Marinette Dupain-Cheng. MDC.
Her signature and initials littered the pile of paperwork which had been delivered to her work station that morning by Nathalie. Each clause had been carefully scrutinized until her eyes were dry and red from the force of her intense focus. I can't miss anything…I can't miss anything…I can't mess anything up.
Ever since the meeting with Adrien's father, Marinette's stomach had held a sense of dread. Beneath the various tugs and pulses of her Tether relaying Adrien's emotional state, her stomach formed a black pit of foreboding. The hollowness festered throughout the weekend and this morning. Until now. Until this moment as she placed the paperwork in front of Mr. Agreste mumbling a quick "The paperwork we had discussed, sir" before backing away to stand next to the five mannequins outfitted with her runway collection.
Her eyes could not meet his, but she nevertheless held her chin high. She stared over his shoulder at the wall, keeping her composure. A hum of anxiety emerged from her Tether. He senses that something is wrong too. Gabriel was seated at the left end of the table, Marie in the center, and Adrien at the right. Each had a file and notebooks in front of them, presumably her folio as well as their comments and questions. In her periphery, she could sense Adrien glancing at his father.
Marie, a bit unsure what had just transpired with the paperwork and sensing the odd tension in the air, cleared her throat and verbally nudged Gabriel to proceed. "Shall we begin?"
"Of course." He didn't look up. Leaving the manila folder on the table top, he lazily flicked the top flap open with a single finger. Hand moving back to its resting place, that same finger tapped slowly against the hard surface. What. The. Fuck. Her thoughts emerged in sync with the rhythm of his condescending behavior. Her Tether began coiling violently. This is wrong, her mind screamed. Wrong, wrong, wrong, her Tether chanted. "Ms. Dupain-Cheng I will be frank, we on the panel are concerned that your collection is not ready for fashion week."
Pure silence. Her eyes had left their place on the wall when Gabriel had begun his show of displeasure, and now they glanced between the two other people on the panel for whom Gabriel had spoken. Adrien's brow was furrowed, and his fist was tightened around his pen as he stared down the length of the table at his father. Marie's brow was similarly furrowed as she glanced between the CEO and the notes she had in front of her.
Don't crack, don't stutter, please. "Can uh" she cleared her throat and spoke again "Can you please specify your particular concerns? Perhaps I can explain any questions you have. I uh…I of course also still need to make the next pieces so there is room for change if that is necessary."
"As your collection currently stands, it's simply not…enough…to represent this company at fashion week." Their gazes locked together on that word enough. "Agreste designs are meant to wow on and off the runway. These do not leave a memorable impression. Every first-year design student understands the importance of impactful pieces strategically placed to open and close an event and yet you have failed to do so for such an important event. Your embroidery fails to reach the audience from the stage, and I struggle to understand the point of it all. What is the theme? How does it tie together? Why does any of this matter? You've written in here that 'love' is the theme and obviously florals are used throughout, but there are too many thoughts strewn everywhere. I simply fail to see why this project would be worth putting my name on." Their eyes never drifted apart. His, steely and cold. Hers, shining with a touch of tears as confusion and anger roared to life.
A throat cleared. "Speaking as another member of this panel," an angry look was pointed in Gabriel's direction before Marie focused on Marinette, "the lack of an anchor piece and the over-subtlety of your theme were issues that were discussed. However, I am interested in hearing your steps to address these concerns. Of your proposed designs," she looked down and shuffled the papers to peer at a few of the sketches, "I can see a few that have promise to fill the role of anchor. What were your plans?"
"Hmhm." She cleared her throat of tears as she maintained her demeanor. "I would use Forget-Me-Not, the blue and yellow dress, as an anchor piece. The elaborate train and brightness of the colors are impossible to look away from."
"And why did you not include that piece in this show?"
"With the pieces that I had created at this point, I had a choice between preserving balance and preserving the energy flow of the pieces. I uh, I actually have Forget-Me-Not completed back at the studio. But many of the pieces I have yet to put together are my more colorful ones. The current selection had more white and black elements to play with and I chose to preserve that color balance at the expense of the showstopping moment."
"Hmm, your symmetry was something we had noted upon as a positive." Marie put forward with an encouraging smile.
"What about the issue of your overabundance of ideas which are drowning your artistic voice?" Anger re-gripped Marinette's stomach as she returned her focus to Gabriel. "How will you fix that in time for fashion week in just over a month's time?" The anger was not solely hers.
"Many of my pieces are related to each other. As Marie had pointed out, I was focusing on symmetry. For instance," she walked between the mannequins, wiping her sweaty palms against her thighs as she moved before continuing "Gardenia and Bittersweet are mirrors of each other. One in all black with silver embroidery to show secret love—it is hidden in the darkness and devoid of color, while the other is all white with red embroidery to represent truth—the truth brings us into the light and everything can be seen, and sometimes that hurts us, a secondary meaning of the choice to use red. And these two pieces also share similarities with other pieces I have made or have planned."
"That is a very nice explanation, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, but that is still entirely overlooked while on the runway. These pieces need to leave a clear impression on the runway, and they simply do not."
"I would disagree that they do not leave an impression on the runway, father" Adrien's voice rang out. "We all agreed that the use of the reveals for both the Gardenia and Carnation suits were successful at pulling an audience in and making them look closer."
"Be that as it may, I have serious concerns about this collection finding its identity before this city is flooded with all of my peers and competitors from around the globe."
"Okay, that's enough" Marie cut in. "I'm not sure what the hell is happening" she gestured vaguely between Gabriel and Marinette "here, but I know what I see here" she continued, circling her manicured hand above her papers now. "Marinette's collection shows as much promise as several of the other junior designers we plan to greenlight for fashion week. Given the sketches we have here and the wonderful craftsmanship, there is no valid reason to deny her that as well. There is also no valid reason to continue this…whatever this is. Marinette" her wide eyes snagged on Marie's serious facial expression. "Come with me." And then she stood and left, heading through the double doors, and leaving Marinette to glance at Adrien before following behind her. Her Tether roiled, but her own stomach felt only relief as she was released from the room.
Outside in the hall, Marie gently rested her hand against Marinette's shoulder and guided her to the windowed side of the corridor. "I want to apologize for what just happened there. That was completely unprofessional and not how any other the other junior designers were treated when we saw the rest of them today. I want you to go back to the studio. Start working on the rest of the collection. Think about what you can do to bring everything together in a way that the audience can understand. I would like to meet with you one-on-one later this week so that I can provide more guidance which you were unfortunately deprived of today. Okay?"
"Um, thank you, ma'am. Does this mean I'm still going to have a slot at fashion week?"
"Honestly, I have no clue what is going through Gabriel's head right now, and he makes the final approvals. But I haven't survived in this position as long as I have by not knowing how to make my opinions heard. So…we'll talk more later this week."
"Okay. Um, thank you again, I'll reach out to your assistant to see when we can meet."
"Bon chance." Then she strode back into the lion's den where the two men had been left to their own devices, her heels clicking powerfully against the tiles. And Marinette wandered down the hall, finding her way back to her own studio as her mind spun with anxiety and her Tether swirled with rage.