The Fashion Princess (2 page)

They made their way to the grand Park View restaurant, which was on the tenth floor. The dining room was spectacular. It was filled with round
tables, all laid with white tablecloths and silver cutlery, as well as flickering candles. There were sweet-smelling white lilies in clear glass vases all around the room, and the huge windows gave them a magnificent view of Central Park. They settled down at their table and ordered a fruit smoothie each. Just as their drinks arrived, Bryony Snow and a striking younger girl burst through the doors.

Bryony was all smiles, shopping bags and apologies.

“I'm so sorry I'm late. There was a sale at Barney's today, and we popped in after the shows and, well, you know how it is . . .”
she explained with a cheeky grin.

Poppy looked at the pretty girl at Bryony's side. Although her face slightly resembled Bryony's, she was very distinctive looking in her own right.

Bryony turned to her. “Oh, I haven't introduced my baby sister, have I? How rude of me! Saffron Sage, Poppy Cotton, please meet Berry!”

BERRY WASN'T EXACTLY
a baby. She was older than Poppy – probably about the same age as Poppy's cousin Daisy – and looked very cool. She had spirals of long, wild red hair, big brown eyes which looked kind and friendly, and very pale, porcelain skin with a delicate sprinkling of freckles. Poppy thought she looked like she would be great fun.

“Hi, Berry,” said Saffron. “How amazing, coming on a trip with your big sister!”

“I know. I'm really lucky,” agreed Berry. “Even if Bryony
does
get me to carry all the heavy bags!”

Everyone laughed.

“And is this Princess Poppy here?” asked Berry kindly.

Poppy nodded shyly. She absolutely worshipped older girls and felt very uncool compared to Berry. But Berry smiled so warmly that Poppy knew they were going to be firm friends.

“Let's order some dinner, shall we?” suggested Bryony. “You must be famished after hours of disgusting aeroplane food.”

Poppy nodded and looked down at her menu. She didn't want to admit that she absolutely adored the dinky little aeroplane meals, although she
was
definitely hungry.

Once they had ordered from the extensive and somewhat complicated
menu, they settled down to getting to know one another properly.

“We've been here for a few days already – lucky it's half term, isn't it?” said Bryony. “I've been going to some of the warm-up shows and doing a few interviews for the magazine – as well as shopping. I'm going to be exhausted by the end of the week at this rate – and bankrupt. Anyway, enough about me! Why don't I let you know what your schedule for the whole trip looks like? Oh, and I should warn you, my little brother, Orlando, is with us too. He's having a swimming lesson just now in the hotel pool.”

“I'll tell you a little bit about Orlando so that it's not such a nasty surprise when he does turn up!” said Berry. “Let's see now. He's a little creep with a passion for spiders and worms –
and
putting them in
girls' beds. He specializes in wrestling and making Formula One car noises. He hardly ever reads proper books but talks non-stop about superheroes. He's always just slightly grubby and only eats chicken, cheese or chocolate. He's an expert on the solar system and has been known to dip dog biscuits in chocolate spread as a snack. But otherwise he's adorable and you'll just love him!” she concluded, dripping with sarcasm.

Poppy's face dropped. “Is there
anything
good about Orlando?” she asked.

“He's away doing sport a lot?” offered Berry. “And he always has a spare square of chocolate when you get the munchies. Even if it is stuck to bubble-gum and whatever else he's got at the bottom of his bag!”

Poppy smiled. In a funny way, she couldn't wait to meet Orlando. Surely he couldn't be
that
bad!

Bryony passed Saffron an information sheet about the trip: they had an absolutely packed schedule.

“I don't think I've brought enough pretty clothes with me for all these things,” worried Poppy, feeling both nervous and excited about the week ahead.

“Don't worry, sweetheart,” said Saffron. “I've brought lots of accessories with me – I'm sure we'll work out excellent outfits for everything.”

“You'll look just great, Poppy,” said Berry. “Plus you can borrow some of my stuff if it fits. My sister gets loads of freebies to try to make her write nice things about the designers, and if the clothes are too small for her, she gives them to me!”

“Wow, that's really amazing. You're so lucky!” replied Poppy, wishing that she had a big sister like Bryony.

Bryony had lots of glossy magazines with her, including, of course, several issues of
Buttons
and
Bows
, and while they waited for their food to arrive, she showed everyone the sorts of designs they would be seeing and which fabulous new designers to watch out for.

“You know what's really ‘in' just now?” Bryony told them. “A bit of a sailor theme with a splash of vibrant citrus.
Sounds vile, yeah? But it works sooooo well! In fashion, we're always one whole season ahead, so even though it's springtime just now, here in New York we're looking at the autumn/winter collections. Some of the new themes are just to die for. Especially Ned Carew's stuff. His ideas are at the forefront of haute couture. Shabby-chic meets structured, with a hint of sci-fi – which is, you know, so innovative. And his muse is the most gorgeous of all the supermodels, Tallulah Melage.”

“We saw her on our flight!” said Poppy excitedly, suddenly feeling very involved in the conversation. “She looked amazing – even prettier than she does in the magazines!”

Berry's eyes shone. “Wow, I'd love to see Tallulah in the flesh. She makes everything she wears look so good.
But the thing about Ned Carew's designs is that they are so ridiculous – just like fancy dress. You could never wear any of his stuff in real life.”

Bryony pulled a face. “But that's the whole point of haute couture, little sister,” she said, feeling defensive about Ned Carew – she admired him so much and had achieved a real scoop by securing an interview with him for the next morning. “Anyway, it's my job to follow new trends. Ah – here are our starters. Dig in, everyone.”

POPPY SIMPLY ADORED
clothes and fashion – it was so cool that there was a whole week devoted to them and that she was here! As she waited for her main course to arrive, she flicked though the programme for Fashion Week. She was very taken with the pictures she saw – of models, designers and celebrities. Meanwhile Saffron, who had studied art and fashion at college, was absolutely loving all the fashion chat. She made a mental note of
everything she had seen in Bryony's selection of glossy magazines and resolved to give herself a whole new look while they were in New York. She couldn't wait to try out some of her ideas.

“Watch out, everybody, here comes Orlando!” said Bryony, looking over at the restaurant doorway.

Poppy turned round to see a very scruffy and cheeky-looking boy coming towards them, with wet hair and a sports bag slung over his shoulder. He had red hair like Berry's, with a cute dusting of freckles too.