Floriography: Red Roses
Chapter 8
After that Violetta went straight to Trace.
“Tracy, the event will be fully presented in Japanese, so you just have to remember who the model was before you. Then you wait for the MC to say something after the model before you get out, after the MC finishes talking, you can get out, walk slowly, slower than the tempo of the song. After you catwalk, get back on stage, pose for a while, and the MC's gonna talk. The models will bow before going off stage, so you just follow their signals, and get off the stage. You can immediately remove this dress, and go back to doing your job.” Violetta took a deep breath.
“I will apologize at length after this, because at the press later your presence will likely be a hot topic I am sure, and—“
Tracy patted Violetta's cheeks and she let her palms there, feeling how cold her best friend's face was.
“That problem we will talk about later, you focus on your show, let's just say I'm one of your models.” Tracy said slowly.
Violetta let out a breath.
“I'm fine, don't treat me like a stranger.” Tracy added.
Violetta nodded. “Yes, I know Thank you very much, Trace. Good luck.”
Tracy let go of her hand that was resting on Violetta's cheek. He smiles.
“Good luck.”
Tracy waits for Violetta to leave and rearrange herself. He looked down. Heels silver zebra motifs he wears are very high, and many models have fallen on the runway. Tracy took a breath.
“No, no, you won't fall, you won't be anything.”
Tracy whispers to herself. He looked at himself in the glass. He nodded at his reflection on the glass.
“I'm sorry Grace, but I'll be you for this hour.” Trace's whisper in her own shadow on the glass. He looked into his own eyes deeply, and slowly, the gaze of those eyes changed.
“You can do it, Grace.”
Whisper Trace on himself.
The disco music with Japanese lyrics sounds sloppy outside. Trace stood gracefully in the very back row. All the models slowly walked out, after Candice tidied up their clothes and hair once more before entering from backstage.
Trace regulated her breathing, which was now pitched softly and quietly. His eyes focused and stared at the curtain-covered backstage door and from that gap Trace could see the bright light of the floodlights outside. The MCs introduced each work presented to the outside and arrived the last model turn before Trace.
Candice stood facing Trace and smiled.
“You look beautiful.” Whisper her while tidying Trace's dress. Trace smiled.
“Thanks, Candice.”
“Alright, last model, Naka Ocean Tears dress, please enter the stage.” Said one of the translators there. Trace raised her chin, and pulled her back to stand up straight. He took a slow step towards the studio, opened the stage curtain, and walked in.
The audience was present quite a lot. The Nishijin fashion theater is not large, but the guests present are able to fill the entire room and the available seats. Some even stood behind the last row of seats. Trace enjoyed his time, making sure every step he took formed a stable straight line. Trace took control of every side of her body, from the blink of her eyes, the way her lips smiled, the way her neck looked and met with her shoulders which she lifted occasionally to flaunt her protruding collarbone line.
Trace could feel every glance and sigh of admiration. Some whispered to each other and pointed at the dress she was wearing. Trace turned around and she fluttered the tail of the dress with her feet before walking back towards the stage. When she got on stage, she spun around quickly and let the tail of her dress wrap around her legs, then she raised both her hands to the sides of her body and let her fingers clench one by one
one, while waiting for the other models to gather by his side. After everything arrived and posed beautifully, they bowed small. Tracy crossed her legs, placed her right palm on her chest to cover the small slit of the dress on her chest before taking a brief look, then turned around and went back into the backstage.
“Your aura is amazing, Manson, thank you. Your appearance was very beautiful.” Candice Whisper.
In that instant Tracy took a deep breath, like she had just held her breath in water and finally came out and found fresh air. He let out his breath hard and hugged Candice.
“Thanks, Candice.”
The girl immediately helped Tracy take off her dress and after that, Tracy slipped back into her chair and quickly opened her notebook. He wrote down everything he needed to write, before he put his focus back on Violetta speaking on stage.
“Then what made you decide to make a kimono as a variation of your new collection?” Ask the MC.
“Hm. Moments ago our work was published by a famous drama and model, Kanae “Karin” Sasaki. As the public knows, her wedding dress yesterday was designed by us, Naka team. Karin himself had given a specific request, he wanted a luxurious wedding dress, but it looks like a kimono. Maybe when Karin said that, my eyes seemed to shine like they were laser-grabbing.”
Everyone present let out a small laugh answering a joke from Violetta.
“The request was like pouring a myriad of inspirations into my head. Right after our meeting with Karin that day, I went home and continued to draw until about thirty-six hours. I produced no less than fifty works, and the fifteen that we showed today were the best works that were the result of my work that night that have been revised into the version that we think is the most beautiful.”
Applause filled the room, and Tracy lowered her pen for a moment to clap. Pride filled Tracy's heart.
“Oh yes, speaking of such works, I think not only I realized that the last model is not a Japanese model like the others. Is there a specific reason behind the selection of the model?”
Tracy's smile suddenly thinned, and she saw Violetta glancing at him.
“We get a little trouble backstage. You could say this is my personal mistake that forgot to consider the posture of Asian people in general. When making the design of the shirt, the image of one person is not willing to leave my head and the posture of the person is quite specific, tall and slim. I constantly imagine that person wearing the dress that I made, and that person is none other than my own good friend, Tracy Manson, I hope you will stand up and show your pretty face.” Violetta turned her head towards Tracy, and inevitably Tracy stood up and bowed towards the audience who immediately gave her a round of applause. He sat back.
“Tracy Manson? I feel like I've heard that name somewhere.” Called MC. Violetta glanced back at Tracy, as if apologizing.
“Yes, this friend of mine is the twin sister of model and star Gracy Manson, but for more, questions will be answered at the conference after this.”
“No problem, we return to the works of Naka—“
Tracy let out a small sigh, and began to re-write weakly in her notebook.
His head was stringing up hundreds of questions that would probably be asked at a press conference this afternoon.
The question will probably start with:
Why did Naka choose Tracy Manson to present this work instead of Gracy Manson who was (obviously) a professional model?
And then Violetta would answer while defending her:
Because the person I want is Tracy Manson and not Gracy Manson.
Tracy sighed and shook her head. He can't allow himself and anyone to demean Gracy. All the things that happened were not because of Gracy, but because of Tracy herself.
He looked back at the stage, where Violetta sat across from the MC, and took notes again.
