I know
we’ve vlogged Stacey before…okay, no we haven’t. We’ve (what’s this we crap? I must have multiple
personalities or something…) only vlogged Stacey’s Emergency. So let’s talk.
I
really think that someone came up with the title of this book, and then worked
out a convoluted plot line to fit the very punny tag. Stacey is modeling at an
event at Bellair’s Department Store called Fashion Week, which consists of
catalogue shoots and fashion shows. Someone keeps sabotaging the models and
shoots, so Stacey and the BSC investigate, and they find out the culprit was a
model with a very pushy stage mother. She wanted to stop modeling and thought
making it look like someone was out to get her would get her mother to back
off.
In the
B plot, Abby catches Buddy Barrett and Lindsey DeWitt getting ready to try a
cigarette, leading to the kids in town convincing various adults in their lives
to quit.
Interesting
Tidbits
The
cover: I think Stacey is the fashion
victim here. I do know the seventies were back around that time, but still. Ew.
This
book is going to be chockfull of outfits, isn’t it? I’m excited, but only if
the clothes are better than what Stacey’s wearing on the cover.
Remember
mini backpacks? Those were definitely
all the rage when I was a teen. Stacey wears one with her ‘business-y outfit’
for Take Your Daughter to Work Day, totally ruining the adultness of the
outfit.
What
did everyone do for TYDtWD? Stacey helped her mom be a buyer at Bellair’s.
Claudia went with her dad to his investment banking job, where she understood
nothing but lunch. (Sounds like a normal day at school for her, before she went
back to seventh grade.) Kristy rearranged her mom’s desk for efficiency.* Mary
Anne thought watching Richard—who’s a corporate lawyer at this point; that
seems to change on a regular basis—work was pretty interesting. Both Abby and
Jessi did their mom’s photocopying…and they both copied their faces.
*Do we
even know what Kristy’s mom does? She works in an office with a copy machine,
but I think that’s all I know about her job.
When
Stacey tells everyone she’ll be a model for Fashion Week, Mal and Jessi are
predictably against it, which is no surprise. They also had a problem with the
Little Miss Stoneybrook pageant, remember? And Kristy is against it as well,
but mostly because Stacey won’t be able to do any sitting that week. (Typical.)
Interestingly, it’s Mary Anne—who’s experienced the world of catalog modeling
and commercial auditions with the Prezziosos—who suggests that some
non-professional modeling could help Stacey learn to be more independent and
confident.
Ooh, I
have a new goal in life: to become Princess Bellair. Forget using my brain for
anything!
Oh, and
I now have the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song stuck in my head. Think
Princess Bellair is related somehow?
Stacey
gets bored enough during the Fashion Week intro meeting that she lets Cokie
tell her all the gossip about all the other models. Stacey says she doesn’t even
like gossip. (Bitch, please. I don’t know a single girl her age who doesn’t
enjoy at least a little gossip. I do understand her point about the fact that
all the models want to do is badmouth each other behind their backs, but a
little rundown of who’s who, like Cokie gave, is something most of us can
appreciate on some level.) The title quote relates to this passage, only it’s
not from the book. It’s what my sister used to say when she was a small fry and
my mother used to try to get her to clean instead of whining and moping.
Oh, and
then guess who’s gossiping with Claudia about one of the models a couple pages
later…
So the mystery
begins in earnest at the end of chapter five. Before that, we are introduced to
only some of the people involved in Fashion Week, so each of the people with a
name is automatically a suspect. I give you:
Mrs. Maslin, who runs the show
Harmony Skye, a ridiculously named
up-and-coming model
Sydney, the latest thing in
fashion**
Cynthia, who’s past her peak (at
sixteen)
Blaine, a local girl who is just
getting started and trying to break into the big time
Mrs. Skye, a totally obnoxious stage
mother
Roger Bellair, who used to date
Sydney and is working on the shoot
Dylan Trueheart, the agent who
‘discovered’ Cokie
**If
Sydney’s that big a model—she was on the cover of a teenage fashion magazine
recently—what the **** is she doing surrounded by amateurs at a small-time
fashion show in Podunk, USA?
First
incident: Harmony, who hasn’t eaten all day, drinks some tea and then has
stomachaches, gets sleepy and becomes pale. Mrs. Skye thinks someone drugged
her.
The instructions
the photographer gives the models are laughable: “Okay, girls, let’s see you
act like long-lost sisters who are thrilled to see each other again.” But I’ve
read and seen other materials about fashion shoots, and they’re equally
laughable. I’m thinking about Tootie on The Facts of Life: “How can I make love
to a camera when I’ve never even kissed a boy?”
Second
incident (and a bunch of little ones that only get a sentence or two): Blaine,
Sydney and Harmony find some of their outfits from the shoot shredded. Someone
exposed a bunch of rolls of film. A model discovered a spider in her shoe
(although that might just be a coincidence.) Blaine gets locked in an elevator.
Harmony fell off the catwalk when she was blinded by the light. (I forget who
sings that song, but it’s now stuck in my head.) Someone got a rash from their
foundation—which is exactly why I don’t wear makeup. A bunch of creepy notes
keep showing up, written in makeup.
Claudia
spelling! Wacthing, shur, defenetly.
Wow,
this story is so boring that I can’t even find anything to mock.
I’m
amused by the fact that various people keep talking on ‘cellular phones.’ I
realize they were still sort of new technology—my friends started getting cell
phones in 98—but I can’t imagine using that many syllables to discuss something
that’s so common place these days.
Stacey’s
from New York, so when she references tall buildings, she mentions the Empire State
Building and the World Trade Center.
Incident
3: Stacey and Harmony lean on a railing on the roof of Bellair’s. It gives way
and they fall a few feet, not injured. Someone had removed the screws…and it had
been Harmony’s idea to stand against the railing.
I know
I’ve been very quiet about the B-plot, and that’s because it’s basically been a
non-entity. I don’t think it’s ever been mentioned in any of the books that
anyone smoked unless it was a specific plot point. (The girls on the SMS
softball team, for example, when they thought they’d burned down that shed with
their cigarettes.) I guess we’re supposed to be surprised that Franklin DeWitt
and Mrs. Hobart smoke, but I wasn’t really shocked to find that Watson occasionally
puffs on a cigar or that Aunt Cecelia smokes. If anyone in this book was going
to have a humidor, it would definitely be Watson.
Stacey decides
that modeling was fun, but she never wants to do it again. It would have been
an awesome spin-off series if she’d been discovered: much edgier than the California Diaries—with cocaine, affairs,
and even more gossip! I’m so sad we didn’t get that series.
Outfits
Stacey:
white linen blouse, navy skirt, heels; raspberry romper, white sneakers, white
baseball cap, pigtails; red/white striped bathing suit and cover-up, red flip
flops, straw hat, slicked-back hair; denim minidress, espadrilles, bangles,
French braid; pink wool jumper; plaid skirt and white shirt; navy blue suit;
trendy jeans, tight shirt, platform shoes; flowery, ankle-length dress
Claudia:
white jeans with artistic paint on them, denim shirt (stealing Dawn’s attire, I
think), high top sneakers, chopsticks in her hair
Harmony:
long skirt, crop top; neon paisley miniskirt, white gogo boots, fluffy white
jacket (this outfit is making my eyes hurt and I can’t even see it)
Watson:
a tux (seriously)—and all the rest of the Brewer-Thomas family also dresses up
Next:
#108
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