film would be made.

Her presentation was well received, and the producers gave Pegues flowers as thanks for the professionalism. Not only was the film made, but Pegues, who had no previous experience in cinema, was asked to rework the English version of the screenplay, coach all of the actors and work in tandem with the director during the entire shoot. In addition, she also played a small part as a journalist in both the French and English versions of the film.

As a result of this experience, Pegues is now solicited by the French cinema and television industries as a coach for English-speaking actors and journalists. She is also doing voice work in film post-production and acting in small roles. Her second film credit is Catherine Corsini's Les Ambitieux, where she appears on screen for a very brief scene with Karine Viard and has a longer off-screen dialogue with her fictional French husband about wine tasting.

Cheryl Pegues is currently living this American-style success story in Paris. She knows that she will need to work hard to remain part of the “in crowd” of the entertainment industry, given that the contract between her language school employer and AFDAS has come to an end. Still, she is optimistic. Quoting Pegues regarding her future, “I am off to new fields, teaching and coaching at a major Swiss fragrance design group, and continuing with my costume work, my voice work, and my coaching. So we shall see, shall we not?”

About the author:
Monique Y. Wells is co-owner of Discover Paris! – Personalized Itineraries for Independent Travelers She creates customized, culture-based, self-guided itineraries that are ideal for women, particularly those who travel alone. For more information, please visit her web site at http://www.discoverparis.net.

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