She said as much to Paul Zeller when he took her to lunch the next day to debrief her. She reported on everything they’d done, gave him her impressions, and raved about Ed, about how competent he was, how efficient, how well he handled everything, and how smooth he had made the trip for her.
“I know,” Paul said with a sigh. “I’ve made a couple of factory tours with him. He’s a gem. Unfortunately, I always know the clock is ticking. No matter what I offer him, sooner or later he’ll go back to his family in Hong Kong. It’s inevitable. I can’t compete with them. They’re among the most powerful people in manufacturing in China. He’ll be running that for them one day, if he wants to. I’m just happy to hang on to him as long as I can. Speaking of which…” He turned to a subject he’d mentioned to her before, but now wanted to get started on. “I think it’s time you start putting some thought into your Sydney Smith signature pieces for us. It’s an experiment, but if it works well, it could evolve into your own line one day, down the road.” It was a huge plum to entice her with.
“What kind of clothes do you have in mind?” she asked him, flattered that he wanted to pursue it with her. “Dressier? Casual? Just a little step up from what we do now?”
“Yes, a step up. See what inspires you. I’m giving you carte blanche.” She was thrilled and couldn’t wait to tell Ed. Sydney mentioned it to him that afternoon, and she was surprised to see him frown at the mention of her eventual signature line. She wondered if he was jealous, but she’d seen no evidence of it and he had no reason to be. He was the creative director of Lady Louise, a far more important job than hers.
“I may be crazy or paranoid,” he said cautiously, “but after three years, I know Paul. Sometimes he has a hidden agenda, and he’ll dangle a big carrot because he has another idea behind it. I got that feeling from him this morning, and I can’t tell you why. It’s early for him to be talking to you about your own line with your name on it. You haven’t been here for that long, and he hasn’t tested the market with individual signature pieces yet. I have a strange feeling that he has something up his sleeve.” Ed looked troubled and Sydney didn’t know what to make of it.
“Like what?” She was puzzled by what he’d said. He had said before that Paul was a good guy and a fair boss. Why was he thinking differently now?
“I have absolutely no idea,” Ed admitted, “and I’m probably wrong. I just know that sometimes when he offers a big reward, he has something simmering on the back burner. And I’m pretty sure he was going to wait awhile to give you your own line. I’m not sure why he stepped that up. He didn’t tell me. Sometimes he gets a little too ambitious. Just keep your eyes and ears open and see what happens. He’ll tip his hand sooner or later. He’s not as subtle as he thinks.” She thought it was a somewhat alarming warning, and made a conscious decision to be alert. But she was almost certain that Ed’s odd feelings were unfounded, and she was excited about the prospect of an eventual signature line, and wanted to put some real thought into it for the future. Paul was talking about introducing a few special pieces of hers in the spring, as a surprise for their higher-end buyers.
She put Ed’s concerns out of her mind after that, and concentrated on getting ready for their presentation during Fashion Week. Because they were a lower-priced line, they didn’t do a full fashion show, but only a presentation at a venue they rented, with models wearing the clothes, somewhat like the shows they did where Sophie worked. It was a lot less stressful than the high-end fashion show Sabrina did with forty top supermodels.
Ed had already told her that he would be taking her to all the big shows with him, along with one of their young designers, as he did every season. He mentioned that they’d be going to Sabrina’s show as well. Sydney knew that after the shows, they worked on their knockoffs and developed their next line in record time. The designers at Lady Louise worked under brutal deadlines. It was a given and a reality they had to live with. Sydney wasn’t proud of the knockoffs they did, but she understood the reason for them from how Paul had explained it. And she hoped that they’d be able to modify their copies slightly this season so the similarities weren’t too glaring. It was one of her longer-term goals. Ed liked keeping an eye on that as well, although Paul never minded copying the originals closely. Mimi, the young designer they were taking, was one of Paul’s favorite designers. She was French and she never changed enough elements to satisfy Ed, who frequently argued with Paul about it. He was determined to preserve their integrity, to the degree he could.
Sydney had managed to have dinner with Sophie once before Fashion Week started and she got too swamped to get together. She had talked to Sabrina on the phone several times, but hadn’t been able to see her. The first glimpse she got of her was at her fashion show. Sydney was sitting with Ed, and she was beaming with pride when Sabrina took a bow at the end, after all the models had come out for the last time. It was a spectacular show, one of her best, Sydney thought, and Ed agreed. He had followed her career closely because he admired her work, long before Sydney came to Lady Louise.
As soon as the show ended, Sydney went backstage quickly to give Sabrina a hug, and then they left and saw two more shows that afternoon. Mimi, the designer, didn’t sit with them, but went to all the shows. A week later, Sydney saw why Mimi went on her own. She happened to walk past Mimi’s desk and could examine her drawings closely. She thought the copies were almost identical, and said as much to Ed.
“They’re just too close. They look almost the same as the originals,” Sydney said. “It’s going to make us look bad in the fashion press.” He went to check for himself and came back to Sydney’s desk and agreed. She knew that legally, in most cases, the original designs weren’t protected, but designers who made copies usually tried to change four or five elements. Mimi had only altered one or two, which were barely noticeable because she had modified them so slightly.
“She has a tendency to overdo it,” Ed told Sydney. “She can knock off damn near anything. But she has to simplify them, take off some of the details, and give them a little twist. Thanks for mentioning it to me.” Sydney realized then that Mimi had been assigned to the shows because she copied the collections so exactly. And whenever possible, she circulated at the ordering venues to get a closer look and examine the details of the big designers’ clothes. She was an anonymous face in the crowd, and what she did was exactly what Sabrina objected to about Lady Louise, and why she hated Paul Zeller and her mother’s new job. They weren’t using other designers’ work for “inspiration” as they claimed, they were copying them identically, or more so than they should, and making almost exact copies.
Sydney went back to study Mimi’s work again, and the copies she had made from Sabrina’s collection. Sydney thought they were the most imitative of all, because Sabrina’s work was hot these days.
“I think you need to tone those down a little,” Sydney suggested to her.
“But that’s what Mr. Zeller wants,” the young French designer said firmly.
“Not that close, I’m sure.” She complained to Ed again and he promised to have another look.
—
It wasn’t until Fashion Week was over that Sydney had dinner with both her daughters. Sabrina looked exhausted, but her show had gone well, and the orders from store buyers afterward had been better than ever before. Sophie’s presentation had been a huge success too, with record-breaking orders, and her employers were thrilled.
Sydney got a chance to tell them about her trip to China, and at the end of the meal Sabrina turned to her with an irritated expression.
“So did your slaves knock off everything in my collection?” she asked unhappily, with an accusing look.
“I hope not. I’ve already made comments to them twice. Paul wants us to do some more innovative things in the future. We don’t want to be known just as a knockoff house. The line is actually better than that.”
“You’re the only one who thinks so,” Sabrina said grimly. “I wish you hadn’t taken a
job with them.”
“I didn’t have any other choice,” Sydney said quietly, and then gave them the only good news she had. “I just got a tenant in the apartment in Paris, so that will help.” She’d received another stack of bills from the twins that they wanted her to pay. She had refused, but she didn’t mention that to her daughters. But it added to the stress of her current life. They dunned her constantly with bills they should pay themselves and she couldn’t afford to.
“One of these days, his knockoff factory is going to blow up in Zeller’s face, and yours, if you’re standing too close to him. Be careful, Mom,” Sabrina warned her.
“I am, and the head design consultant keeps an eye on all of it. He’s an honorable guy.”
“If he were, and a serious designer, he wouldn’t be working for Paul Zeller,” Sabrina said coldly.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, I’d love you to meet him sometime. He’s about your age, a little older. And his family was wonderful to me when we went to Hong Kong.” Sabrina didn’t comment, and it was obvious that neither girl wanted to meet him. This was the second time their dinner together had ended on a tense note because of their criticism of her job. They were intransigent about it. And she was convinced that they were wrong. Although knockoffs weren’t admirable, she thought there was merit to bringing great design to people at affordable prices. It was the whole mission of their business, and Paul made it sound like a sacred crusade. But Sabrina and Sophie didn’t buy the noble party line.
—
Two weeks after Fashion Week in New York, Sydney and Ed went to Fashion Week in Paris, to see the collections by French ready-to-wear designers. At Paul’s request, they took Mimi with them, and she never sat with them, just as she didn’t in New York. She saw every show, as they did, and she had gone to Milan and London Fashion Weeks as well, in the weeks before they arrived. Sydney loved the French shows, but she thought Sabrina’s in New York had been just as good.
When they got back to New York, Sydney started working on the rough drawings for her signature pieces, and was very busy. She had wanted to check Mimi’s drawings after Fashion Week in Paris, but she didn’t have time and Ed said he would, just to make sure that nothing was too close or an exact copy. But when Sydney saw the first samples from their line in early November, she knew that something had gone wrong. There was a huge problem she’d missed. She could tell she hadn’t seen all the designs, they’d withheld some from her. She knew she hadn’t seen these. All the major pieces in Sabrina’s collection had been reproduced as exact copies, and in some of the photographs, you couldn’t tell which was which. There was an enormous article in Women’s Wear Daily about it, lambasting Lady Louise and their “unethical design staff” and practices, and they called Paul Zeller the chief parasite of the fashion industry. And there was a mention that Sabrina Morgan’s mother, the former Sydney Smith of long-ago design fame, now worked for Lady Louise. And the writer suggested obliquely that Sabrina might have leaked her designs to her mother, or even sold them to her for Zeller to reproduce. Sydney felt sick when she read it, and an hour later Sabrina called her. She was in tears, and sobbing when her mother answered the phone.
“I hope you’re happy, Mom. I just got fired. They said that what happened is unforgivable and they blamed me for it. They think I sold you my designs for that shit house you work for. I promised them that I didn’t, and they said they can’t take the chance. I got fired on the spot. They had security escort me out of the building.” Sydney’s heart turned over when she heard her.
“Oh my God…I’m so sorry…I warned the designer about it. She’s not supposed to copy anything that closely,” Sydney said, crying herself by then. They all knew the rules about changing enough elements to make them respectable, but Mimi hadn’t followed them, and did exact copies instead.
“She shouldn’t be copying anything at all,” Sabrina said, sobbing, but they both knew it was the nature of the business, and Lady Louise wasn’t the only house that did it. “My career is over, thanks to you,” she accused her mother, and then hung up on her. Sydney was so angry she went to see Ed in a fury. He already knew about the article and the tornado that was happening as a result.
“I’m really sorry, Sydney. I told her they were too close. I think Paul overrode me on this one.”
“Sabrina just got fired,” Sydney said, looking distraught. “They think she sold us the designs. They had security escort her out of the building. I have to quit.” How would she ever make it up to her daughter? She had cost her a wonderful job, and maybe even her career. Sabrina had been right from the beginning. She’d been playing with fire working for Paul Zeller.
“You can’t quit. I just talked to Paul, and they’re pulling all of Sabrina’s designs to make modifications on them. I agree with you, this never should have happened, but we’re not the only ones who do it.” But it still didn’t excuse it, and Sabrina was the one who’d gotten hurt.
“But she’s my daughter and she blames me. She expected me to protect her, and I didn’t.”
“Do you think they’ll take her back, if we tell them we’re modifying them?” He was desperate to help, but it would be hard to undo the damage, and the shadow it had cast on both Sabrina and her mother. “Tell her to get a tough lawyer and negotiate a deal with her employers. If they fire her, they should give her a great severance package without a noncompete. That’s important.”
“I’ll tell her,” Sydney said grimly. “But I can tell you one thing. My relationship with my daughter is a lot more important to me than my job.” And she needed the job desperately. She couldn’t survive on just the Paris rent from her tenant. And she wasn’t likely to get another job, particularly after this. She texted Sabrina what Ed had said immediately. And Ed went to talk to Paul about it.
It was a stressful afternoon, and Paul pointed out to Ed that they were already doing everything they could, by modifying the drawings, and he had even agreed to withdraw one design completely. He admitted to Ed that the copies had been too close, and agreed to promise Sydney it would never happen again. He apologized profusely to Sydney when he called her into his office with Ed. They didn’t want her to quit.
“My daughter will never forgive me for this. I just cost her the best job she ever had, because I work for you.” Sydney was angry at Paul, and at herself for unwittingly being a part of it.
“You can’t quit now,” Paul pleaded with her. “I want to give you a full signature line of your own in the coming year, not just a few pieces, and with profit sharing for you on the line.” He was using everything he could to tempt her, and she knew she couldn’t afford to lose her job. But she felt as though she had sold her soul to the devil. And Sabrina had paid the price. To make it up to Sabrina, she was willing to quit.
Sydney went to see her late that afternoon. Sabrina was sitting in the living room of her Tribeca apartment, crying, and shouted at her mother as soon as she walked in. Sophie had left work and was there to console her too. She had her arms around her sister when Sydney walked in. Sophie was always the peacemaker in their midst.
“I told you to stay away from him, Mom. He’s a lowlife in every sense of the word,” Sabrina said immediately. Her mother tried to hug her, but she wouldn’t let her, understandably. The loss of the job she loved was her mother’s fault, indirectly, because of the shoddy practices where she worked.
“I feel terrible about it, worse than terrible. He pulled all of your designs and is modifying them. And he canceled one of them completely. If we tell your employers that, do you think they’ll give you back your job?” Sydney looked as heartbroken as her daughter. “Did you call a lawyer?” Sabrina nodded that she had.
“He’s working on it. They have no evidence that I showed you my designs or sold them to Zeller, but my boss is a dick. You’re not the only firm that ever copied us. Others do too, but these were exact copies, not just ‘inspirations,’ and the writer of the article jumped on the link with you. It’s all over the Internet. I
think my boss just wanted to blame me,” she said fairly, “but they have no proof because I didn’t do it.”
“I told Paul I’d quit over this,” Sydney said in a subdued voice, crushed for her daughter.
“Can you afford to do that?” Sophie asked her mother, and Sydney hesitated before she answered. She couldn’t, but she was willing to, out of loyalty to her daughter.
“Not really,” Sydney answered honestly, “but I’ll do it in a minute if it will make you feel any better,” she said, and Sabrina smiled and was touched. The fire had gone out of her, but she was deeply upset over losing her job, especially if they blocked her from getting another one, which would be disastrous, and they could.
“I can get another job easier than you can,” Sabrina said hopefully, “and both of us being unemployed doesn’t make much sense. But for God’s sake, Mom, be careful of him. I know you think Paul Zeller walks on water, but he’s unethical, and he’ll use you if he can.”
“I trust Ed Chin, who’s my direct boss. He keeps an eye on him.”
“Well, he didn’t stop him this time.”
The three of them sat and talked for several hours, and Sophie stayed to spend the night with her sister, and Sydney went back to her own apartment. It was as cold and drafty in the fall as it was hot in the summer. But she didn’t care. She poured herself a glass of wine when she got home to calm down, but took only a sip. She had no idea how she would ever make up to Sabrina what had just happened. And what if her daughter couldn’t find another job, if it really did ruin her career? Sydney had lost everything herself, and now she was destroying her children’s lives. It was the darkest night she’d had since Andrew died. And then she remembered the sleeping pills her doctor had given her when she had told him she couldn’t sleep. She hadn’t taken any, and the bottle was still full.
She got the bottle of pills out of her medicine cabinet and sat holding it in her hand. She felt as though she had ruined Sabrina’s career, and her own life wasn’t worth much to her anymore. She was barely scraping by, and doing no one any good. And now she had caused Sabrina untold grief and harm. She had the apartment in Paris to leave them, which was all she owned, but it was something. She suddenly thought she’d be more useful to them dead than alive. It didn’t even occur to her that they would miss her or see it as an abandonment. She thought she’d be doing them a favor if she died, to atone for her mistakes. She had nothing left to live for, and nothing to give them. And her career as a designer for Lady Louise was a joke. They didn’t need her. They could copy every major designer in the world. All she wanted now was out. And if Andrew had really loved her, how could he leave her without providing for her? The strain of the last five months had been too much.
Fall from Grace Page 8
