Dear Diary,
A rather too exciting dress fitting; though Jack did quote Shakespeare, again.
I love Haute Couture, but this case reminded me that not all women can afford such luxuries. Poor Dot, a suit, 'you can be married or buried in a well cut suit', Mme Fleuri said, and she is quite right, but I don't really want that to be Dot. She's such a lovely girl, so pretty and deserves a little more, the suit did make her look a little – dare I say it - matronly.
Ooh, when Jack drops his voice it is so ... utterly gorgeous!
Anyway, the house model turned out to be a cat burglar who was sending her loot to her fence in France sewn into dresses the younger Fleuri sister, Renee, was selling to a store that understood her ideas of prêt-a-porter (Renee didn't know, by the way). She murdered poor Mrs Wilde because she thought she was about to expose her, but in reality all she was going to tell her was that she knew she was carrying on with her much younger husband – she wasn't. Then she murdered Violet, the seamstress.
If Simone, the elder sister, had bent just a little, Renee wouldn't have had to seek out a way to realise her ideas – even her designs were thrown aside, apart from one. After we had dealt with Genevieve, who had appealed to Simone's vaulted opinions of fashion, I intervened and told them I had been known to shop in department stores and of course wear well cut trousers – which she doesn't make. I hope she doesn't ban me from the salon for buying prêt-a-porter.
I persuaded her to let Renee have her own ready to wear collection for the less financially well off and we held a fashion show. Dot wore the sweetest evening dress from that collection – I insisted she have it. My dress, according to Jack, was lethal and he declined my invitation for a nightcap. I had hoped he would help me out of the garment, it had a lot of complicated fastenings! Ah well, perhaps some other time.
PS: must do something about the train on this dress, it's a bit much.