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This past weekend, I drove down to San Diego--along with my partner David Paul--to make a special appearance at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising/FIDM San Diego campus for their Open House. The FIDM Open House is a way for anyone interested in possibly attending FIDM to check out the campus, facilities, classrooms, all the different majors, meet instructors, alumni...It's also away to Meet Me!







As the Official Spokesperson for FIDM, an FIDM instructor and grad, it's always my pleasure to make appearances at some of the campus events to share my story and "How I Got To Where I Am" and how FIDM helped me, of course. I always love going to the FIDM San Diego campus and particularly, San Diego. The campus is conveniently located in Downtown San Diego in the very hip Gaslamp District and VERY adjacent to...







I also like San Diego in that it's like L.A., but with a little bit of natural air conditioning; the weather is always PERFECT. A bonus is that my NIKOLAKI/NV Nick Verreos partner David Paul's family lives there and that's where he grew up so he always finds a chance to visit his mommie :)







When David and I arrived--the night before my appearance at the FIDM San Diego Open House--we had the chance to have a delicious dinner with his mom, Conchita, at Ortega's A Mexican Bistro Restaurant (the Chicken Mole was yummy!) in the Hillcrest neighborhood. The following day was Open House:


















Nick Verreos and 2013 FIDM Valedictorian Angelica Villegas--I had the pleasure of doing a special "pair discussion" with the 2013 FIDM Valedictorian Angelica Villegas, who happens to be from the San Diego area. She was AMAZING; so inspirational and intelligent. Angelica had such great insight in what it takes to be a succesful FIDM student and grad. After our talk, it was time for taking pics and sign some bags. Here are some photos of that:
















Until Next Time FIDM San Diego!! XOXO

But once I arrived, it was all good. It's "Pride Week" in SF and even the San Francisco City Hall was awash in Rainbow colors (see above photo!). Also, it was a wonderful "Good Morning and Welcome to San Francisco" to get up on the day of my event, turn on the TV and see that the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down DOMA and Prop 8. Needless to say, you could FEEL the excitement in SF on that momentous day! It was also momentous because, yes, it was THE day of my FIDM SF "3 Days of Fashion" event: Yeayyyy!



Here are Photos and Recap of my Day:











My appearance at FIDM SF "3 Days of Fashion" wasn't until around 4PM (I was to be there at 3PM) so after checking out of my hotel, I called my good friend whom I have known since childhood--Miguel Orantes--to join me in having lunch. I told him that I didn't care where and even a cheap diner would be fine for me. But not for my dear Miguel.







He took me to one of the BEST restaurants in San Francisco--The Slanted Door--located in the Ferry Building. Usually, he says "you cannot get a reservation for dinner!" but since it was lunch, we would be good. And we were. The restaurant boasts "Vietnamese Home Cooking" and it was DELICIOUS! We had the Dunganess Crab with cellophane noodles, gingered beef noodles and caramelized wild gulf shrimp. It was BEYOND yummy, ALL of it. And I'm so happy that Miguel made this lunch decision. He then gave me a quick tour of The Ferry Building "Marketplace" and then we were off to FIDM SF...

Once I arrived and it was "Nick Time", I immediately wanted to photograph the HUGE group of attendees who were there at today's FIDM SF "3 Days of Fashion"--the group was so big--over 150 of them--that it took me THREE pics to get them all:




















As part of my visit, I brought some of my NV Nick Verreos and NIKOLAKI dresses and they were modeled by model Rachael Sitz, who's one of my FAVE San Francisco runway and editorial divas--here are some pics from that part of my FIDM SF "3 Days of Fashion 2013" presentation:















Meet-and-Greet Nick: After my presentation, we had a Meet-and-Greet where I took lots of photos (Hello Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!) as well as signed many a sketch notebook! There were so many students that the FIDM SF ladies set up two separate lines--it was all very well organized and I was happy to meet-and-greet everyone who was there.







































***Up Next in "NICK APPEARANCES": FIDM Los Angeles 3 Days of Fashion 2013!!!