Now learn the dialogue by heart.

 

 

A PERFECT FIT

(from ‘Lace’ by Shirley Conran)

(Abridged)

Aunt Hortense, Judy and Maxine visit the salon of Christian Dior to see a new collection of clothes.

The girls were becoming increasingly excited as they came nearer number 32, the salon of the greatest couturier in the world, Christian Dior.

A cloud of perfume enveloped them as they entered the pampered warmth. Aunt Hortense, whom they were to meet, was nowhere to be seen so they wandered around the boutique, fingering exquisite silk blouses in different colours, eyeing the unbelievably fragile lingerie and stroking the suede gloves.

To Judy’s relief she was ignored; but the assistant fluttered around Maxine, who was wearing her Navy Dior overcoat, so she daringly decided to try on a couple of things. She put on a floor – length jackal coat, watched by an indulgent saleswoman who knew that this child had no intention of buying, but that nevertheless somebody had bought her clothes from Dior. Then she slipped on a white cotton nightgown trimmed with a narrow green satin ribbon that cost the equivalent of her allowance for three months. She had just discarded it and purchased a pale blue lace belt – three weeks’ allowance but worth it – when Aunt Hortense swept in and they went off to claim their reserved seats from the big antique reception desk.

Aunt Hortense was a regular customer, that’s why the elegant receptionist didn’t courteously ask her name, address and telephone number. She didn’t also ask who suggested they visit the house of Dior. This procedure helped to sort out the spies and time-wasters from the genuine customers. Commercial spies rarely tried to get in after the opening of a collection because they had all the information they needed by the third day of the show, but smartly dressed women (sometimes genuine customers) often visited the collection with a less well-dressed “friend”, who was really a dressmaker – and whose second – rate shoes, bag and gloves invariably proclaimed the fact.

‘So comfortable here,’ said Aunt Hortense, as they were seated in the pale grey salon in the front row of delicate gilt chairs, ‘although I have never understood why men think women enjoy shopping. It is a painful ordeal that has to be endured in order to acquire new clothes. The pain comes in two parts – choosing the right garment, then making sure that it fits… Oh, the arguments I’ve had with fitters! So I come to Christian Dior because I dislike shopping. One isn't demoralized at a couturier, as one is in a shop where they urge you to try on clothes that make you feel fat, awkward and ugly.’

‘Or complain that you’re not a stock size, in a way that makes you feel like a freak,’ agreed Judy.

‘Or intimidate you, so that you end up buying something expensive merely because you don’t look as dreadful in it as the other things you tried on,’ Maxine added.

‘Quite so. It’s easier to go to Dior. You pay more, but you never waste your money and you always look your best. Ha, here comes the first model!’

‘How can that girl possibly have such a tiny waist?’ Judy wondered, as a raven-haired model appeared in a pale grey flannel coat fastened with a wide silver – grey calf belt. ‘Where does her food go?’

As always, the final item in the collection was a white bridal gown with a flutter of little lace frills forming an eight-foot-long train.

‘Excellent,’ approved Aunt Hortense, ‘a bride should always choose something with back interest for everyone to look at when she’s kneeling at the altar. A wedding service is so boringly predictable. Now for my fittings.’

They moved to a dressing room where the silent fitter - silent because her mouth was full of pins - made minute alterations on an apricot silk dress.

‘Three fittings for every garment,’ grumbled Aunt Hortense, ‘but it means a perfect fit, which is one of the main attractions of a courtier garment,’ she addressed herself to the fitter. ‘It needs a little more room at the waist, don’t you think?’

 

 

Notes

1. boutique n – a small retail shop that sells specialized gifts and fashionable clothes.

E.g. My elder sister has two boutiques in the shopping centre.

2. allowance n – money given regularly for expenses.

E.g.That trip cost the equivalent of her allowance for three months.

3. freak n slang - a strange, abnormal or unusual person.

4. room n – 1. an extent of space occupied by smth.

E.g. There isn’t enough room for another car in the garage.

2. a partitioned part of a building. E.g. There were five people in the room.

 

Proper Names

Christian Dior / 'krIstjqn 'dI:O:/ Judy /'Gu:dI/

Hortense /hO:'tqns/ Maxine /mxk'sI:n/