Lady in Red
June 8, 2007
Deborah's friend Angel started cleaning out her closet recently and has been giving Deborah first dibs on everything. Two weeks ago, Deborah came home after working with William and Angel at their furniture store, with several pairs of calf-length stiletto-heeled leather boots. White, black, tan, brown. "Which do you like best?" Deborah asked me while trying on each pair with every outfit she owns.
Last weekend, she came home with a bag full of bags. Prada, Chloe, Louis Vuitton.
"Are you sure these bags are fake?" I asked.
William is Chinese, and his mother goes to China often. Whenever she does, she comes back with a pile of knock-off designer handbags for Angel. I looked the bags over, smelled the leather, inspected the stitching, examining them closely for something that would give them away as knock-offs. I'm not an expert, but I couldn't find a thing.
Several years ago, a friend of mine directed a video shoot for a hoity-toity hotel chain. He sent one of the production assistants to buy a bunch of Louis Vuitton luggage off the street to use as props. When the hotel executive in charge of the shoot saw the assistant carrying the luggage into the lobby, she blew a gasket. "What are you doing with that stuff?"
"Props," the assistant said.
"Are you crazy? You can't use that cheap fake luggage. Don't you understand? We represent true luxury. Get those bags out of here immediately. Immediately! "
They hid the bags in a corner, under a blanket, and then used them to load out the equipment at the end of the day.
"I don't know how she could tell so quickly that the stuff was fake," my friend said. But when I saw the luggage myself, with its crooked stitching and vinyl trim, it seemed fairly obvious.
The bags Deborah got from Angel, on the other hand, were so good I doubt the hotel executive, or anyone else for that matter, could tell the difference.
"Those Chinese sure do good work," I said.
As I said, William is Chinese, while his wife is from rural Louisiana. Redbook magazine once approached the two of them for a story they were doing on interracial couples. Would they agree to be interviewed? William and Angel have some funny stories from when William first met Angel's backwoods relatives, and so they agreed.
"Does it bother you when she wears high heels?" the interviewer began.
"No. I like high heels. She looks good in them."
"But you would prefer it if she didn't, though, right?"
"No."
"Wouldn't you prefer it if she didn't dress so sexy?"
"Huh? No. Why?"
"Does Angel wear much red?"
"I guess so. Sometimes."
"Do you think she looks good in red?"
"I think she looks good in anything."
"Would you like it if she wore more red?"
"I don't know. I never thought about it."
When the story came out, It wasn't about interracial couples at all, but rather about men whose wives or girlfriends are taller than they are. At 5'10", William certainly isn't short, but Angel is close to 6 feet and likes to wear four-inch heels. There wasn't much to the article. "What the fuck was that all about?" they wondered. "Why did they even need to talk to us?" As it was, the only quote from William in the entire article was this:
"I wish Angel would wear more red."
