Dimitri asked me to meet him at the Metro station closest to him. We jumped on the next train, and as we rumbled through the underground tunnels of Paris, it was too noisy to talk. He took me by the hand when we arrived at our destination, led me up a flight of dank stairs, past a man playing the viola, and back up into daylight. I had no idea where we were, having never been to this part of Paris before. We turned a corner into a narrow side street and up another flight of stairs into a short building. Along the way I noticed dozens of people pushing along racks of clothing-sequined gowns and lace pants and checked suits-all covered in filmy cellophane and hung from steel poles. I guessed that this was what Juliette meant when she referred to “the world of fashion.”
In a second-floor office, we were greeted by a sullen receptionist who looked me over a couple of times and then pointed to the back with her thumb. Dimitri accompanied me to a room, empty but for a changing screen, a full-length mirror, and a couple of freestanding lights. A heavyset woman with red hair, round glasses, and protruding teeth walked in, shook hands with Dimitri, and looked me over as the receptionist had done. Draped over her arm were several hangers of clothes, and she flung them at me and told me to get behind the screen and put the first one on. I looked over at Dimitri, who nodded.
Behind the screen, there was nowhere to hang anything, so I let the entire lot fall onto the floor. I picked up a brown suit that, when I put it on, seemed to fit well, although it scratched me around the collar and under the arms. I stepped out from behind the screen, and the red-haired woman nodded approvingly, giving me half a smile. From a bag she was carrying, she pulled out a pair of sheer black knee-high stockings and flat black shoes and told me to put them on. She asked me if I had brought a hairbrush or any makeup, and I shook my head. The scowl returned, and then she turned around and yelled out something to someone in another room. A petite girl came scurrying in, holding a comb in one hand and a small makeup kit in another, and in under five minutes gave me a ponytail, false lashes, and bright red lips. I didn’t know much about fashion, but I did know that I didn’t look very good, but Dimitri only smiled and repeated, “Jolie, jolie,” as if in so doing I would, indeed, suddenly become pretty again. The red-haired woman nodded, shoved the other girl out of the way and, from yet another bag, pulled out a camera. Moving back a few feet, she asked me to pose in different ways-arms folded in front, one hand on waist, too much smile, too little smile-and made me repeat it all until, eleven outfits and two hours later, we were done.
“Where’s Mario Testino?” I asked Dimitri, as I peeled off the stockings for the last time. “Mathias said maybe he would be photographing me today?”
Dimitri and the redhead looked at each other and laughed.
“Who you think you are?” the woman said, speaking English for the first time. “’eidi Klum? You think I could get ’eidi Klum for one hundred euros? Bah!” She laughed again, now lighting up a cigarette. With her free hand, she gave Dimitri an envelope, through which I could see several currency notes. He shoved it into his pocket, helped me gather the crumpled heap of clothes on the floor, shook the redhead’s hand again, and escorted me out. She completely ignored me, with not so much as a “merci.”
On the landing outside, Dimitri took out ten euros from the envelope, put it into his wallet, and handed me the rest.
“It is not much, but it is a good start for your new career,” he said. “Maybe next time, I can get you more. But you will be able to see these pictures, and to tell your friends. They are for this company’s catalog on its Web site. It will reach many people, and then we will see what other good jobs will come our way.”
“That’s it?!” Juliette exclaimed when I got home and told her about my afternoon. “So much time and fuss for a hundred euros? I told you not to go with this guy. I told you to hold out for something better.”
“I am new to this,” I said sheepishly. “It is fine as a place to begin.”
“Well I can assure you that when Naomi Campbell was first starting out, she didn’t have to subject herself to such humiliation. Pictures on a Web site for some line of clothing in Sentier that nobody has ever heard of? What was Dimitri thinking? This is your reputation! These are things you can never take back! When you become famous, it will haunt you!”
“Everyone has to start somewhere,” I said.
When Dimitri called the next morning to tell me about another job he had lined up for me, Juliette answered the phone.
“Tanaya is doing no such thing,” she said, resolutely. “I am in the fashion business, and I will not permit her to degrade herself this way. She is too beautiful and unique to end up in the awful ads you are finding for her. If you don’t get her something good soon, I will insist that she terminate her contract with you and find a more superior agency.” With that, I heard Juliette slamming the phone down, and I quietly said farewell to my newfound modeling career.
Dimitri didn’t call for a week after that, and I suspected I would never hear from him again. But then he came by the café, just as I was ringing up a takeaway purchase of an Artois and a goat-cheese salad. I felt embarrassed to see him, a little ashamed of the way Juliette had spoken to him. He was a boss to me, although Juliette wasted no time in telling me that it was, actually, he who worked for me.
“One day,” he said, approaching my little corner of the café, “you will not have to rely on this job anymore. One day, I promise you, you will have enough to buy this place if you wanted.”
“It’s OK, Dimitri,” I said quietly. “You don’t have to make all these promises to me. Unlike you, I don’t expect miracles. I am trying to be happy as I am.”
“Well,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Things are about to change, so prepare yourself.”
If Allah was still a witness to my life, I would say that what happened next was a blessing from him. But given that-if I believed my nana-our Almighty was no longer a part of my existence, I had no choice but to concede that what then transpired was mere coincidence, nothing more than me being in the right place at the right time.
Viva, the clothing line that I had modeled for on my first assignment with Dimitri, was apparently up for sale. Dimitri became more and more excited as he began to tell me the news: that although Viva looked like some slipshod operation, it actually sold millions of dollars’ worth of clothes every year, that it was in all the stores and appealed to ordinary women and was a huge moneymaker. That the red-haired woman with the protruding teeth was actually considered one of the smartest people in the business, pinching pennies wherever she could and selling a fortune in clothes.
A fashion tycoon who was interested in acquiring Viva had gone onto its Web site. And there, just days after I had those photographs taken, were pictures of me, smiling nervously into the camera, wearing those sheer knee-high stockings and flat black shoes.
“It seems that he really liked what he saw,” Dimitri said. “He thought that the quality of the pictures was awful, and the clothes selected could have been better. But he liked the look of you,” Dimitri said quietly, rummaging through his breast pocket for his cigarette case. “If they go ahead and buy Viva, they want to make it a very multicultural label, and he thinks you represent that look well. He called me earlier today. He wants to meet with you tonight.”
Karla loaned me a red dress with a V-neck and a ruffle at the hem, Juliette styled my hair into a loose knot, and Teresa strapped some high-heeled shoes onto my feet. Then the three of them came in a taxi with me to the Hôtel Costes, which they had told me was the trendiest hotel in Paris.