Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 247 - 242 Dirty Tricks

Yan Yan had only five months from choosing the theme of her debut show to its official launch.

To achieve the top-notch embroidery craftsmanship, it was essential for a master and her direct disciples to collaborate on the work personally.

Firstly, the master was already of advanced age, secondly, she could only stay in Paris for three months.

Ultimately, Yan Yan accepted only fifteen orders for custom pet embroidery designs, and all had to be scaled down to a uniform size of 30*30CM.

For the remaining outfits, Yan Yan used some existing works by a master of Su Embroidery from a few years ago, featuring double-sided embroidery with three distinct variations of butterflies.

The master’s technique for this embroidery was nothing short of miraculous.

The butterfly embroidery was done at a time when the master was still full of vigor.

The double-sided embroidery on the thin nylon, featuring completely different butterflies on each side, clearly distinguished colors, vibrant yet not affecting each other at all, and seamless stitches barely visible.

Besides the embroidery on nylon, there were also single-sided butterfly embroideries on Ling, Luo, silk, satin, and Ge materials.

These butterflies, varying in size and color, were all vividly lifelike.

The "inventory" of butterfly embroideries by the master, which included some larger butterflies, was used by Yan Yan for designs beyond pet patterns for both daywear and eveningwear.

The most used evening dress featured as many as twenty-seven double-sided butterfly embroideries.

These butterflies, arranged and positioned by Yan Yan, presented different combinations from every angle.

Wearing this evening dress was like being surrounded by fluttering colorful butterflies.

The butterflies were alive, and so was the dress.

Apart from butterflies, all the evening gowns were in solid colors.

A mix of Su Embroidery and Western three-dimensional cutting was first used by Yan Yan on a dress she wore to a designer dinner.

However, because of the "monochrome" approach, the embroidery of Italy’s national flower, the Iris, on the dress Yan Yan wore did not attract much attention.

When the Yan II trio decided, blissfully unaware, not to open to the media, they had not anticipated their clothes would be "pre-ordered" out before the haute couture show ended.

It was purely because, after a Russian noble lady stated her "antique evening dress" needed privacy to be showcased and then placed a one-to-one scale order for her beloved Russian Blue Cat and another Peterbald Cat with double-sided embroidery with three distinct variations, the only orders Yan II agreed to.

These two major orders gave Yan II a bit of confidence.

Since it was haute couture, naturally equivalent service had to be provided.

The legendary technique that could bring the embroidery to life could only be delivered by the master and her direct disciples.

The 15 "specially selected designs" took up to three years to deliver.

The top-notch Su Embroidery expertise was a highlight of Yan Yan’s debut show.

But it wasn’t the only one.

Because the embroidery styles customized for the pets of Haute Couture Club members took a long time to produce and couldn’t be shifted from one piece of clothing to another, characteristics like style or color couldn’t be altered on a whim.

Thus, Yan Yan’s first haute couture show, in addition to that one antique evening dress and the Fluttering Butterflies Haute Couture series, featured the remaining fifteen sets of proprietary embroidery designs as only "half-finished" on the runway.

Five sets of daywear and ten sets of evening wear without any embroidered elements.

The garments were ready, but the pets hadn’t been embroidered onto them yet.

If the clothes looked neither stylish nor fashionable, and only the embroideries were attractive, no one would buy them unless each piece was made of shockingly antique material.

The eye of the haute couture clientele had been trained to be extremely critical.

Without real talent, recognition from this rare clientele would be impossible.

The Haute Couture Club members who requested custom "designs" were referred by the Russian noblewoman.

Yet, no one had ever seen the alleged lifelike Russian Blue Cat.

To showcase the "soul" of a pet, it was improbable without having "seen" the Haute Couture Club member’s pet in person, based only on photos and videos, to embroider the pet with a lifelike essence.

For the actual buyers at the show, it meant admiring antique gowns and choosing their favorite custom designs, while for the master and her disciples, it was about observing the nobility’s pets and capturing their essence.

If, after the show, not a single outfit made people want to try it on, making the Haute Couture Club members feel Yan Yan’s designs were unworthy of their pets, then her debut would be a complete failure and a disaster.

A good horse still needs a good saddle to match.

In Yan Yan’s show, the fifteen outfits without embroidery elements all used top-tier satin brocade, matched with the most body-flattering cuts and the purest colors.

The complexity of the Song brocade patterns was removed, leaving only the genuine colors.

The unembroidered daywear and eveningwear from Yan Yan’s debut had an appealing sense of comfort and intimacy just from looking.

The tranquility after a storm, the ease following luxury, a perfect union of comfort and elegance.

Wearing fabric as gentle as a baby’s skin felt like embracing one’s pet during a leisurely afternoon tea.

Yan Yan’s first show met the minimum Haute Couture standard quantity with no extra pieces needed.

After the launch, there was no design left in the showroom that hadn’t been bought out by Haute Couture Club members.

Real buyers who had yet to enter the Haute Couture Club didn’t have the chance to pick clothes while watching the show and found the showroom declaring "Sold Out" once the show ended.

Such an outcome had been anticipated by the Yan II core team two days before the launch began.

Yan Yan had been working tirelessly, and if necessary, she could have added another fifteen designs.

The reason Yan Yan worked so hard was simple—to prepare for the worst.

When there were very few potential customers, a variety of designs gave the rare few who appreciated her designs more options.

Even if few bought, at least the numbers sold could look a bit more respectable.

Yan Yan underestimated the marketing skills of Allegro and the influence the Russian noble lady wielded in the haute couture circles.

When Yan Yan realized the situation was better than she had imagined at its best, she immediately withdrew the second backup plan for the "pet haute couture."

This was a distasteful strategy agreed upon by Yan Yan and Yan Ling.