Gigi rolled her eyes and continued her creative prying, drawing Anna further into the room. “Okay, if that’s how you want to spin it, but I think it’s high time someone dashing and irresistible escorted you into the realm of the Fabulous Fifties. Now, show us the fabric you brought.”
Anna handed over the bag of frozen home-baked goodies, shrugged off her jacket, and slid a paper-wrapped bundle onto one of the atelier’s cutting tables.
“These are all for you.” She unwrapped the velvet and a few other pieces of yardage, including a cream-colored raw linen. If she was going to order a dinner dress, she might as well order a beach dress too.
And nothing with horizontal stripes.
“What’s this?” her daughter asked, as she pulled out one last bundle.
“Those are some vintage slips from the 1950s. I started collecting them in college. Here. Let me show you.” Anna separated the folded garments and shook them out one at a time. Gigi and Neena almost bumped heads when they came in for a closer look. “I brought these with me because I need a good foundation under the velvet. I’m so much curvier these days, and I’m not tall like you two, so this,” she said, gesturing to her chest, waist and hips, “needs some support.”
“No Spanx?” asked Neena, peering at her over her glasses.
“No Spanx. I want to feel sexy, not sausage-y.” She giggled, feeling her face redden again.
“So, you do have a date. I knew it!” Gigi pounced on Anna’s inadvertent confession and clapped. “Who is it, Mom, anyone I know?”
Neena glanced from mother to daughter and stepped in with a timely intervention. “Let’s get some numbers first. Then you can tell us everything, Anna.”
She rolled a mannequin to the table, handed a tape measurer to Gigi, and began to customize the form for Anna’s figure as Gigi called out bust, waist, and hip measurements.
“The velvet’s going to work well as a bias-cut,” she noted. “Are we making sleeves?”
“No, no sleeves,” Anna replied. “I was thinking very thin straps or even a halter style. I want to wear it in the evening, and it’ll be warm enough for a light wrap or a shrug.”
“I heard that, Mom,” Gigi said under her breath. “Evening. Warm. Would there be a plane ticket involved?”
Her perspicacious daughter seemed determined to draw out as many details as she could. Anna debated how much she wanted to reveal. Figures her daughter would be just like her father at that age. Persistent.
“A man I dated in college—before I met your dad—has emailed and requested my presence at a rather lovely resort in Cabo San Lucas. His name is Daniel Strauss.”
Gigi lifted her eyebrows, her mouth forming a wide O.
“In two weeks,” Anna continued, “so I suggest you get cracking, Ms. Granger.”
“Way to go, Anna,” Neena said, winking a conspiratorial congratulation. “Gigi, close your mouth and hand me the swatches of silk charmeuse. And Anna, with your coloring, we’ll go for a silver or gray slip. What do you think?”
“I like that idea,” she agreed. “And I know this is a rush job, so whatever you need, let me know. I can even help sew.” It was nice to be the center of attention. Made her stand taller. She studied Neena for other subtle fashion cues.
“Mom, when were you going to tell me?”
“Daniel emailed me on Sunday, after I got home from my party. I think I’m still in shock.”
Anna hoped her daughter could get used to the idea of seeing her enter the dating game. The few eligible men she knew locally were either chronically single or fathers of Gigi’s friends and former schoolmates. Dating any of them would be frowned upon.
“You know I’m totally fine with you dating again,” Gigi said, her voice swinging from unsure to cajoling in the space of two breaths. “So, c’mon, Mom, tell us everything. Where does he live? What does he do?”
“Daniel lives in New York City, and he owns an interior design business.” There was no harm in giving Gigi a general outline of Daniel’s life. Besides, it felt good to share her excitement with her daughter, even if she did have to tamp it down.
While they talked, Neena finished customizing the mannequin and held swatches of silk lingerie fabric to Anna’s face and chest and to the velvet. “Gigi, please get the slips your mom brought in. Let’s see which one most flatters her figure.”
The vintage garments were too small or in too fragile a condition for Anna to physically try on, but the three women agreed unanimously on which one looked custom made for her shape and proportions.
“You can get started making a pattern off this for the slip,” Neena instructed Gigi, “and I’ll work on draping the dress.”
“Can I get you two anything?” Anna asked, her belly rumbling. It was apparent they were done with her for the moment. “I’d be happy to pick up lunch.”
“We’d love that, Mom. There’s a stack of takeout menus posted by the door. See what looks good.”
By late afternoon, Neena and Gigi had muslin mock-ups of the velvet dress and the silk slip ready for a first fitting. Anna agreed it made sense to use the slip pattern again for the linen dress and make it longer.
“I’ll cut both dresses tomorrow,” said Neena, “and have Gigi baste them. But you know we can’t do another fitting yet, right?”
Anna shook her head. “No, why is that?”
“Bias-cut dresses have to hang, give the fabric time to adjust because there’s so much more stretch when we cut it that way.”
“Should I come back next week, then?”
Neena consulted her calendar. “Yes, and if we do your fitting in the morning, then we can finish the seams and mark the hem. And if we can’t finish it by the time you leave for the ferry, I’ll just send it home with you. You can hand sew, right?”
“Yes, quite well, actually,” Anna assured her,
