Episode three, The Dressmaker's Assistance. The next morning, I arrived at the
shop to find the most beautiful dress laying out on my work table, the
gold damask silk glowing in the sunlight. I couldn't believe my eyes. I
recognized the design as one of my sketches, and the fabric had been sitting
on my shelf for weeks, waiting for a client. But there had been
no orders, no clients, and the work who had done the work,
even with all of my girls working on it at once. A dress like
that would have taken a full week to finish, and that's on the opp
do mystics died, the drapery, the beating, all of that was meticulous
and time consuming, but there it was before me, complete and perfect in
only one night. I'd been making dresses all my life, and I could
not have done a better job. My guess was that one of the girls
had crafted the gown, working on it in secret for weeks, waiting to
reveal the finished garment. I'd had to lay them all off those that were
left, as there was nothing for them to do. Clearly, someone had
been quite busy during that time while I waited for whom, ever, it
was to arrive and claim responsibility. I put the dress on one of the
mannikins and placed it in the window. No one ever did come forward,
but that afternoon a woman walked in and wanted the gown on the spot.
I considered refuse us, as I didn't know who had actually made it,
but I realized the gown had been left for me. It was mine to
do with as I wanted, and selling it was my best option. I
had to do some minor fitting adjustments, but in only a few hours I
was able to send my customer on her way with the dress. She paid
me handsomely. It was only later, when I was searching for signs that
someone had snuck into the store to leave the dress, that I realized one
of my dress dummies was changed. I had six of them, you see,
all purchased in Paris the year before to fit the newest silhouette. The
bodies were all the same paper mache and wire cages with arms that could be
attached, But now one of them had hands and fingers. It was so
slight a thing, it's no wonder I didn't notice right away. Once I
realized, well, it was quite confusing. I knew it hadn't been like
that when I purchased it. However, it hardly seemed like the most pressing
discovery of the day. When it came time to close and go home,
I still hadn't found any answers. The next morning I arrived to find another
dress, different from the first, a blue sapphire weighted silk with chiffon overlay,
but still my design. Again, I put it in the window,
and again someone came in promptly to purchase it. I even had two women
come in to ask about the dress and order the design in other colors.
I searched high and low, but aside from the fact that my materials had
been used, nothing in the shop was a miss or out of place except
the dress forms. Now two of them had hands