Poppy laughs. ‘Sera hates attention. She’ll do her best to hide.’
Tia cocks her head towards the hall. ‘They’re coming down now. Finish your sarnie, rinse your hands, and we’re on!’
A moment later she tugs me through to the Seraphina East room and we wait by a rail of dresses already separated from the main collections. As Jess shows the visitors to the chaise lounge, you only have to look at their trousers to know these three are creatives. No one round here considers cropped barrel legs or six-inch flat platform sandals for everyday wear, and the leather jackets they slide across their oversized bags are the kind that cost thousands.
Jess is smiling, but her voice has an edge to it as she introduces us. ‘Arlo, Asia, and Ariella have looked through Sera’s designs and now they’d like to see some on.’ She waves her arms towards us. ‘Tia and Maeve are the size and height you requested, and Poppy will help them into the dresses you’ve chosen so you can see how they move.’
While the stylists sip from their drink containers and settle back against the velvet cushions and Sera and Lily line up more dresses from the studio on another hanging rail, we go into the large fitting room where Tia and I slip out of our clothes. Moments later we’re striding down the room wearing the first of their selections.
Ariella frowns. ‘Next time lose the underwear and can we add a heel, please?’
Poppy holds up our usual block-heeled sandals, Asia nods, and we head back to the fitting room. Our bras and pants hit the floor, we pull on our shoes and the next dresses, and once we get into a rhythm with one of us walking while the other one changes, the next hour is a lot like one of our reels where onedress crosses the screen then gives way to another.
As a lot of Sera’s dresses work with silk slips and separates with different layers and tops added, there are a lot of combinations to work through as well as three levels of price range and complexity. By the end, Friday morning’s customer from hell feels easy by comparison.
Sera, Poppy and Lily are working as hard as Tia and me, hanging up outfits as we shed them, and buttoning and sliding us into new ones. Eventually we come to the last of the ones on the rail and hold our breath to see if that’s everything.
Jess turns and looks at the stylists. ‘So those are the ones you selected. Where would you like to go next?’
Asia jumps to her feet. ‘Thank you for your help, Tia. Maeve is closer to the body shape of the client we’re actually styling for.’
I can’t help frowning. ‘This is for a real person not a magazine?’
Ariella nods. ‘Our client is a bride who has hired us to put together a variety of suitable outfits to choose from.’ She looks at me. ‘So if you don’t mind carrying on, Maeve, we’ll take our favourites and mix it up a little.’
I beam at her. ‘Tia and I do this all the time. It’s amazing the difference a sleeve makes.’
Ariella smiles. ‘It’s a little bit more complex than that for us. We’re here because Sera’s dresses are amazing, but Arlo is the king of spectacular combinations, and our client has given him a free hand to create a dress that’s completely unique for her.’
Asia nods. ‘A multi-faceted wedding gown.’
I shoot Jess a look, then turn to Sera. ‘Are you okay with that?’
Arlo jumps up. ‘We’ve already agreed. Sera will give us her approval before we take anything back to our client.’ He grins at me. ‘So if you’re ready to begin the fun part, let’s start with Lavinia’—the dress he holds out has a full tulle skirt covered in seed pearls and sequins, and it’s impressive that he’s remembered the name—‘then I’ll bring you some additions.’
What comes next to go on top of the full tulle skirt is a tight satin mini dress that stops at my thigh and makes the tulle literally explode beneath it. Then he adds a couple of sheer tops then yards of tulle from a bale, twisted around my torso and my shoulders, and another tulle skirt for a veil.
Arlo tweaks and twists and prods things into place, then stands back to look at what’s taken him the best part of an hour. ‘We couldn’t do this with just any dresses, it’s only because Sera’s are light as fairy wings that it works.’ He looks at me again. ‘How does that feel?’
I wrinkle my nose; the last time I felt like this was when Mum ripped up her tan bedroom curtains and I went to the infant school Christmas party padded as a turkey, but I can’t say that. I give a little twirl; the skirt whooshes out and the sequins catch the light from the chandelier, and I reassess.
‘I feel sparkly and super special. Like a beautiful bride to the power of ten.’
Tia gives me a double thumbs up from where she’s watching by the long mirror.
Asia stops taking notes on her iPad and holds it up to photograph me. ‘Walk, turn, back again, thank you, Maeve.’
Ariella claps her hands. ‘Great! That’s one in the bag! What’s next, Arlo?’
Tia breathes into my ear as she meets me back in the fitting room. ‘Ginger shots? An early lunch?’
But Arlo’s already seizing his next hanger.
If you’d given me a thousand years, I’d never have put a mermaid-shaped all-over lace dress, with a full skirt flaring out from mid-thigh, then added a short sculptural satin work-in-progress dress from the studio rails with horizontal folds that skimmed the sweetheart neckline of the lace below… and then added a full-length satin cape. But I have to give it to Arlo: he did it and it looked sensational– obviously in a maximalist way rather than a minimalist one, but you get the picture.
There must be something powerful in their antioxidants, because we storm straight through another two equally eye-opening creations featuring silver-mesh vests, and then Arlo skips to a different rail and spins to face me.
‘Okay! Change of direction. So far we’ve been layering up. Next we’re going to be stripping down.’
