The Fashion Princess (8 page)

“Follow me,” said Tallulah, “I know this shop better than my own apartment!”

Poppy had the time of her life. She bought the twins a toy each with her dollars, which she kept in her sequinned purse. For Archie she chose a bright-green engine; for Angel, a teddy in a ballet tutu with a bow on her head. She bought some fancy perfume for Mum and a beautiful cashmere scarf for Dad. Then they all got together in the haberdashery department and picked up sewing things, some fabulous fabric and masses of gorgeous accessories for their show.

Their trip to Macy's seemed to fly by, and soon they were back with the tour guide. The next stop was the quay where they were to catch a ferry for a trip out to the Statue of Liberty.
As they approached the statue, Poppy was transfixed.

“Isn't she magnificent?” said Berry.

“Yeah,” replied Poppy, “and she looks so strong and brave. I'm definitely going to make a Liberty dress for our show.”

Poppy loved the tour of Liberty Island, where she saw the statue's original torch up close, and as she looked back over New York's spectacular harbour, she felt as though she was the luckiest girl in the world.

AFTER A FULL
day of sightseeing they stopped for a smoothie and a muffin and then returned to the hotel for a team meeting. It was time to get to work on their show. The first job was to call Clara to check that everything was still OK for their slot. Once Bryony had the official thumbs-up, she started to make a list of what had to be done.

“What is the main idea behind these
designs going to be?” asked Saffron sensibly.

“We want to theme it around New York – that was Poppy's idea,” explained Berry.

“Great idea, Poppy,” said Saffron. “I love it! But what aspect of the city are you going to emphasize?”

Poppy thought for a moment. “Freedom. The freedom there is here to be what you want to be and dress how you want to dress.”

“What a brilliant idea, girls,” said Tallulah. “It's so refreshing. We're all puppets for the big designers – I only realized it yesterday when Ned dropped me from his show. I think we should show wearable designs which real people might actually wear for every day things.”

Everyone agreed that they were onto
something here. Their show had to be different from the big shows in order to stand out, and after their experience of the obsessive control of Ned Carew, and some of the ludicrous outfits they had seen during the week – including Saffron's short-lived new look – they all wanted to do a show for real people. So, with the concept firmly in place, they set about designing, cutting, pinning, stitching and assembling the outfits.

Saffron showed them all the fashion goodies she had brought from Honeypot Hill. There was an adorable knitted daisy-shape hat made by Poppy's mum, plus other cute hats and head-dresses; there were several pieces of exquisite jewellery made by Holly Mallow; there were pretty coloured silk scarves made by Saffron herself, and a wonderful crocheted poncho made for Poppy by Granny Bumble (Poppy's best friend, Honey, had one too).As everyone wanted an early night, with such a big preparation day ahead of them, they ordered room
service, then snuggled down for the night.

The next morning they all met back in Bryony's room and got to work straight away. As Berry, Poppy and Saffron sketched, Bryony and Tallulah cut and sewed. After about an hour there was a knock at the door. Orlando, who was at a bit of a loose end but was trying to be helpful, offered to play butler and went to see who was there.

“Hi, I'm Delia,” said the pleasant-faced lady standing in the corridor. “I work for Clara Hughson as a seamstress. She thought you might need some help with your show, so here I am.”

“Come in, come in,” said Bryony as she rushed over to the door. “How wonderful to see you, and how kind of Clara to spare you. Oh, and you've got a sewing machine too!”

Orlando helped Delia carry everything into the room and she set about helping the girls immediately.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of fittings, cuttings, sewing and laughing. There was hardly any time to get excited or admire their creations but Poppy was sure everything was going to look splendid in time for the show. As they worked, they planned the running order. It was decided that Saffron, Bryony, Orlando and Delia would help backstage, while Poppy and Berry would do the modelling – along with Tallulah, of course.

“Tallulah?” said Berry as they sat
sewing buttons onto the dresses. “Any chance you can show Poppy and me how we should walk on the runway?”

Poppy looked up from her sketchbook. This sounded like fun. Bryony put on some pop music and they all followed Tallulah around the room, trying to walk like supermodels, with books balanced on their heads. As far as Orlando was concerned, things were getting just too
silly, so he headed off to the hotel pool.

“I don't think I've been this excited about a show since my first ever one,” laughed Tallulah. “I'm so glad that things have worked out like this.”

“As long as there are no trip-wires, I think I'll be just fine!” giggled Poppy.

“Let's empty that bag of Orlando's,” said Berry, laughing.

By the evening, everyone was feeling tired but confident that they had a lovely collection to showcase the next day. They decided to go out to an ice-cream parlour to celebrate and treat themselves to some delicious sundaes.

MIDWAY THROUGH THE
next morning, with the show only hours away, they packed all their wonderful creations, including the accessories, into tissue-lined boxes and called down to the lobby to order three taxis to take them over to the Carlyle Hotel, where their show was due to start later that day.

When everything was ready, in an effort to forget their nerves, Poppy and Berry decided to take a peek at Clara's
bridal show from the wings. It was a heavenly display of romantic white and candyfloss-coloured gowns. There were metres of tulle, silk organza and taffeta, plus duchesse satin galore and the most gorgeous flowers. Even though the dresses were stunning, Poppy still thought that none of them were quite as wonderful as Saffron's wedding dress had been.