Marinette has talent and connections. By all means, she should be a celebrity, but she doesn't want. Let me correct that, please.
Day 5: Celebrity
According to Lila, in far too many things connections and visibility counted more than actual talent when it came to have success-and fashion was one such thing. That had been why she had talked Marinette into leveraging the fact she had made stuff for Jagged Stone (including his iconic Eiffel Tower goggles)-or rather, having him say where did those goggles came from. There would also be a certain bowler hat, except Gabriel Agreste had already promised just that and, being a man of his word in spite of his (many) faults, was about to have the face of his company show it off at a Fashion Week event, with only a single modification caused by him not being heartless enough to have any of his models, let alone his own son, wear something he's allergic to. Still, the more visibility the better-and the very same event where Gabriel would keep his promise had offered Marinette a chance to impress THE Queen of Style-Chloe's mother. That, had Lila not provided the blonde "incentive" to act as a decent person, could have been poisoned against Marinette instead of being her caustic neutral self.
"What, you want my support and don't have any glitter?" the woman demanded, her partiality for glitter being well known.
"I never had a chance to use it, so my skills with it aren't developed." Marinette replied with a calm she didn't really feel, her friends giving her the courage to face someone who could make or destroy her with a tweet.
"And just for not being an imbecile you're better than almost anyone who comes for my support. Now, that hat I've been told you've made... How long did you have, exactly?"
"A few hours."
"Then I suppose it's acceptable. And the feather, why synthetic?"
"That would be me." Adrien admitted. "It was originally an actual pigeon feather, but I'm allergic-"
"So your father decided to spoil you and replaced it." the woman stated, taking a better look at the hat. "And an interesting anti-plagiarism feature-did someone try and steal your design at the contest? If yes, did you film them?"
Somehow, Alya and Lila managed to not snicker at the look on Chloe's face. Then the Queen turned to Lila, who for once wasn't wearing an outfit with her omnipresent orange jacket but a red two-pieces suit with skirt, all decorated with embroidered fox motifs, and they shut up.
"That too, I take?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am." Lila replied, enjoying that Marinette's present for one of the missed birthday was enjoying her attention.
"Well, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, why don't you come to New York with me? I can make you into a star."
That was something none of the presents had been expecting. And it came from someone notoriously short tempered, who could well change her mind and ruin Marinette's career on a whim. The presents risked to lose their friend, crush, and heroine, either to New York or the stress that would come from the Queen of Style's temper.
"I-I, well, cannot." Marinette replied, somewhat timidly.
"Dating your model is highly unprofessional, young lady." Audrey stated.
"We're not dating!" Marinette protested with a blush.
"I'm not planning to become a model." Lila pointed out while appreciating her crush' blush.
"I would hope so, with those hands." the fashion influencer stated, referring to Lila's hands and the signs of her combat sport conditioning(1). "Then what is it?"
"I'm, well, I'm just not ready." Marinette explained. "I'm still learning, and-"
"Talent and a brain, both well developed! Finally, I didn't get someone like you since I dragged Gabriel out of the cupboard he made his earlier designs into! You'll go far, and I'll be damned if anyone tries and ruin that! You'll be the new Coco Chanel, and without her indiscretions(2)!"
And with that, Lila knew they were settled. They could finally go after Gabriel Agreste and get poor Adrien out of his clutches. Then Agreste's secretary showed up and directed the Bourgeois family to their seats-in the second row.
"Get cover, I think she's gonna get Akumatized and your father isn't around." Lila whispered to Adrien as she saw the Queen of Style protesting the "humiliation". "Get in the nearby pavillion, there's a big kickboxing event there and the fighters should provide you some time."
Notes
(1)Some practitioners of combat sports and martial arts, especially those who expect to strike someone bare-handed, go through hard training to reinforce their hands, as those limbs are relatively fragile (the whole point of boxing gloves and similar protections being to prevent someone's hand breaking while punching someone in the face). An external sign of this training is scars and calluses on the back of the hand from striking a heavy bag, a makiwara, or another implement to be struck, rigorously bare-handed. Please do not do it unsupervised-there's a reason boxers usually use gloves anyway when doing bag training.
(2)Coco Chanel was a staunch conservative who used World War II as an excuse to close her shops and get back at workers that had gone on strike for better wages, an anti-Semite who used the German occupation of France to try and decide to her advantage the dispute she had with two Jewish businessmen about the property of Parfums Chanel (for which they had provided all funds and they had a well-defined contract), and collaborated with German intelligence during the occupation.
