Page 39 of The Vintage Dress Shop in Primrose Hill
Sophy was quite pleased to keep out of Phoebe’s way. The shop was always quiet first thing in the morning and so, as she and Chloe desultorily straightened dresses, they talked about theNight And Dayexhibition, which Chloe had visited on her day off.
‘I’m still having visions of that white crêpe gown with the rhinestones and the cowl neckline,’ Chloe said dreamily. ‘I’m not being big-headed when I say I have the collarbones for a cowl neckline. What was your favourite dress?’
Sophy could hardly remember what any of the dresses looked like. Her memories of the exhibition had been completely obliterated by the touch of Charles’s long fingers touching her face, brushing against her mouth. The amused but tender way that he’d looked at her—
‘Soph! What was your favourite dress?’ Chloe asked again as Sophy came to with a start.
‘Um, oh… I liked the black evening gown,’ she said at last because there definitely had been at least one black evening gown.
‘Yes! Good choice. The black cloque bias cut or the black crêpe with the embellished neck and cutaway—’
‘Chloe, is that a crumb on the floor?’ There wasn’t a crumb on the floor, but anything to make Chloe stop giving Sophy a run-down on every single black dress there’d been in the museum.
‘What? No! I don’t think so,’ Chloe yelped, but she’d already dropped to her knees to scrutinise the painted white floorboards for any rogue flakes of pastry.
The day seemed to pass extra slowly. It started raining before lunch, which meant there wasn’t much footfall, and so Sophy went downstairs to help Beatrice pack up some orders from the website. Even though it was raining, she still took her full hour lunch break, though she couldn’t persuade Cress to come out as she hadn’t quite finished the alterations to Ingrid’s wedding gown.
‘It has to be perfect,’ she said, when Sophy tried to persuade her to at least come downstairs to eat some lunch. ‘If it were my wedding dress, then I’d want it to be impeccable.’
The idea that Colin might actually stir himself to propose to Cress was one that Sophy couldn’t imagine would ever come to pass. Colin was not the stuff that dreams were made from. He was quite content to live with his parents even though he and Cress had been dating since they were teenagers. Though Cress was also content to live with her mother Diane and stepfather Aaron.
‘Sometimes Colin stays over or I stay with him,’ Cress said whenever Sophy gently introduced the subject of how weird it was that she and Colin hardly ever got any alone time. ‘Besides, we’re saving up for a deposit on a flat. Colin says it’s silly to waste money renting and filling a landlord’s pocket and that it makes sense to live with our parents until we can afford our own place.’
Maybe Cress had so much passion for her career – she was still sparkling every day when she came into work – that she didn’t have any passion left for relationships, Sophy decided as she slumped against the sales desk after lunch. She pulled out her phone and stared longingly at the photographs of the Bondi Beach sunsets that Radha frequently sent her, which Sophy had turned into a slideshow of spectacular pink and orange skies, streaked with blue and melting into the sea.
Might be edging into autumn now, but it’s still warm enough to swim. And eye up surfer dudes!Radha had said in her last message.
Chloe was helping their one customer wriggle into a very tight silver lamé dress. The woman had come prepared in double Spanx but there was still a lot of grunting and groaning and ‘Just breathe in,’ ‘But Iambreathing in,’ coming from behind the be-swagged curtain.
Sophy didn’t even have the energy to look busy as the door opened and a troop of women entered the shop. They’d probably only come in to shelter from the rain that was now so horizontal it made a noise as it hit the windows.
‘Sophy?’
She lifted her head from her phone screen with great effort, then quickly straightened up.
‘Hege! So lovely to see you again,’ she said enthusiastically as she came out from behind the desk. ‘And Ingrid. Your dresses are looking amazing. I think you’ll be very pleased.’
Ingrid didn’t look at all convinced; neither did the three other young women with them.
‘I still think you should have gone to Browns Bridal,’ one of them, a shorter, maybe even more beautiful version of Beyoncé with a British accent, said in a stage whisper. ‘Why would you want a second-hand wedding dress?’
‘I know, right?!’ said another one, a perky-looking posh girl whose ponytail swung jauntily with every step she took
It was quite all right for Sophy to be dubious about the origins of some of their dresses, even to still think that someone had to have died in at least one of them, but she wasn’t going to let three posh girls (they all spoke with braying voices and had that gleaming, glossy, self-satisfied look that only comes from attending a top public school and never having to check the price tag before buying something) come inhershop and chat shit about the frocks.
‘Every single one of our dresses is a unique, heirloom piece with its own story to tell,’ Sophy informed them, her hands on her hips. ‘Then you get to be part of that story. Plus, those old-time designers really knew their way around a woman’s body.’
It was true. The cunning little bust darts on the black dress Phoebe had forced Sophy to buy did amazing things to Sophy’s breasts, even though Phoebe kept reminding her that she wasstillwearing the wrong-size bra.
‘These are Ingrid’s bridesmaids,’ Hege said with a slightly manic smile like she couldn’t wait for Phoebe to crack open a bottle of champagne. ‘We even suggested that they might buy their dresses here.’
‘Or we could just look on Net-a-Porter once you’ve decided on your colours, Inge,’ Jaunty Ponytail admonished.
Ingrid scowled, which didn’t bode well for her fitting. ‘I have decided on my colours.’ She took a deep breath and Sophy was sure she was slowly counting to ten. ‘Grey to match Mum’s dress and ashes of roses…’
‘It’s a grey-toned pink,’ Hege added quickly, like she’d been explaining what ashes of roses was quite a lot. ‘Very flattering.’
‘We found the perfect dress in the perfect colour,’ Ingrid said a little desperately. ‘But…’
