31 Plays in 31 Days: #28 - "Better Design"

This piece follows my previous Project Runway-inspired piece, "Slimming." I kind of like this character of Freddy Moreau, a talented but emotionally fragile young man based on my current favorite PR designer Christopher Palu (who won last night with an elegant design, woohoo!) I also like dealing with body image issues inherent in the fashion industry, so it's a cool topic to get into. I think I could write something interesting about Freddy learning that.

Day #28 - "Better Design"

(FREDDY MOREAU and OTTO JOHANSSON work in a design studio. OTTO dresses a mannequin while FREDDY cuts bias strips at a worktable.)

FREDDY: I screwed up. I ruined everything.

OTTO: I’m sure you didn’t ruin everything.

FREDDY: Still, I really screwed up. She hates me now.

OTTO: What do you even do that was so bad?

FREDDY: Basically made her feel like I thought she was fat.

OTTO: Aw, shit.

FREDDY: Yeah!

OTTO: So, is she?

FREDDY: Is she what?

OTTO: Is she fat?

FREDDY: Otto! That’s not the point.

(OTTO stares.)

FREDDY: Okay, sort of. She’s like a size ten, maybe twelve.

OTTO: Geez.

FREDDY: The point is, I made her feel that way!

OTTO: Yeah, you can never do that. What’d you do, anyway?

FREDDY: I tried to steer her toward a slimming design.

OTTO: Oh, I don’t blame you.

FREDDY: Why? I completely screwed up.

OTTO: Well, it’s hard to design for big people.

FREDDY: Otto!

OTTO: It is! In school, I never made anything for anyone any bigger than a six.

FREDDY: I want to have more clients than just the world’s three supermodels, dude.

OTTO: Seriously, though! Don’t beat yourself up. Fat people never look good in high fashion designs—

FREDDY: Oh, Christ.

OTTO: —but if you stick them in something that doesn't make them look thinner they get mad at you. You can’t win.

FREDDY: She didn’t want me to make her look thin.

OTTO: Seriously? And you’re doing that?

FREDDY: She wasn’t happy with the designs I was giving her, so I had to come up with something else. That’s what you do when you’re working for a client!

OTTO: But you’re the designer! You’re supposed to have better taste than her. If she ends up looking terrible, everybody will blame you.

FREDDY: She’s going to be wearing my stuff. She’s not going to look terrible.

OTTO: She will if everybody thinks she looks fat!

FREDDY: Jesus, Otto. If I sounded to her like you do now, no wonder everybody thinks we’re all assholes.

OTTO: That’s the way it is. It’s not my fault.

FREDDY: You know what, I think Heidi was right. If that’s all anybody thinks, then I must be a pretty shitty designer.

(He sweeps all his materials off the table.)

FREDDY: Maybe you can’t handle it, but I’m much better than that.