Chapter 8

The following morning Andrew was at Hermès’ head office at 7.30, as per the note left for him at the hotel reception. He had done his usual run in the Tuileries and was looking forward to the week. He had remembered to bring and wear his reflective jacket as it was still dark when he was there. Manon came and collected him from the staff entrance and they went up to her office. They chatted for a few minutes catching up on the last three months. They spoke or wrote regularly and so there were no surprises.

“Thank you for coming in so early this morning Andrew. I wanted to give you an idea of what is happening over the next two weeks. Our biggest issue is that Chiara is not able to come to Martinique. Your adverts with her are still well thought of and importantly are still shown. So we want to shoot something with her this week. The problem is that the Italian tax authorities are claiming that she owes them back taxes. Now nobody here knows whether that is correct or not but her issue is that she is not allowed to leave the country until the case is resolved.”

Manon stopped and corrected herself.

“Resolved. Ha, with the speed of Italian justice. She has a preliminary hearing where she can petition to be allowed to travel. It should be granted and it is scheduled for early in the new year, which of course is no use to us right now. So we would like you to fly to Florence on Wednesday evening, shoot with her for two days, mainly in a studio there but with exterior shots in both Florence and Pisa. Then back here on Friday night to fly on Saturday afternoon to Martinique. We have replaced Chiara on that shoot with a local model, and we have the option of three or four others if she does not work out. The other four models flying out are unchanged, Heloise, Renee, Mathilde and Eve. You leave on Saturday at the end of the week, fly overnight back here and you will be in Paris on Sunday late morning. That is the 21^st I believe. We are asking you to do the Italy trip so all the travel time will be classed as working.”

Andrew thought about what Manon had told him.

“Veronique and Michel are coming to Martinique?”

“Yes they are.”

“This week?’

“They will do the shoots here in Paris but it will be Antoine, her assistant that will do the two days in Italy, with Hector as the cameraman. Albertine will send clothes, scarves, bags, everything you will need, so they will be there for you. We are going to use local wardrobe and make-up people.”

Andrew knew Hector and had worked with him twice before and he knew Antoine by sight, he was often a second cameraman on the shoots in the studio in Paris.

“Antoine knows what he is doing? He is not going to use the chance to work on his own to be an idiot, get all flouncy and diva on us?”

Manon smiled at the question.

“This is a big break for him and Veronique has trained him well. We had him doing some of the shoots with the people we were trying out as your replacement in September. He was on his own there and it was him that contacted us with his concerns because he knew what we were trying to shoot, what Veronique captured with you.”

“Fine. Agreed. I am guessing that the outside shots are all the usual landmarks in the two cities. Is there anything in Pisa other than the Leaning Tower?”

“I am sure there is but that is the key shot, anchoring you firmly there. Florence there are more choices, the Ponte Vecchio, the Cathedral, the Uffizi. Hopefully the weather is not too bad. But the colder weather works well for the classic scarf tucked in the coat shot, while carrying one of the bags. We sent lots of coats, bags and hats for Chiara so there will be the usual multiple shots with different clothes to allow us to mix and match the commercials. The studio shots are standard, nothing that the two of you have not done many times before.”

“And Martinique?”

“Fun. That is the key thing. You are very good friends with Heloise and Renee, you work tremendously well with Mathilde and the shoots with you and Eve in July and September were.”

Manon stopped and looked at him.

“All I can say is that we were glad that Veronique shot some additional footage because the original scene at the stable was a little too racy even for this series. But we only swapped out the section right at the end.”

Manon paused before almost rushing on.

“When you jump off the horse, all hot and sweaty and you grab the towel to wipe your face before just throwing it aside.”

She was shaking her head.

“It was very powerful, very raw. There was a ferocity to your attraction, and Eve was channelling it too. The pair of you were very believable. Like I said, just a little over the top at the end but it launched two weeks ago, and has been much commented on.”

Only the initial cut had been on the end of the tape he had shown to Leslie and Julian. He shrugged.

“Good, I am glad that it is working. But in terms of the shoots, what does fun mean?”

“A lot of sailing and frolicking at the beach. The place we have booked for everyone to stay is on the south east side of the island. Most of the tourist development is in the middle or centre of the island and on the west coast. Apparently, it is more sheltered on that side, whereas the east coast is the Atlantic.”

“Is there a theme for the week? Is it going to be the same for all the models?”

“We are not sure. Where you are staying is not on the beach, it is up the hill but with great views. I think that there will be lots of shots on the patio, all with the view off in the distance. Lots of shots at the beach, trying to get some action shots with a boat. A lot will be the same as with Chiara in Cyprus. We are going to trust Veronique and the six of you to work something out. There is no point in trying to tell Veronique what to do when we are not going to be there. We are going to rely on chemistry and the location and see what comes out of it.”

She ended with a shrug that Andrew was very familiar with.

“Okay, so that is Italy and Caribbean dealt with, what about the next three days?”

“We have hired out the bar you showed me for two days. They will be open to customers for lunch but will close at 3.00 and then it is ours for the rest of the day. Monday and Tuesday afternoon and evening it is getting the music part recorded. There is one musician who has seen the commercials, has seen the behind the scenes film of the audition and shoot for the seven scarves last year and so she knows what to expect. She is 27 but has never done anything like this before. She passed the audition but standing naked in front of three women wearing just the little postiche is different than doing the same with the crew and being in your arms. It is a risk. But she is going to play the piano for the two models that can sing reasonably well. Not professionally, but more than passable. So it is you, the pianist and the singer, then we change clothes and it is another singer, again a model. We have decided to go with older models for your shoots for the rest of the time. They test well with our key buying public, what we call our key demographic. So this week we are pushing it again, 34 and 39.”

He shrugged.

“You do not care?”

“It is not so much that I don’t care but it doesn’t really alter the way I try and act. I shot with Mathilde and Jeanne in Courcheval, 36 and 18. Do you think I am believable, or more believable, with older models?”

“It was not that you were not believable with Jeanne it was just when you were with Mathilde it was better. So I suppose I hope that you will be as good as usual with these two. Any new model is always a risk. They cannot all be perfect, there have to be some where it is just good, or even great, so that when you see the perfect one it stands out. The worst commercial, by far, that you have ever done is the one with Alejandra, and that was our fault. A quarter are eight out of ten, another quarter nine out of ten, but the rest are ten out of ten and they stand out.”

“So we are playing, getting all the set up shots in the jazz bar. Are there customers? Will they be okay with sitting around?”

“We have a few employees that we are going to use, the same ones who play the other shoppers in the store shots.”

“Will they be enough?”

“I think there are eight or ten of them, something like that.”

Andrew thought about the jazz bar, it was hardly a cavernous room, but it could swallow 30 people and still look sparse.

“I think that is too few. I have gone there in the evening for a drink after dinner and it holds 60 people easily. Even when we were there at lunchtime it was quite busy. Eight will look silly, and will stand out.”

“Oh. Shit, wait here.”

Two minutes became ten and Andrew had closed his eyes when she burst back into the room.

“I don’t know what we can do. Can we go there at 11.00 when it opens so that I can check?”

“If the shoot does not start until 3.00 why am I here before 8.00 in the morning?”

“Three reasons. Albertine wants to check the fit of your clothes, for this week, for Florence and for Martinique. We wanted to shoot some store scenes as well.”

“For what?”

“You doing some browsing and then getting some scarves, something like that. Again, it is anchoring the shot, setting it in the store, highlighting all the products. Lots of changes of suit, lots of different purchases. Filler for the commercials that we can insert if needed.”

He shrugged. Not his favourite activity but so be it.

“What is the third?”

“Beatrice would like to see you.”

“About?”

Manon smiled resignedly.

“You can guess. She will tell you.”

They walked along to Beatrice’s office and just as they got there a man was leaving. What a coincidence that Andrew got to run into Beatrice’s boss, right at that moment! Jean-Louis Dumas was a great, great, grandson of the founder of Hermès. And as well as Artistic Director, Beatrice’s boss, he was also the Chief Executive of the whole company. This last point Andrew did not find out until much later. Dumas stepped back into Beatrice’s office and they spoke for a minute, no more. It was a classic fly-by. Andrew was thanked and extolled, Dumas was very pleased with the shoots, the whole thing was quick and simple and then he was on his way. Andrew belatedly realised what a big deal this was when Beatrice slumped back into her chair, uncharacteristically inelegant. There was a two minute pause while coffees were brought and then the three of them sat in her office.

“There is no point in being coy about all this Andrew. The shoots, the commercials are a great success. The increase in sales is noticeable and marked. We know, I know, that the contract is up next summer, but I want you to consider extending it.”

Rather than a long rambling speech full of platitudes Beatrice had been short and to the point.

“What am I missing? Remember the first shoot, the photo shoot with Heloise. I was nearly fired for being crap. The first commercials, you would not have used me but for Heloise insisting. It was still a struggle with Chiara, despite how well it turned out in the end. There are other male models, more natural, able to speak unaccented, fluent French which widens your options in the shoots. I just don’t get why you want someone who is still a complete amateur.”

“There are three things. You are full of good ideas, there is a creative streak in you; you are not a complete amateur, in fact you are thoroughly professional, take direction well and are a pleasure to work with; and you have a chemistry with older models which we have been unable to duplicate. Hermès has developed a reputation for being very progressive, challenging preconceptions about age. You test incredibly well with our key customers. That our commercials are racy, highlighting sexiness, lustiness is something that is resonating with our customers. That is why you are working with Capucine, she will be 40 next year. We want to see how far we can push it.”

“Is there really no one else?”

Beatrice sighed.

“You were very clear about the end of this arrangement, this is hardly an unexpected occasion. When we agreed right at the start I did not know whether we would still be using you at the end of the contract. But instead we have been auditioning for your replacement for a long time. The younger models do not work as well with the older models we are trying to use in these shoots. When the women are under 27 then these men are okay, but older than that and it is not working. Look I know that you are not going to say yes to me right now, today. All I would like is for you not to say no. Please go away and think about it.”

“I graduate in June, the shoot in July is the last of my student time. I will be working full time from next summer.”

It was a day of sighing.

“We know. We wondered about weekends, ten days a year.”

Andrew had to stifle the urge to just laugh out loud. Just that past week he had accepted that he was going to work in intelligence, or at least apply, and finally his life was getting a little less complicated. And now this. He promised to think about it, if only to get him out of the meeting. Manon didn’t say anything as she walked him over to wardrobe department and into the hands of Albertine. Andrew thought about what Beatrice had asked as Albertine fussed all around him, making sure that the suit draped appropriately. At least he thought that was what she was doing. It was a mindless task as he got dressed and changed repeatedly with all the suits, coats, everything needed for the next two weeks.

“There you are. Ready to do some shopping?”

Andrew kissed Veronique in greeting. He checked that Albertine was finished with him for now and then followed her down to the store.

Andrew had never taken a sociology course in his life so it was with his engineer’s eye that he assessed everything. But later when he tried to explain it to his friends the first two days felt like a sociological experiment. Because Andrew met his fans. And what was even more interesting was they were not fans of him per se but fans of what he represented. When he got down to the store the day started off well because it wasn’t just him that was dressed up, Michel was all dressed up as well. With a look on his face of ‘don’t say a fucking word’! Andrew resisted temptation and listened to what Veronique was looking to achieve from the shoot. It was basically as Manon had said upstairs. But rather than have pretend customers in the store before it opened they had decided to just discretely shoot him while the store was open. With real customers.

The Salon was being used as a changing room as usual and after two separate purchases he nipped upstairs to change suit. When he returned and was browsing the cologne section of the store he was approached by a customer. The initial comment was something along the lines of ‘is it really you?’ and when Andrew smiled and confirmed yes, she was delighted. And Veronique left the camera running. She was clearly a great director but it was those moments that made her brilliant. Much later, it might even have been the following week when they were talking about the two days while on Martinique, she explained it was something about the look on the woman’s face that gave her pause so she let the camera run. Andrew was much more fluent in French than even a year ago, he and Olivia had spoken only French two days a week all year, but he did have to ask the customer to repeat several parts of what she was saying, the speed of the French language always got him.

The exact words in the conversation were quickly lost in the two days that followed. The points were that the commercials were funny, sexy and made her think. Andrew thought at the time that the last point was odd. She wasn’t all fangirl over him, she was pleased to meet him but not fawning, and she was articulate in her views. With everything that followed, it was probably crucial that this first real customer was thoughtful. What started as Andrew politely listening to her turned into a conversation about why she enjoyed the commercials.