Where Fashion Reigns [Fashion/NoM]

Now that Tisifun had welcomed the Ash Company, Zubaidah was working hard upon a Parthevian fashion show. She had received the ideas of Denime and Rameses with open arms, but she knew that such an event would be more than difficult to organise. As such, Zubaidah had discussed the matter with Anna and Ho Lea, coaxing her towards her performer’s roots. Just as a dancer might preview their performance, she should preview her brands.


Once she had considered this, Zubaidah set the Ash Company into motion. We need funds for Tisifun’s transformation. With one spark, the machine Zubaidah had created ignited into life. We need news to spread across the Parthevian peninsula and further. It grew brighter and brighter as their minds burned with ideas. We need the Nazairi specialists to begin work on branded clothes. It was time for the Ash Company to shine.

As for herself, Zubaidah had found somewhere else she was needed. After all, she was now the helmsman that steered this commercial enterprise. She trusted that her colleagues would make the voyage steady, but she had her own task at hand. If she was to be the face of the Ash Company, she needed to look as fashionable as their intended product. As such, Zubaidah had called some old acquaintances, hoping that they might transform her into someone as fashionable as their own brands, and set off through Tisifun.


As she ventured into the Nazairi street-markets, perusing gifts for her collaborators, Zubaidah noticed someone familiar amidst the rainbow-coloured wares. ‘You returned.’ As she came close, the silver-haired Kizi ushered her closer through Tisifun’s busy crowds. ‘I said that I would.’


Kizi watched the storks soar above the white stall-covers, glancing upon her produce with greedy eyes, ‘I have heard much about your intentions.’ In turn, Zubaidah began checking the colourful array of dates, oranges and juicy figs on offer. ‘Is that so?’


‘We are more than pleased, dear.’ As she counted her coins, shining bright in the afternoon sun, Zubaidah questioned which fruit would pair best with her tea-time talks. ‘So whatever doubts you had?’ Kizi made the decision easier, tossing an unseemly amount of figs into a brown paper bag, and offered her one last piece of advice before the next customer threw a coin-pouch on the counter. ‘Do away with them all.’

Leaving the Nazairi street-markets, Zubaidah continued towards Tisifun’s outskirts. She was headed for the Pazari community joined onto the eastern walls, renowned for their lace-making work, who had once enjoyed her mother’s patronage. As she arrived, she entered into a considerable olive grove, whose grey-green leaves shone like silver in the light breeze, offering shade and shelter to some languid storks. This was a thriving suburban community, with a governor's tomb for chief attraction, and solid walls that suggested it had not always enjoy such tranquillity.

All round the road-sides were orchards of figs, apricots, and pomegranate trees; the first with the leaves untouched by the summer heat, the apricots just at the end of their blossoming, and the pomegranates still in flower. In place of the dry and hard gravel-paths outside Tisifun’s walls that were so trying to the feet of man and beast, there were fields emerging from the city-walls, from which the irises had only lately died. It was a mixture of familiar and exotic, where Zubaidah saw the common dandelion growing within a stone's throw of some feathery palms.

Wandering around, Zubaidah soon found the lace-maker’s cottage from her mother’s time. It was decorated with animal statuettes, goats and lions staring towards Tisifun’s walls, and painted with Parthevian colours. As she admired the similar decorations around all the Pazari cottages, Zubaidah was greeted with the lace-maker Saffah, who had made her mother’s dresses. With a few of Kizi’s figs, and some warm tea, the two sat down for a quick catch-up before Zubaidah got down to business.

Saffah understood that Zubaidah needed something glamorous for the Ash Company’s fashion-show, hence she had lent the Pazari’s services now. Where the Nazairi specialists were skilled in all manner of Parthevian crafts, none could match the lace-makers of Tisifun - and not least where dresses were concerned. It seemed that their services were still admired even now, in spite of the situation around Parthevia, for they were renowned from Reim to Balbadd. As such, a dress from Saffah would assert the Ash Company’s taste across the entire world, not least Parthevia’s neighbours.


Discussions continued between Saffah and Zubaidah over the next few days. Blue with delicate white trimming. She asked opinions from Amnet and Denime, wondering what materials they could utilise from the Ash Company. Red emboldened with gold fringe. She invited over Anna and Ho Lea, considering how the dress might move and breathe for performances in the fashion-show. Black overlaid with silver and lavender embroidery. After a week, Zubaidah was still considering what would be best.

As she wandered through the Pazari community, however, fresh inspiration took ahold of Zubaidah’s mind. She first looked from her Cinder Parasol towards the bunches of purpling figs gleaming under the Parthevian sun. She then glanced from her Dancer’s Sail towards the storks nestled on the pink-hued walls above the calm Urkadi river. If she wanted to exemplify the Ash Company, Zubaidah should have Saffah’s dress combine those elements which had allowed her venture to flower into a business enterprise.

Mauve from the Cinder Parasol. She had been granted this when Anna had first taught her in Reim. Gold from the Dancer’s Sail. She had been gifted this when Ho Lea had then tutored her in Kou. Zubaidah had travelled across the vastness of the sun-soaked world to establish the Ash Company, from west to shining east, just like the storks over Tisifun. If her dress was a representation of the Ash Company, Saffah should weave the Cinder Parasol and the Dancer's Sail within the folds.

As the new week arrived, so did Zubaidah arrive at Saffah’s door. At her side were Amnet and Denime with Anna and Ho Lea, more than pleased to experience the Pazari experts. Zubaidah wanted them to be there because the Ash Company was a product of them all - and not just herself. Anna had encouraged her to found her own dance-troupe. Ho Lea had helped her attract attention towards her efforts. Amnet had shown her that her troupe could grow into something more life-changing. Denime had enabled her to spread their ideas from coast to coast. Just as they had shaped the Ash Company, she had been shaped with their love and encouragement.

Thus, as Zubaidah watched on, Amnet and Saffah worked alongside one another in weaving a dress made from memories and dreams. As laced threaded with lace, creating the frame for this fashionista artwork, Zubaidah felt her hand tighten around a familiar shard. Hoping for the success of their venture, she crushed the shard between her fingers and looked towards the pink-hued heavens.

As if a messenger of Solomon himself, a stork descended from the sun-painted clouds and landed outside Saffahs’ cottage. As it began guzzling some figs dangling over the Urkadi river, Zubaidah wondered to herself if the rukh looked like storks. She had heard from Amnet that they looked like divine birds and the stork seemed something divine in that one moment.

Once noon came, however, both the stork and Zubaidah herself had left the quaint Pazari cottages. She might have created the dress' frame at that point, but Saffah could not colour her artwork without some fabric-dyes. And so, leaving Tisifun behind, Amnet and Zubaidah followed the Urkadi river towards a close-enough outpost where they could source some dyes for themselves.