DANIELE GEORGIOU'S ACCOUNT
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When the clients came down to order and purchase what they wanted, it was always a busy and bustling time for us as we were surrounded by the crowd. In the afternoon, things would settle down when the clients would return for their personal appointment to look again at what they wanted to purchase and try on the clothes in the fitting room. Then we would take many orders. At the same time, our job was to accompany the head seamstress to do the retouching. There were three fittings up to the day of delivery. There was often scheduling to deal with at the occasion of weddings, cocktails, receptions or trips overseas. When there were too many deliveries, I would go and help in the packaging service for the most urgent deliveries. Sometimes, I would take a cab to deliver in the most prestigious Parisian palaces. A faithful French and foreign clientele would come every season and ask for their favorite sales ladies. I really enjoyed that personal human contact except for a few more demanding women. It was not always easy with some, you had to be very patient. I especially remember a certain client who was a psychiatrist and who was pretty much impossible. She would show up without warning to try something on. She would say that I had made a mistake scheduling her appointment. She was often mean and in a bad mood, demanding to be taken care of immediately, until the day when I lost my patience with her. I told the Director that I would not take care of her any more (although she had given me a small heart and a a gold chain from Perrin, a jeweler from Place Vendome). She was politely thrown out. It turned out that crazy woman had been thrown out of several fashion houses. Sometimes, at the time of a haute couture presentation at 15:00, we also had to help dress the models very quickly. There was a certain effervescence in the fitting room. There was much hustle and bustle that was very contagious during the preparations of collections and rehearsals. In that great ambiance, I had the privilege to meet many personalities, Ministers' wives, Queens and Princesses of all countries but also movie stars and comedians. I also had the chance to discover the most beautiful places when participating in the runways outdoors, and visiting the clients who had weddings, receptions, visiting Maxim's, La Tour d'Argent (Famous restaurant), the Cascade du Bois de Boulogne, the Baltard Pavillon in Nogent. Among that wealthy clientele, I have always appreciated that world in spite of having a very tiring job. I had the chance to do fittings in downtown Paris for several clients. That is why I flew to Nice for the very first time to accompany the head of the sewing workshop to do alterations for a client living in Nice, a trip all paid for by Pierre Balmain's Boutique. We were invited to a wonderful lunch in a beautiful villa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. For many years I was the right hand of M. Molinari. Both of us had the most important clientele and we made the biggest turnover among the ten saleswomen. During the sales period that lasted for a week in May and in November, it was like a stampede with very hectic and stressful days. By myself, I was able to make quite a lot of money taking care of several clients at the same time. In spite of very long days of work, we were overjoyed to take a break with wine, salami and dessert. (I was the one in charge of grocery shopping).
Sometimes Monsieur Balmain would offer
us champagne congratulating us for the
record sale of the day. In the sixties,
we could make as much as a million
Francs a day ($2000). |