NOVEL NEXT Fashion Diva
“Pft, did you hear that?” Han Ruolan and the other girls burst out into peals of laughter after hearing its price. When their laughter died down, Ruolan stood before Bai Yu Yan and said, “Why don’t you just rob people on board daylight? How can you be so shameless to sell a rag at such a high price?” Her high pitched voice rang in the whole shop.
Song Mei Lin lowered her lashes and shook her head with disappointment. But inside, she felt a wave of relief wash over her burning heart. As expected! This dumb Bai Yu Yan has no skill whatsoever in fabric and design so how can she make a dress?
In the spring festival, when she saw Bai Yu Yan receiving praises from everyone for making Consort Shu’s dress, she nearly vomited blood in anger. Mei Lin was the one who had given the design for the Empress’s dress to the royal tailors but unlike every other occasion where she basked under the spotlight to receive praises for her art and design, not a single person spoke a word of praise about Empress’s dress. It was completely overshadowed by Bai Yu Yan’s creation.
How could that idiot Bai Yu Yan who was always mocked for her tacky sense for fashion be better than her, Song Mei Lin? The memory of that evening still pricked her heart like a needle to this day.
Unable to accept it, she personally came to Silver Closet to see what exactly Bai Yu Yan was capable of. Upon the entrance, the neat row of human figurines posing in different stylish dresses left her in awe. She felt a deep sense of insecurity seeing how creatively the designs were made and how people were singing praises for Bai Yu Yan. Every piece of garment in the shop stood out from the rest with its unique needlework. But now, seeing how Bai Yu Yan was claiming 150 gold taels to a piece of rag, she nearly couldn’t control her laughter.
As expected from a brainless idiot. It didn’t matter whether she was a good designer or not, with a single blunder, she could ruin her entire reputation in the capital before it even began. Let’s see if the shadow of a customer will be seen in this shop tomorrow. She was unnecessarily getting worried over nothing, Mei Lin thought.
Biting her lip to suppress the glee in her face, Song Mei Lin looked at Bai Yu Yan with her almond-shaped eyes with seriousness and reminded, “Bai Yu Yan, if you want to become a designer, you should respect this profession and do your best to satisfy your customers’ interest instead of taking advantage of their lack of knowledge.”
The customers in the shop were taken aback by its price and looked at the dress they were considering to buy with caution, especially after what Song Mei Lin said. Hundred and fifty gold coins was not a small amount, especially for a single dress.
At first, they had their suspicions and were cautious as everyone in the capital knew Bai Yu Yan had no talents, let alone designing dresses for Consort Shu. They had thought it was just some false rumour started by Bai Yu Yan herself to whitewash her reputation.
However, when they saw the dresses in Silver Closet, they were surprised at their beauty and meticulous design. The dresses were unlike what was commonly found or worn by people. The human-like figurines displayed the same hanfu and other traditional dresses which everyone wore in their everyday life but each had a distinct charm and unique style. It suited the taste of anyone who laid their eyes upon them.
But their admiration was short-lived until Song Mei Lin, the fashion diva of the noble circle, claimed it to be fake.
As the Justice minister’s first daughter, Song Mei Lin didn’t lack people fawning over her but there was something that she gained wider popularity for. Her needle skills. At first, it started as a skill which every girl of a noble house had to learn before marriage where she performed better than other girls. Gradually, her skills began getting wide exposure and were gossipped about in the tea parties and other occasions where her dresses were much stylish and her embroidery refined than the others.
With the rare quality of fabrics she could afford with her riches and her needle skills, over the years, she had become the trendsetter, a person that every socialite aspired to be. So if she said that Bai Yu Yan was selling cheap fabrics at high prices, there was no one to refute her as everyone believed her words to be true. Especially when even the royal tailors came to her for suggestions.
When Bai Yu Yan was about to open her mouth to say something, she realized that people were giving her looks of anger and contempt while some of them were already at the counter to demand a refund for their purchase.
“Give us back our money! We don’t want to buy from you tricksters,” one of the women shouted at Manager Gao who was standing at the counter.
“Does she think she can do anything to us and nobody will say anything against it just because she is Prime Minister Lu’s wife?”
“Thank the heavens that Miss Song came in time to save us from wasting our hard-earned money. Otherwise, we would have been swindled by this woman.”
At the counter, Manager Gao and Xiao Fan were struggling to calm the enraged customers who were demanding compensation. Zhang Song who was packing customer’s purchased clothes in a bag was pushed to the side.
Song Mei Lin turned her head to hide the pleased smile after seeing the effect of her words in those people. Yes, it should be like this! Anybody who dared to steal her place should be crushed, she thought to herself.
After a moment, as if making up her mind, she ran her painted nails through the embroidery on her wide sleeve and said in a soft voice dripping with kindness, “Bai Yu Yan, please don’t misunderstand my intention. I cannot help you with what you have done but how about this, if you really want to learn about fabrics and designing, you can come to me. Although I am extremely busy and don’t have much free time, I’ll spare some time off my busy schedule just for you. I just hope that you can be a good designer and learn to respect this profession.”
Her generosity sounded as if she was thinking of Bai Yu Yan’s sake while saving people from buying fake products. But in reality, she was trying to eliminate the risk of Bai Yu Yan being the designer of the clothes in Silver Closet. She could fool people with her words and identity as the fashionista socialite but she couldn’t refute the fact that the dresses in the shop had designs that she could never think of. If these were really made by Bai Yu Yan then she had all the more reason to take her under her tutelage before these dresses were exposed to more people. So that later, no matter what Bai Yu Yan designed in the future, people would only see it as what she had learnt from Song Mei Lin.