On Friday afternoon, Adán Rouco came home early from work, picked up Paulita from daycare and took Estrella Berrocal to the Grand Style Marriage design contest.
The scene was crowded and Adán Rouco feared that Paulita would get lost, so he kept hold of her.
Paulita had her arms around Adán Rouco’s neck, and because of Adán Rouco’s height and Paulita’s wide vision due to being attached to the man, she saw Ricardo Prats in the crowd at a glance.
“Dad, Estrella, I’ve seen Ricardo!”
With a small gesture from Paulita, the eyes of Adán Rouco and Estrella Berrocal peered out, and Ricardo Prats, who was there, seemed to have seen them and came over.
“Brother-in-law, Star.”
“Ricardo, why are you here too?” asked Paulita curiously.
Ricardo Prats grabbed Paulita’s little hand and shook it: “Paulita, it’s been a long time”.
Paulita grunted with a pout, “Hmph, Ricardo doesn’t even come to my house to play with me. neither does Sister Perla Prats. ”
“Ricardo and Sister Perla Prats are quite busy…. Ricardo will play with you later when he is free. ”
Adán Rouco’s dark eyes narrowed as he looked at the design on Ricardo Prats’ hand and asked in a deep voice, “Have you really decided to go down this path? It’s not just for fun?”
Ricardo Prats laughed, “Man, I’m a trifle in your mind, I begged my dad for years when I studied art and design, I really love it.”
Adán Rouco pursed his thin lips and said nothing. Although Ricardo Prats was his subordinate and often gave the impression that he was a dogflautist, he was one, especially when it came to what he liked, perhaps more than the average person.
I wonder if Estrella is still on the boy’s mind.
When Ricardo Prats looked at Estrella Berrocal, a soft light passed under his eyes, although it was difficult to detect, but Adán Rouco’s eyes caught it accurately.
Estrella Berrocal grabbed Adán Rouco’s arm, arched her eyebrows and told him: “Ricardo, today you have to go all out and try to reach the final”.
“You too.”
“My wedding dress is on display there and it’s going to start soon, so Adam and I will go first and we’ll talk after the game is over.”
Ricardo Prats nodded: “Well, my part of the exhibition is about to begin. You guys go on.
Estrella Berrocal made her way to the east side of the venue with Adán Rouco on her arm and found several people already gathered around the wedding dress designed by Estrella Berrocal.
The format of today’s final round was unique in that not only did the judges score the entries, but many other designers in the industry were invited to view the entries and score them together, with the final score being calculated to determine the total score for the final round.
Estrella Berrocal stood a short distance away, nervous, as she watched the many designers mingling and discussing their work, sometimes taking notes in their notebooks with pens.
“Adam, do you think they will like the wedding dresses I designed? I looked at the wedding dresses the other designers were showing at the venue and they were all very pretty too.”
Adán Rouco commented matter-of-factly, “Your wedding dress does look a little plain if you don’t wear it and look at it by yourself, but these judges and designers are not like amateurs, they have a certain appreciation for this kind of work, so don’t worry. Later on you can also explain and elaborate on your work and have a chance to get points for that as well.”
Estrella Berrocal relaxed a bit and pulled Adán Rouco to the side, then took a deep breath and looked at Adán Rouco, who gave her an affirmative look before Estrella Berrocal straightened up and addressed the group of judges and designers.
“I am Estrella Berrocal, the designer of this wedding dress, so if you have any questions or curiosities about this piece, you can ask them and I will be able to answer them as a judge.”
One of the designers frowned and asked, “Miss Star, is this wedding dress too big for you? If a wedding dress is too big, it must not look nice on the body. Even the most beautiful models look tacky when they are overweight.”
Estrella Berrocal smiled and kindly replied, “This wedding dress was originally designed for fat girls, and this designer is right, as soon as a model is fat, it is easy for her to lose her beauty. But a wedding dress is something you can only wear once in a lifetime, and its audience is not at all those standard-figure models on the catwalk; in real life, most girls don’t have such a standard figure, but if we, as designers, were to design clothes, or even wedding dresses, according to the standard figure of the models, I think it probably wouldn’t make much sense that design.”
A little indignant at the defeat, the designer’s next question became more pointed: “But Miss Star, don’t forget that you are now designing this wedding dress for a competition, not for the public and promotion. And yet you avoid considering its practical value, haven’t you lost the sense of a work of art and design?”
Estrella Berrocal was momentarily caught up in the question and thought for a few seconds about answering, when an unfamiliar middle-aged male voice suddenly rang out from the crowd.
“Who says the meaning of design pieces and works of art is only for appreciation and visualization, if a piece of design can achieve beauty and practicality, and also the meaning of the design concept, such a work, it is the top good work.”
Estrella Berrocal looked back at the gentleman in the Chinese suit, in his 50s or 60s, affable looking but with a sharpness of opinion that was spot on.
Estrella Berrocal smiled kindly: “Thank you”.
The designer who asked the question pursed her red lips, momentarily blocking her train of thought, and did not raise her voice again.
The other designers scattered with disinterest, but the elderly gentleman did not leave, but looked very closely at the wedding dress designed by Estrella Berrocal.
“Miss Star, I would like to ask you why you suddenly wanted to design a wedding dress like this. The designer a moment ago was right, it is difficult to design a beautiful plus size wedding dress like this and you have no advantage, I would like to know what your original intention was.”
Estrella Berrocal looked at Adán Rouco, who was standing with Paulita in his arms, not far from her, and with a flash of confidence in her watery eyes, she withdrew her gaze and said to the old gentleman, “I designed this wedding dress, and it was my husband who inspired me at first.”
“Oh?”
“Another thing is that I just came out of the month after giving birth and my husband and I never had our wedding, but I gained a lot of weight because of the month and I told my husband that I hope to get my figure back like before I put on a wedding dress to have my wedding with him, but I thought, how can something as big as a wedding sometimes change the date just because you are fat or in bad shape? In this world, there are many girls with perfect bodies, but at the same time there are also many girls with bad bodies, but whether they are in good or bad shape, they should not be denied the right to wear a wedding dress, let alone the right to be the most beautiful bride on their wedding day. So I’ve designed this wedding dress so that girls with a less than standard figure can wear it to hide their body disadvantages and be the most beautiful bride on their wedding day.”