Chapter 17

“Karen and Jenny, you should take care of getting the fabric to Bright Star as soon as possible. Text your plan, or should I say plot, to Linh and see what she says.”

“Already done. The PSA rewrite and negotiations took a lot of time. Luz Jung and June Kim will be here in the morning to get the pink fabric. Miranda is working the patterns tonight.” Jenny answered, “Rose was very optimistic in general. Both of the regular cut ‘n sew rooms were booked solid. Four more ‘name’ designers sent costume plates for one-of-a-kind gowns. Roadie Magic ordered wardrobes for three of their customers and tailored work shirts for the crews under contract to Dina and Donna. They even have a four-color silkscreen press working.”

“Are there enough women to get it all done?” I asked seriously. I knew well the toll overworking took on a body. “Can ten people get it done? They’re already working on a Sunday. Are they pushing themselves pretty hard?”

“I asked that too.” Karen said. “Rose believes the little rushes to be sporadic, but everyone is able to do any job. Not every station is busy all the time. Pattern makers can screen, sewers can embroider, cutters can sew and fuse, and so people get regular breaks plus lots of downtime.”

“Granted, our orders have been hurried and the Roadie’s is new work, but they have been doing this for years. Yolanda claims it’s easier when you are working for yourself.”

“I wanted to goof off here until Tuesday morning, but I can’t see that happening. We created a bunch of ‘busy’.” I laughed. “Retirement is a lot of work.”

I gave the marching orders. “Design and Advertising have to price raw materials, get a grip on production expenses and set price points for each item in the Airwear line. For any specials, like school uniforms, use the going rate for cotton and linen fabrics, with adjustments for Airwear substitutions. Aim for a retail price that means affordable quality. More than ‘Old Navy’, less than ‘Eddie Bauer.’”

Eve, Jane and Jean got a turn. “The lead girls will stage the tasks. We need product shots, available sizes, colors, light transmission quality, catalogue copy, etc. At times you will feel like messengers, but you are the central clearinghouse and will know what each group is doing. You will be the ones to anticipate and avoid roadblocks. All committees will talk to the Leads.”

Beth and Yumi came next. “You two will work with me to build the site. We have to have bulletproof firewalls. Intruders will be treated harshly. We need credit card approval service and direct deposit into a separate bank account. I’ll try to set up a few servers at Amsterdam to handle the money; the rest can be on a Google-able web host. Site visitors will see a ‘You are being redirected to a secure host’ notice when an order is placed. The shopping cart system, photo posting and blog is standard stuff, the security is not, but I have it covered. This has to be in place before the samples go out.”

“What about Public Relations?” Diane asked.

“You girls should first work with Advertising to target our demographic. Tailor posters and handouts accordingly. Pick the locations where the samples can be distributed. The schools, mother-daughter gatherings, sporting events, chaperoned dances and exclusive boutiques are a start. Think about country clubs and women’s health clubs where status and appearance are cutting edge. Will we be web purchasing only or have a brick and mortar store? Personally, I like the idea of both. Sales to retailers we don’t control is problematic.”

“Locating a retail outlet is a real key issue. I suggest Third or Lexington in the Sixties, Bleecker Street downtown or just south of Lincoln Center on Broadway.” Carol thought it through. “It puts us near new and old money, the ultra style conscious, and the educated upper class too-cool-for-school elites. A nice, but understated storefront will be costly, but we can afford it. We have to look like we’re already established and in it for the long run.”

“People will assume success by the address. Iffy start-ups don’t start up in those areas.” Anne commented. “About all we can do until the feedback begins is determining the groups most likely to accept the Airwear dare and to wear it as they would anything fashionable, like performers, fashionistas and the rich elite night scene people. They are the trendsetters, and they live in or want to act like they live in those cool neighborhoods.”

“That’s very good. Don’t have a Grand Opening. Just be open for business one day as if we had been there all along.” I liked it, “If we can staff with the right girls, I’m OK with two stores. People want the cachet of wearing things available in those rarefied areas.”

“Getting to the celebrities is a hurdle, but something we can overcome.” Diane said. “Pay attention and you see movie stars and Broadway actresses all over the place. Don’t come on like a fangirl autograph seeker and give it as a gift of appreciation.”

“We’ll have a work/play poolside day Sunday and roll out Monday morning. Amy and I have to prep the office and second floor storage areas for the move. I have to send notices to my, now Andy’s, clients reassuring them that they are in good hands and I will be available for extraordinary crises.”

“That frees up space on the second floor. Can we use it?” Max wondered.

“Don’t get big eyes, missy. Airwear needs a home. Files, computers, drawing tables, a mini-photo studio for product shots, phones, the whole nine yards. My downstairs space will become the home of Allyn Holdings.”

“Rats. I was hoping to co-opt space for shooting actual live models. All we really need is a green screen and good lights. But the traffic through the house isn’t so good.”

“We have the empty fifth floor and enclosed roof at the Chandler’s Row building for that. Much more space and we can build sets. Besides, it’s a good way to advertise their resources with a credit in the catalogue. Photographers always read the photo credits. Models looking for work will, too.”

“Donna and Dina can advise on the lights and colors. If they can handle a concert stage or a disco, a studio is a stroll in the park. We have enough talent in-house to take the actual pictures.” Ellie added.

“And we can do the background landscapes, also. Mark, Beth and Yumi can do the layering and Photoshopping® to get whatever we want.” Leah was getting excited. “We need to get started designing posters and print ads. Poses and costumes can follow from there.”

I broached the subject of models. “We need bodies, attractive normal types who aren’t too shy to pose in revealing clothing. The want ads are not a good source; too many hookers and wanna-be divas. You will have to recruit from dance studios, spas and modeling schools directly. Applications and test shots should be done at the triplets’ offices. Girls under eighteen are limited to non-revealing and teasing clothes without any ‘bathing suit’ areas showing in the pictures and must have parental permission. The more revealing pictures will go to those eighteen and over. They can look fourteen, but we have to have proof of age. We’ll pay industry standard hourly wages based on experience, a bonus for photos used if any, and require a model release giving us full control of the images. Contracts have to be in plain English and ironclad.”

“Make it clear we are the art directors. Stage moms ‘who know what’s best for little cover girl’ are not welcome. It’s not about them.” Caralyn insisted. “Video record each session to prevent later accusations of improper behavior from our people. Audio tape the changing area. I’m thinking a thorough background check on the parents and models. Are the birth certificates real? Have they been trouble before? Are they likely to file nuisance lawsuits to get a larger piece of the action? Some parents aren’t above exploiting their kids for personal gain.”

“You’re singing to the choir there, sister.” Suki snarled. “Been there, done that.”

“Unless they are perfect, I want to discourage people with talent agents. The unsigned models get to keep all the money and we can build a pool of models for our own agency.” Carol tossed in, “Models, artists, musicians, plumbers, all the same to me. The deal is to get the names to the right people. We are in the ‘right people’ business.”

“And we keep their books, too.” Anne added. “As an incentive, get them a cheap pay as you go phone so we can contact or be contacted by them instantly. Us, Ten Penny and 911 on autodial for their piece of mind. Usage over thirty minutes a month is on them and we better not get a busy signal. We vet their jobs to prevent abuse or unreasonable requests.”

“Good dependable models can even staff the stores.” Carol was filling the gaps with choices.

“This is why we have Sunday to finagle details. One calls up another. Tuesday it goes live. Get a good night’s sleep and we really go nuts in the morning.” I yawned dramatically, not having to fake it. “There is a soft recliner calling my name and it is rude to refuse such a sweet voice. See you tomorrow.”

Sleep hit me like a ton of sand. The girls did whatever they did.

At 5:00 AM three of them did what they do. Yumi, Suki and Mika woke me up under a soft pile of squirmy girl parts. One on each shoulder and Mika on top, they had insinuated themselves in during the night. “We want to talk, Master.” Yumi opened up.

I laughed. “I’m trapped. Talk to me.”

“We, meaning all of us, want to know if we really are in charge of all these things.”

“Of course you are, not singly but in the sense that you are part of the group in charge. Be more specific.”

Suki said softly, “No one ever trusted any of us before to make big decisions. Except for the Baker Triplets, we’ve never been in charge of anything important.”

“We talked a bit after you went to sleep and discovered we’re not the only ones wondering. We just a bunch of teens trying to get through the day mostly.” Yumi whispered. “You dreamed it up.”

Mika whispered, “You are the business person. We don’t have your experience. Are you sure?”

“We wouldn’t be having this conversation if I wasn’t. You won’t have my experience until you get started. Every girl is in a group of girls with different histories. You seem to be sharing information well and best of all, you’re filling in the blanks.” I admitted, “I’ve been into computers since I was your age. I still have to do upgrades to account for changes in the market.”

“We’ll be playing with a lot of money. That’s scary, Master.” Yumi said

“That makes it real. It’s easy to play Monopoly© with fake dollars. It focuses your concentration when the money is real. You can afford to take the chance, you know that, but you don’t want to screw up. You’re afraid to fail.”

“We don’t want to screw it up for the other girls.” Suki cut to the real point.

“They are as responsible for success as you. Every choice is a committee decision. Credit is shared as well. I actually have faith in you and the project or I wouldn’t be backing it.” I cautioned, “It won’t happen overnight and there will be some resistance and bad press. But I strongly believe Airwear will catch on faster than we think. Bikinis get smaller and smaller. Topless beaches are no longer the scandal they once were. This is just taking the trend to the next level. One thing we can depend on: Girls will be girls and there ain’t a damn thing anyone can do to stop ‘em.”

“History has shown that the children lead the way.” Amy voiced from the sofa. “The Flapper Girls were close to where we’re going in the Roaring Twenties. It’s taken nearly eighty years to get back on track.”

Leah’s voice drifted in. “You’re not screwing it up. Every season the clothes get more daring. Skirts get shorter, shirts get thinner and tighter, necklines get lower, showing more cleavage. School dress codes have to adapt because the parents do. The School Boards hire principals and parents elect School Boards. If the girls are censured too hard by the school administration, the parents who adapted to the styles get new board members to deal with a changing reality. It’s much easier to change the rules than it is to change their daughters.”

Apparently I was the last to wake up. Seventeen pairs of ears were listening to my early morning answers.

“Give a schoolgirl a uniform and she rolls the skirt shorter, opens an extra button on the blouse, or ‘forgets’ to wear a bra. We’ll do it as much to dare the other girls as to tantalize any boys, mostly to push back against the rule makers who want us to pretend we’re not growing up. Young girls want to look like real girls. What’s the use of growing all this embarrassingly obvious stuff if you can’t have fun with it? The guys are usually too dorky to notice at that age and the ones who do are too creepy to bother with.” Jenny expanded the list of reasons Airwear was a good idea.

“I would be an Airwear Girl.” Ellie giggled. “It started with my instinctive girly teasing. I carried the dirty clothes topless to the laundry room for the thrill of doing something so sexy. Boss caught me; I got flustered and showed him my tits full frontal. He let me slide that time. Well, he did say I had nice tits. Crazy embarrassed but excited at the compliment.”

“Ellie, you could have run around all day topless. Wouldn’t have bothered me a bit.” I laughed out loud. “Not in a way that was a problem at least. Just be honest about it. But don’t tease without being ready to pay up.”

Amy said it really got started when revealing pajamas became nighttime loungewear and accelerated from there. “Once you get a reaction, get appreciation, you want to go closer to the edge to get more.”

“As long as you were exhibiting yourselves on purpose, it was cool. I’m a guy who likes pretty girls. If you wanted me to catch glimpses at those sweet tits, I was willing to look.” I said, “But Ellie reverted to making it appear accidental. I called her out.”

“A spectacularly weird underwear selection one day with a sort of ‘accidental’ shirt malfunction had Amy and me sitting naked at the breakfast table with myself to blame.” Ellie sighed. “Boss made it clear that I had teased my clothes off and I had to stay naked all day. Amy, too, but voluntarily.”

Leah and Jenny told their part of the tale, which more than ever proved that Airwear had an excellent chance of success. Other anecdotes carved it in marble.

“Your morning confidence boost ambush makes my faith in you girls stronger. You’re using your own experiences to make good decisions for the right reasons and still ask more questions, trying to make it perfect.” I used the voice. “You wanted advice? Here it is: 1-Perfect is the enemy of the very good. 2-Waiting for perfect means you never fail because you never try. 3-’Very good’ succeeds simply because you try. 4-Having a ‘Plan B’ is planning to fail. 5-Plan to succeed and make adjustments on the fly.”

I looked out on a sea of hopeful faces. “No, we’re not ready to launch now. Build the website. Lay out the catalogue. Set the prices. Finalize the first offering. Locate the stores. Determine your sampling zones. Define your target demographic. Design the posters. Decide where to advertise.”

I singled out Karen and Jenny. “Do another fabric run before Luz and June pick up this morning. Do it now. Have it ready. Use girl-infused and slightly darker pink Airwear for the teacher’s, coaches’ or Moms’ samples. Well need all the colors and densities offered. Five hundred yard, 66-inch rolls won’t weigh much, but a couple dozen will eat some space.”

“To make it all work as planned, the crop tops have to be sized.” Anne said, “‘XS’ should fit me, ‘S’ made for Jean, ‘M’ for Eve, and ‘XM’ for girls taller. Package them separately in cute clear plastic bags, labeled by size. They are a little longer than ours, so cup size is not critical.”

“Which means we need the poly bags and the cards.” Eve took charge. “Suki, make a logo for Zephyr Star Airwear. Start with the diamond. Beth and Yumi, we need a website address ASAP. Mika and Ellie, find a map of Manhattan school districts on the Internet. Overlay that with private schools and academies, and then per capita income estimates. Diane, help them pinpoint the sample distribution locations, adjusted for cultural attractions. MOMA and the Met are good, The Empire State Building and Times Square, not so much.”

Jane said, “Amy, Caralyn and Irina have to finalize the product line. Use your experience to estimate sales vs. style. Bring Patty in to get her observations and advice. Your four vastly different backgrounds give you insight into every girl’s taste and boundaries. Use your intuition and go with the first impulse.”

“PR and Publicity need to have posters and small 5 x7 advertisements in the alternative press and niche news sources the day before the samples go out. Get some curious buzz going, and then attempt to feed it. Price bus stop ad space. Keep it low key at first, then amp it up.”

“Ok girls, make some coffee, organize a breakfast buffet and let’s get started. We know what to do. We know how to do it. We have to get it done. Keep interactions tight, be aware of how you fill in one another’s gaps and get a move on. If you have no objections, I’ll investigate the Lexington Avenue and Broadway areas for available properties. Willis Willoughby may know locations not yet listed. He’ll get on the case as soon as I tell him price is no object.”

Karen and Jenny had the material on the porch when June and Luz arrived at the gate. The girls had decided that a clear 4x4x½ inch rigid box was a better presentation. Suki’s logo, a ‘Z’ superimposed on a star in a diamond, received approval by acclamation. Beth ordered several thousand inserts on heavyweight card stock, overnight delivery to Bright Star’s address. The domain name, www.ZSAirwear.com, was already reserved.

We added the tagline ‘Proudly Made In USA of 50% Fairy Breath/50% Unicorn Shadow/50% True Freedom. Machine Washable.’ to the card. I added ‘Airwear’ below the star.

We were fully committed now and the girls went into a highly organized frenzy lasting for hours. By nightfall, the group had a working business model. The website needed product shots, the posters lacked people. Individual garments we could shoot on a flat surface and color by computer. The Bakers, cute as hell and old enough, volunteered to pose for the first ones; back shots only, no faces. We would shoot locations on the way home. Donna Evans knew a place to get them printed on the same day. Posters would be in position by Tuesday, wherever the position was.

The website would go live as soon as we posted the catalogue pictures. The blog and photo sharing was a done deal. The first 50 girls to send pictures would have their next order doubled, free. I would have the secure financials completed when the banks opened tomorrow morning.

They added actual panties, tap pants, a bed jacket that wouldn’t close enough to cover boobs, a bandeau and a standard bikini to the line. Two-piece sets could be mix and match. The degrees of transparency were called ‘cellophane’, ‘half-sheer’ and ‘solid’. Color names were pastel or strong in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. But they did like black, white, clear, beige and smoke. Rainbow and a few neutrals, that was the way to go. No ‘loden’, ‘autumn maple’, ‘periwinkle’, ‘sand’ or ‘sunset’ nonsense. They decided to call the apparel line ‘Airwear’ and the material ‘multimodal transgossamer’. We would register both as trademarks (™). Albert Gonzales got more emails.

The designs were too much like others to patent. A skirt was a skirt.

The sisters dragged out three top-of-the-line Nikons for test shots around the pool. Test shots demanded a fashion show; the show really was a show. The Tanners had lots of regular clothes, the Bakers had their school uniforms plus a full suite of Airwear Cellophane and everyone was spilling poses out the wazoo. Some of the best were a street-legal bikini with or without the top under a sheer dress, the school shorts with a halter-top or crop top, and the logo bikini with anything or nothing.

The setting could be any public pool anywhere. Everybody got in on the act.

Facing the pool, from the back, the shots were great, especially those with the other girls in regular swimwear in and around the water, staring at the ‘models’. Shock, surprise, admiration and envy radiated from my little actresses.

‘Airwear: Is The Style’. ‘Shock & Awe: Airwear Strikes Again’. ‘Airwear: Don’t Follow The Trend. Be The Trend’.

By suppertime the plan was as good as it was going to get absent actual real time feedback. The girls began to preload the bus with anything that wasn’t needed in the morning, saving a lot of time. We cleaned up around the pool, closed the roof and went inside for a last meal. I turned on the news channel, mostly to see if the police had ‘discovered’ the cardboard coffins in Flushing.

Yes, and they were all worked up over it. Execution style murders tended to excite the average NYPD detective. Preliminary DNA results matched the dirty clothes with two of the overcooked corpses at the restaurant. Analysis of the boxed bones further indicated that the dessicated female was a sister to the male crispy critter. The other two, he with the deformed bones and the fried female, identities unknown or unreported, were at least cousins but were not related to the brother and sister remains. What a tangled mess with no one alive to figure it all out.

The Tanners were sister-cousins², that much was clear. I suppose it could have been more complicated.

The landlord admitted, under intense questioning, to ‘renting’ off the books. Dealing with tax evasion was marginally easier than a double murder rap. He had no idea who stayed in his defunct auto shop. He wasn’t that curious. All he knew was that the Oriental woman wore big sunglasses and a baseball cap the one time he saw her. They paid in cash to his PO box.

The crowds of reporters and cops had thinned on the West Side as the CSIs sorted through the ashes. I peeped at the monitors on the super-controller just to see what had the cops’ attention. Fortunately, neither Zephyr House nor the recently acquired buildings were in the crosshairs, just the regular vigilant snoopiness.

Thinking about ‘vigilant snoopiness’ reminded me to call my Very Important Paranoids.

“Why did you call so late on a Sunday night? Should the Agency be worried?”

“Not at all, Colonel Billings, I’ve sold off all but the most sensitive sections of Zephyr Computer Systems. ZCS is no more. However, I am a partner in the legitimate research and resource agency and I control my cyber security as carefully as I assist and enable yours. You and your associates will see no change in our dealings.”

Oddly, my contact was suddenly glad to take the call. “Mark, I’ll get to the point. One of the DoD’s reactivated covert ops teams, endorsed and funded by Langley, State and Arlington, has asked us to upgrade your clearance considerably and to issue unusually high-level access to three employees of yours. Tell me things.”

“Baker-Allyn Research and Resource Agency is me and three very intelligent women connected to virtually every important corporate back office in Europe and North America. They have unprecedented access to priceless gossip as a part of doing business. They are poised to become the front office for a number of small concerns including a certain personal security service.” I assured him. “Established in the business world, unassailable discretion, wired in and trusted, in a secure building that I own, it is a perfect asset for our purposes. I also have a house full of very intelligent and talented young women of unquestionable discretion who require top secret clearance to know what they already know.”