Chapter 5 #4
Eugenia was mulling over all of it and the inevitable conversation she would have to have with Gloria before they left.
Stefano had driven Daphne and Tucker home in her car, and Liz followed them to drive him back.
The mood was solemn and dampened after the near-drowning incident, and no one was in a festive mood that night.
Eloise knocked softly on the door of her mother’s room as she dressed for dinner.
“Can I come in?” Eloise asked her cautiously. She could see how upset her mother was.
“Of course,” Eugenia said, smiling at her, trying to look more cheerful than she felt, as Eloise sat down, with a folder in her hand.
“Well, that was certainly a shit show today, wasn’t it?” Eloise said bluntly. She looked upset too. None of them could bear thinking of what if the worst had happened, and they thanked God that Brad had seen it and moved quickly. “Did you see what I saw?” Eloise asked her.
“And what was that?” Eugenia asked noncommittally, not wanting to admit to her daughter how furious she was with Geoff.
“That my sister’s shithead fiancé was hitting on the nanny and distracting her from her duties, so Tucker almost drowned.
” Eloise had summed it up accurately, in her mother’s opinion.
“If Brad hadn’t moved fast, Tucker would be dead.
” It was an unbearable thought for them all, and the memory of how quickly Tucker had lost consciousness after he sank was horrifying.
“I can’t disagree with you,” Eugenia said sadly.
“I saw it too. I don’t think Gloria did.
I’m not sure anyone saw Geoff move toward the nanny and engage her in conversation.
She was flattered and all starry-eyed talking to him.
He seemed like a big man to her, all puffed up with himself.
She bought right into his act. I was watching them before Tucker fell into the pool.
I saw it happen. She had her back to him, looking into Geoff’s eyes. ”
“He is really a piece of shit,” Eloise said angrily. “I don’t know what Gloria sees in him, except his title one day, and who cares.”
“Apparently, she does,” Eugenia said unhappily.
“She can’t marry him, Mom. If she wakes up, she’ll be miserable in six months, and divorced in a year.
” Eugenia didn’t disagree with her, but there was a long way to go before Gloria woke up.
“On another subject, I had an idea today. Maybe I’m crazy, or Sofia’s fashion sense is contagious.
I know you’ve been struggling with your couture line and business has been lousy, but looking at her today, I listened to what you said and tried to see her through your eyes, and suddenly I realized something.
You dress a certain kind of woman, your very elite clients, and slightly less lofty ones for your ready-to-wear line.
But these are all very wealthy women, usually married to rich men, or sleeping with them, who don’t care how much they spend, want to impress other men, and use the clothes as status symbols to show off to their friends.
But there’s a huge market out there of women who make less money, aren’t married or a rich man’s mistress, and are very young.
The youth market is a gold mine these days.
That’s what Balenciaga and other brands are after, as well as lots of lesser brands you don’t even know about.
The daughters of your clients, or women a tad older than that who want to look like kids.
I know it’s not what you do, but right now, groping to expand your market, I suddenly had this crazy idea that you could do a line for those young girls, or even women in the next age group up.
Say thirteen to twenty, or twenty-five, girls who want to have fun with what they wear.
You called it cotton candy, and that would be a great name for it.
It could be a really smart commercial decision, in a completely different price bracket.
” Eloise handed her mother the file, which was full of quick sketches she had worked on all afternoon.
There was a small color chart showing the range of tones Eloise could see them in, and none of them were black.
They weren’t chic, but everything about them said “Fun.” Eugenia smiled as she went through them, and was touched by the time Eloise had spent on it.
“They’re mostly tulle and sequins, and inexpensive fabrics, but with the patternmakers you have, they could be well cut and cheaply produced, and you might start a whole new craze, and who knows, some forty-year-olds might want to wear them too.
” What Eloise had done was financially brilliant, and creatively inspired.
“You could sell them at a pop-up store, and do a small first run as an experiment to try them out.” Eugenia was smiling broadly when she closed the file and looked at her daughter.
“Eloise, you are a genius. I love the idea. Some of our factories are starting to open, and none of these would be expensive to make.” They were mostly tulle skirts with lots of sequins, mermaid skirts, a couple of circle skirts, glittering tops, heart-shaped appliqués, pink denim Levi-style jackets in less expensive fabrics.
There wasn’t a single design Eugenia didn’t like, and they sparked a few ideas of her own.
“I want to play with this some more, and I’ll check out resources for these fabrics.
I could do a small run in limited sizes, and see what happens,” she said, excited by Eloise’s suggestion.
It was the best idea anyone had had so far to bring some cash flow back into the business and keep it afloat.
“It makes you look modern and young to reach out to that age group. You’re not cheapening your line, you’re adding a whole new one, in tune with the times, if you do it.”
“Thank you.” Eugenia put her arms around her and hugged her.
“I think you may have just started a whole explosion of new ideas I never thought of. My casual daywear is still aimed at my traditional client. This is all for their daughters and granddaughters, and young women with a modest income who want to look cute.”
“We should dedicate it to Sofia. I got the idea from her and that ridiculous outfit she was wearing today. I think you should copy it and make it your signature piece. Cotton Candy could wind up being more profitable than your main business, and there’s no shame in that.
” Coming from Eloise, it was a major change of direction from the purist attitudes about fashion that she considered sacred.
This was all fluff and fun and a whole new attitude about what really young women wanted to wear.
It was pure fantasy, and young women and teenage girls were going to love it.
They’d have to make it affordable, which would be new for Eugenia.
“I’ll start checking it out right away, and really target the line to the client. This is going to be fun if we can make it happen. I want to try it out fast, with a few main pieces to test the market,” Eugenia said.
They were still talking about it when they went down to dinner with the others. The whole group was subdued that night after the shock of what had happened to Tucker, and the emotional drain afterward.
Eugenia didn’t tell them where she was going the next day, and said she was going into the city.
She still felt guilty taking time away from them, but Gloria and Geoff were going to the beach, Sofia, Liz, and Eloise were going shopping in Southampton, Stef and Brad were playing their rematch, and Daphne was staying home with Tucker, since she didn’t have a nanny.
“Will you be home for dinner, Mom?” Eloise asked her at dinner when she told them she was going to the city the next day.
“No, I won’t. I’ve got meetings all day in town, and by the time I get back, with the traffic, it will be late.
” No one objected or seemed to care, and she felt strange lying to her children, but she wanted to spend the day with Patrick, and didn’t want to tell them.
They might make too much of it, and she didn’t know where it was going.
It was too soon to tell. It was none of their business.
And it was fun having a secret. It had been a very long time since she’d had one.
She could hardly wait to see Patrick the next day.