Gypsy Wedding Dreams: Ten dresses. Ten Dreams. All the secrets revealed.. Thelma Madine

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СКАЧАТЬ we got the dad in and offered him a coffee. He was thrilled to be out of the firing line and before long, Ashleigh had found her way back inside too.

      ‘I’ve never seen a dress like this in my life,’ her dad said, nodding at the mannequin. ‘It’s something else. But I knew she’d be like this – she’s like this wherever we go.’

      She was sobbing and stammering, big wracking sobs that went through her whole body.

      The drama was non-stop. You’ve never seen anything like it in all your life. I mean we’ve had reactions in our time – this place is no stranger to a tantrum. But I have never, ever seen a girl react like that – about anything. It was un-believeable! Especially as she couldn’t even specify what was actually upsetting her.

      ‘What is it?’ I said for the umpteenth time. ‘What is actually wrong?’

      It was time for me to put my foot down, as it looked as if no one else was going to. ‘Stop screaming or I’m not going to let you have the dress at all – I’ve had enough! You tell me now: what is it that you want?’

      ‘Well,’ she began, her shoulders still juddering. ‘Do you think, um, well … What do you think, so what can I do about …?’

      Sheepishly she pointed at some areas that she felt weren’t up to scratch. She really was pulling at straws now …

      ‘Right! You want some of those flowers filled in. I have told you now that your mum does not have the money for any more.’

      ‘But I want a bigger flower here!’ Her bottom lip wobbled.

      In the end we agreed to shuffle some stuff around, to create a different, fuller look. We moved flowers to create different effects.

      But then when she tried the dress on, the problems started all over again. ‘I want it tighter,’ she demanded. ‘I want it tighter!’

      ‘Well, if you want it even tighter than this then we’re going to have to take an inch off each side because the corset is overlapping now.’ Seconds later she’d be gasping: ‘Ooh, I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! Why, Thelma, why?’

      ‘You’re saying you can’t breathe and you want it tighter?’

      ‘Yes, but I still want it tighter.’

      ‘But if you can’t breathe now, and you have it tighter, think what it’s going to be like then.’

      ‘Oh, I think I’m going to faint – I just can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!’

      In the end, I just said: ‘Yes, we’ll do that,’ just to make her think she’d had it her own way.

      It was still another day’s work, though, and we’d put a ridiculous amount of effort into that dress already, and we all knew that she’d just been saying things because she needed to justify the fuss that she’d made – there was no other explanation.

      The next morning she returned to see the finished dress with its amendments. Every single girl in the company had worked extra to get that dress how she wanted it: extra flowers, taking in the corset, all of it. In this instance crying really did get her what she wanted, despite everything I’ve always told Katrina, my youngest. I hate to say it, but we just wanted shot of her.

      She couldn’t hide the smile on her face when she came in, though – she absolutely loved the dress, and we knew it.

      When she put it on, she looked a dream and she could not have been more charming – you’d never have known she could be such a terror and she even laughed about her behaviour with us.

      I told her that she’d made such a fuss that I’d put her in this book but she just grinned and looked thrilled that her attention-seeking mission had proved such a success.

      But in time, when I had had a bit of a think about the drama, I came to the conclusion that she really wasn’t worried about the line of diamonds running across her cleavage that she had mentioned – she was panicking that she was about to lose control over her parents because she was soon to become a married woman. She didn’t know if her husband would be as quick to bend to her will, even though her dad told me he was very laid back!

      I think that if she’d had those 29 flowers ripping the fabric to shreds as she’d requested, she would still have done the same thing. It was her transition to womanhood that she was crying about, not the dress. She just wanted to keep her mum and dad to hand to keep sorting things out for her, even though on this occasion there wasn’t anything to sort out. It was kind of checking, to keep up her skills as best she could. I never went to that wedding, though. When she left the shop, I leant against the door and slid down it in relief.

      A week later I phoned to see how it had gone and she said the wedding wasn’t for another month. She had lied about the date to get the dress there with enough extra for a little tantrum time!

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      Even when pushed to the limit by drama queens like Ashleigh, I do usually end up being fond of the girls that we work with. They are usually so grateful afterwards, or on the big day itself, that it all seems worth it and I tend to forget about the time I spent tearing my hair out. I like to think that I’ve got pretty good at working with the traveller community now, that I’ve seen it all. I know their customs, I understand what’s important to them and I admire their sense of style – the way that they’re not influenced by fashion in the traditional sense.

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