Salaam Paris

by Kavita Daswani

  I took a seat and looked up at him expectantly.

  “I get this reaction often,” he said. “The name of my company sounds very impressive. Then people come here and see it is one person in an office. I have just started this business,” he explained.

  “And do you really have offices in New York and Beijing?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he replied. “I have a cousin in each city, and they do the same thing there. OK, they have their offices in their bedrooms,” he said with a laugh. “But look,” he said, leaping out from behind his desk and reaching for a thick photo album that sat on a shelf above his head. He leafed through its pages, stopping at one and turning the book around to show me: It was a faraway shot of a dimly lit stage, atop which were a string of thin girls in brightly colored evening gowns.

  “This was a fashion show in China, and we found all the models in Europe,” he said. “They wanted foreign girls, and we could provide them. And see, here,” he said, opening the book to another page, containing a large black-and-white photo of a beautiful girl lying in a field. “That’s Nadia. I spotted her, like I did with you. She was on the Metro. A student, so very pretty. Now she is doing some shows in Milan. Small ones, but she’s happy, and we are earning a little commission also.”

  He shut the book, satisfied that he had vindicated himself. “I never asked you your name,” he said, offering me a cigarette.

  “Tanaya. It’s Urdu. I’m Muslim,” I replied, feeling the need to immediately identify myself.

  “Bravo!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “I don’t know of a single other Muslim model working in Paris, or in fact in all of Europe. You know, Muslims are hot right now.” He grinned.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean in movies, and music, and books-everything to do with Islam seems very popular, like people everywhere are craving an understanding of such a mysterious religion. I think when people find out that you are Muslim, they will love it. It will be in all the news. And that will make your job as a new fashion model so much easier.” He nodded sagely, as if his work was done.

  He opened a drawer and pulled out two pieces of paper, stapled together at one corner.

  “This is a standard contract,” he said. “It’s exactly what all the top agencies in Paris use. Only, because we are not so established, our commission is less. You pay me only ten percent of any modeling job you have, starting from the time you sign. Believe me, it is a good deal. Other agencies charge more than double that.”

  I looked over the contract, which was bilingual, and realized I didn’t even understand the English part of it. It was something that my grandfather would have been able to help me with, or Shazia. But seeing as neither one of them was around, I settled on the next best option and told Dimitri that I would take the contract home.

  The girls weren’t that much help. While Karla said that the terms of the contract were standard and that I would be protected, Juliette sniffed at the mention of a modeling agent she had never heard of before, and Teresa thought that I should leap at the opportunity.

  “If you give me a few days, I’m sure I can find you a contact at one of the bigger and better modeling agencies in Paris,” Juliette advised. “I work in fashion,” she said of her receptionist job. “I know those people.”

  She may have been right, but I felt a queer loyalty to the bald little Greek man who had followed me down the street one day and offered me the chance of a lifetime.

  “This man is willing to take a chance on me,” I said to Juliette. “Maybe his office is small and nobody knows him, but he seemed kind. I think I will go ahead and do it.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  From the day that I signed and returned the contract to an ecstatic Dimitri, who proudly labeled me “number five” in his small coterie of models, I waited for something to happen. I wasn’t quite sure what, exactly: Dimitri had been vague about what to expect next, saying only that he would call me if there was a casting I would be suitable for. He had, in the meantime, arranged to have some photos taken of me. Juliette had said that these things normally happen in a studio, where I would be surrounded by hair and makeup artists, bright lights, and a team of people headed up by a fast-talking photographer. I was instead asked to stand in a corner at Dimitri’s office while a young Slovakian man who spoke no English clicked away with exactly the same Konica camera that my grandfather had had for twenty years. I brushed my own hair, applied some lipstick, and Dimitri told me to pout into the camera, goldfish-style.

  “Headshot only,” he said, to no one in particular. “You cannot be photographed from the neck down until you have something more stylish on. Your ensembles are beguiling, but nobody will understand them.”

  He took the roll of film from the young photographer, plopped it into his pocket, and said: “Now, we wait.”

  So I went on as if nothing had changed, working in the café, cooking for the girls, behaving as if my family hadn’t disowned me and as if I had never worn pink hot pants under a steaming hot spotlight.

  When Dimitri did finally call me, I could tell that he was forcing himself to sound enthusiastic.

  “You will love this,” he said. “And the clients-very important fashion company-they will love you. I am sure of it. They have already booked you based on your headshot alone, for their new campaign. Are you available at three this afternoon?”

  When I asked Mathias if I could go, he hugged me.

  “I knew you would get your big break!” he said. “Who is it? Dior? Chanel? This is going to be wonderful, so exciting. I hear these shoots are amazing-champagne to relax you, a gorgeous spread if you are hungry, fun music to set the mood. You will be draped in chiffon and silk. You will feel like a star. I wonder who will be shooting you today… maybe Mario Testino? I heard he was in town. Oh, that would be something!”

  I looked at him puzzled, his blue eyes shining with laughter.

  “Off you go,” he said. “Enjoy.”

  Dimitri asked me to meet him at the Metro station closest to him. We jumped on the next train, and as we rumbled through the underground tunnels of Paris, it was too noisy to talk. He took me by the hand when we arrived at our destination, led me up a flight of dank stairs, past a man playing the viola, and back up into daylight. I had no idea where we were, having never been to this part of Paris before. We turned a corner into a narrow side street and up another flight of stairs into a short building. Along the way I noticed dozens of people pushing along racks of clothing-sequined gowns and lace pants and checked suits-all covered in filmy cellophane and hung from steel poles. I guessed that this was what Juliette meant when she referred to “the world of fashion.”

  In a second-floor office, we were greeted by a sullen receptionist who looked me over a couple of times and then pointed to the back with her thumb. Dimitri accompanied me to a room, empty but for a changing screen, a full-length mirror, and a couple of freestanding lights. A heavyset woman with red hair, round glasses, and protruding teeth walked in, shook hands with Dimitri, and looked me over as the receptionist had done. Draped over her arm were several hangers of clothes, and she flung them at me and told me to get behind the screen and put the first one on. I looked over at Dimitri, who nodded.

  Behind the screen, there was nowhere to hang anything, so I let the entire lot fall onto the floor. I picked up a brown suit that, when I put it on, seemed to fit well, although it scratched me around the collar and under the arms. I stepped out from behind the screen, and the red-haired woman nodded approvingly, giving me half a smile. From a bag she was carrying, she pulled out a pair of sheer black knee-high stockings and flat black shoes and told me to put them on. She asked me if I had brought a hairbrush or any makeup, and I shook my head. The scowl returned, and then she turned around and yelled out something to someone in another room. A petite girl came scurrying in, holding a comb in one hand and a small makeup kit in another, and in under five minutes gave me a ponytail, false lashes, and bright red lip
s. I didn’t know much about fashion, but I did know that I didn’t look very good, but Dimitri only smiled and repeated, “Jolie, jolie,” as if in so doing I would, indeed, suddenly become pretty again. The red-haired woman nodded, shoved the other girl out of the way and, from yet another bag, pulled out a camera. Moving back a few feet, she asked me to pose in different ways-arms folded in front, one hand on waist, too much smile, too little smile-and made me repeat it all until, eleven outfits and two hours later, we were done.

  “Where’s Mario Testino?” I asked Dimitri, as I peeled off the stockings for the last time. “Mathias said maybe he would be photographing me today?”

  Dimitri and the redhead looked at each other and laughed.

  “Who you think you are?” the woman said, speaking English for the first time. “’eidi Klum? You think I could get ’eidi Klum for one hundred euros? Bah!” She laughed again, now lighting up a cigarette. With her free hand, she gave Dimitri an envelope, through which I could see several currency notes. He shoved it into his pocket, helped me gather the crumpled heap of clothes on the floor, shook the redhead’s hand again, and escorted me out. She completely ignored me, with not so much as a “merci.”

  On the landing outside, Dimitri took out ten euros from the envelope, put it into his wallet, and handed me the rest.

  “It is not much, but it is a good start for your new career,” he said. “Maybe next time, I can get you more. But you will be able to see these pictures, and to tell your friends. They are for this company’s catalog on its Web site. It will reach many people, and then we will see what other good jobs will come our way.”

  “That’s it?!” Juliette exclaimed when I got home and told her about my afternoon. “So much time and fuss for a hundred euros? I told you not to go with this guy. I told you to hold out for something better.”

  “I am new to this,” I said sheepishly. “It is fine as a place to begin.”

  “Well I can assure you that when Naomi Campbell was first starting out, she didn’t have to subject herself to such humiliation. Pictures on a Web site for some line of clothing in Sentier that nobody has ever heard of? What was Dimitri thinking? This is your reputation! These are things you can never take back! When you become famous, it will haunt you!”

  “Everyone has to start somewhere,” I said.

  When Dimitri called the next morning to tell me about another job he had lined up for me, Juliette answered the phone.

  “Tanaya is doing no such thing,” she said, resolutely. “I am in the fashion business, and I will not permit her to degrade herself this way. She is too beautiful and unique to end up in the awful ads you are finding for her. If you don’t get her something good soon, I will insist that she terminate her contract with you and find a more superior agency.” With that, I heard Juliette slamming the phone down, and I quietly said farewell to my newfound modeling career.

  Dimitri didn’t call for a week after that, and I suspected I would never hear from him again. But then he came by the café, just as I was ringing up a takeaway purchase of an Artois and a goat-cheese salad. I felt embarrassed to see him, a little ashamed of the way Juliette had spoken to him. He was a boss to me, although Juliette wasted no time in telling me that it was, actually, he who worked for me.

  “One day,” he said, approaching my little corner of the café, “you will not have to rely on this job anymore. One day, I promise you, you will have enough to buy this place if you wanted.”

  “It’s OK, Dimitri,” I said quietly. “You don’t have to make all these promises to me. Unlike you, I don’t expect miracles. I am trying to be happy as I am.”

  “Well,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Things are about to change, so prepare yourself.”

  If Allah was still a witness to my life, I would say that what happened next was a blessing from him. But given that-if I believed my nana-our Almighty was no longer a part of my existence, I had no choice but to concede that what then transpired was mere coincidence, nothing more than me being in the right place at the right time.

  Viva, the clothing line that I had modeled for on my first assignment with Dimitri, was apparently up for sale. Dimitri became more and more excited as he began to tell me the news: that although Viva looked like some slipshod operation, it actually sold millions of dollars’ worth of clothes every year, that it was in all the stores and appealed to ordinary women and was a huge moneymaker. That the red-haired woman with the protruding teeth was actually considered one of the smartest people in the business, pinching pennies wherever she could and selling a fortune in clothes.

  A fashion tycoon who was interested in acquiring Viva had gone onto its Web site. And there, just days after I had those photographs taken, were pictures of me, smiling nervously into the camera, wearing those sheer knee-high stockings and flat black shoes.

  “It seems that he really liked what he saw,” Dimitri said. “He thought that the quality of the pictures was awful, and the clothes selected could have been better. But he liked the look of you,” Dimitri said quietly, rummaging through his breast pocket for his cigarette case. “If they go ahead and buy Viva, they want to make it a very multicultural label, and he thinks you represent that look well. He called me earlier today. He wants to meet with you tonight.”

  Karla loaned me a red dress with a V-neck and a ruffle at the hem, Juliette styled my hair into a loose knot, and Teresa strapped some high-heeled shoes onto my feet. Then the three of them came in a taxi with me to the Hôtel Costes, which they had told me was the trendiest hotel in Paris.

  “I can’t believe you are meeting with one of the key people from Groupe Montaigne,” Juliette said knowledge-ably. “They own everything. You know that brand Gilles Montaigne? Well, that was their first. And then came the beauty brand Lulu Cosmetiques and the shoe line Casanova, and a chain of spas around Europe… it is endless. I am surprised they want to buy Viva, but perhaps I shouldn’t be. After all, if it is a moneymaker…” Her voice trailed off as I stopped listening. None of this meant anything to me, and I found it very hard to get excited about something I had no connection with. It was a bunch of names, as foreign-sounding now as they might have been when I first got to Paris. But Juliette had given me her approval and agreed that I could grant Dimitri a second chance.

  My roommates waved good-bye to me as I stepped out of the taxi and into the hotel, which I found strangely dark for a place where people went if they wanted to be seen. Dimitri said he would meet me at seven, along with the man who could potentially be my new boss.

  Fifteen minutes after the appointed hour, I was still waiting.

  I took a table in a corner and asked for a glass of orange juice, as everyone else around me sipped pink liquids and ice-filled golden nectars from V-shaped glasses. Compared to them, dressed in their own clothes, conversing animatedly with one another, perfectly at ease in this world, I felt something of an imposter. I glanced around the room nervously, wishing I had brought something to read, then realized that I would also have required a miniature flashlight had I done so.

  Opposite me, I noticed that I was being stared at. A beautiful Asian woman, dressed in black, was drinking champagne, smiling my way. I genially smiled back before reaching for a plate of stuffed olives in front of me.

  Twenty-five minutes later, I was still waiting and had decided that I would give them five more minutes and then leave. The Asian woman slowly got up from the couch, straightened her long black dress, and glided over to me.

  “Bonsoir,” she said, extending her hand. “Je m’appelle Claudine. Et vous êtes?”

  “Sorry, not so good at French,” I said, swallowing a piece of pimento.

  “Oh, not a local, then?” she asked in perfect, untainted English. “In that case, my name is Claire. Claudine just sounds better in these parts when you’re dealing with these people. May I sit?”

  She slid into the chair next to me and placed her beaded handbag onto the table. In the candlelit darkness of the room, her skin looked incandesc
ent.

  “I saw you sitting here on your own and thought I should come over and say hello. Are you alone?” she asked, bending her head close to mine. I had once seen a show on television in India about women like this, women who preferred other women. Faced with it now, I was terrified.

  “I’m actually waiting for someone,” I replied. “Two men,” I felt compelled to add.

  A smile appeared on Claire’s face.

  “Good. That’s just what I thought,” she said. “Perhaps we can team up?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I am waiting to meet with two men, for my work.”

  She smiled once more, and lifted her hand so it rested on my shoulder.

  “I manage a small group,” she said. “Very beautiful, cultured women only. And our clients are in the most upper classes-wealthy, powerful, highly accomplished. They need to be seen with only the very best women. I’m going with two of them to Monte Carlo next week, to attend a party being hosted by one of the richest men in Italy. There is room on his jet for one more. I’d love it if you could join us.”

  I stared at her blankly.

  Claire sat back in her chair, the smile suddenly leaving her face.

  “You really don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? My, how long have you been in Paris? What do you do here?”

  I then spotted Dimitri and his client walking toward us. As she stood up to leave, Claire smiled in the direction of the fashion executive I was about to meet, who leaned over and kissed her on both cheeks, calling her by her French name.

  “You know each other?” he asked, looking straight at me.

  “We just met,” Claire said. “I saw her sitting alone and came over to say hello. Lovely girl. I hope you do good things with her.”

  “We plan to,” Dimitri said, ending the interlude. “And I must inform you,” he said, a frisson of coldness entering his eyes, “that mademoiselle here is not one for you.”