{"id":77348,"date":"2014-09-25T18:24:22","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T22:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=77348"},"modified":"2014-09-26T11:17:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T15:17:24","slug":"design-for-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/25\/design-for-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Design for Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"designedbystacey\"<\/a>At the age of fifteen, I embarked upon a get-rich-quick scheme that I incidentally felt was a really valuable public service. I planned to make audio recordings of the various midcentury career romances I\u2019d collected, and then to somehow duplicate them, sell them to a clamoring public, and make my fortune. Of legal issues, recording technology, and demand, I knew nothing. But I was armed with my dad\u2019s tape recorder, a dream, and a copy of Designed by Stacey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written about Marcia Miller\u2019s 1967 masterpiece before<\/a>, for Jezebel, and I stand by my endorsement of it:<\/p>\n

\n

What it lacks in accurate depiction of the fashion industry, it more than makes up for with wild plot twists, vague anti-Semitism, and amazing sixties clothes. Indeed, I\u00a0would go so far as to call DbS<\/em> the gateway drug of career romances: lite on career, heavy on bizarre, and one hell of a page-turner.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My fifteen-year-old self knew it would be catnip to the buying public. Our story and my tape begin with Stacey Harrison\u2019s triumphant return to San Francisco\u2014and her newly married, successful architect father, Con\u2014after studying design in Paris. We are immediately treated to a description of our heroine\u2019s \u201cslim height, the smooth and shining chestnut hair, swept high on her head above large, dark-lashed gray eyes \u2026 the tawny skin with pale gold freckles across the bridge of the tipped nose, and the well-shaped mouth parting over even white teeth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although dismayed by the chilliness of her feline new stepmother, Kay, Stacey happily settles into a brand-new apartment complex, The Towers, \u201ca great spire of concrete, steel and glass\u201d with \u201can arcade with excellent shops, maid service and transportation to any point in the city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She immediately lands a coveted position in the exquisite atelier of the couturier Madame Ninon, sketching designs for customers. Madame Ninon has a sullen, intriguing nephew called David Maclean who stalks around being furious and snubbing Stacey; later we learn this is because he was abandoned by his mother and is afraid to love. This is how we know he is softening towards Stacey: when he runs into her at a seafood restaurant on Fisherman\u2019s Wharf (she is sporting a camel coat), he says smolderingly, \u201cMay I suggest the Captain\u2019s Favorite?\u201d<\/p>\n

As to Madame, she is the closest thing we see to an actual professional. \u201cLine is everything,\u201d she says. \u201cA good couturiere can visually translate a woman into many different women, and this is done by line, not ornamentation. A couturiere must be like a writer and say what must be said in as few words as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In due course, Stacey\u2019s natural talent is discovered. She designs a gown that Madame Ninon adores; that gown is given its own launch party, but Stacey shows up to find a competitor has stolen the design; then she finds out her father has unexpectedly died. There are a couple of other characters, too\u2014this decoy beau called Kirk and an enigmatic actress, but they don\u2019t have much to do.<\/p>\n

It took me quite some time to make my recording, although I did it in a single take. I was determined to bring to life Stacey\u2019s cool elegance, Madame Ninon\u2019s fire, David Maclean\u2019s inexplicable fury. I tried to make Kay\u2019s accent confusing, so as to forecast the reveal of her hidden background. I didn\u2019t actually plan to market the product with my own vocal talents\u2014I had vague plans of hiring actors\u2014but I figured this prototype would net me what seed money I needed for recording studios, cover art, and other vague essentials. And secretly, I thought my version was pretty good.<\/p>\n

I invited my friend Ajana over and sat her down to listen to my tape. For maximum awkwardness, I sat next to her while it played. After the first few chapters, I turned it off. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d I demanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d she said carefully. \u201cAll the voices sound \u2026 kind of the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was totally deflated, and stuck the tape in my desk. I found it this week. I sound like a disgruntled member of the Lollipop Guild in a wind tunnel, albeit sometimes with an unintelligible French accent. \u201cDesigned by Stacey: DEMO\u201d I wrote on the cassette\u2019s adhesive label. I\u2019m not sure it would survive a copyright lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the age of fifteen, I embarked upon a get-rich-quick scheme that I incidentally felt was a really valuable public service. I planned to make audio recordings of the various midcentury career romances I\u2019d collected, and then to somehow duplicate them, sell them to a clamoring public, and make my fortune. Of legal issues, recording […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[6368,15441,15440,15442,15439,53,10030],"class_list":["post-77348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-audio-books","tag-career-romances","tag-designed-by-stacey","tag-entrepreneurial-schemes","tag-marcia-miller","tag-reading","tag-romance-novels"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDesign for Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on Marcia Miller\u2019s 1967 romance masterpiece, \u201cDesigned by Stacey.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/25\/design-for-living\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Design for Living by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 25, 2014 \u2013 At the age of fifteen, I embarked upon a get-rich-quick scheme that I incidentally felt was a really valuable public service. 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