Chapter 5

We both had a laugh, and I added another note, ‘Get signwriting stuff’. I did a rough calculation based on the size of the figures and told her how much wall needed to be cleared.

When I left her, I went to the hardware store and bought a drop sheet and a stepladder, putting them in the car and then going to the artist supplies shop. There, I bought six canvases that I could work on while I was away, as well as a signwriters stick and the correct brushes. I asked about painting on walls an bought a range of colours in a long-lasting paint. Seeing that Josie wanted writing, I also took a set of letter stencils in upper and lower case. I could lightly pencil the outline and fill in the letters.

I was moving into a new way of working. I started on the mural for Josie, and that was finished well inside a week. It had been a good learning curve, doing the sign writing for the first time, and having to stand on a stepladder to paint. I had a couple of moments before catching myself from stepping back to take in the picture. When I had finished it, Josie organised a ‘Mural Special’ on the Saturday, where she cut a ribbon and had racks of left-over items at ridiculous prices.

We all attended, and it attracted a big crowd, with all six of us signing catalogues for the punters, as well as the mural with a texta. I came away with some additions to my own wardrobe, one being something I had been wearing in the catalogue.

I had learned a lot, which went into the email I sent to the owner of the Portsmouth shop where I would start the mural on the Monday. Robert had taken a picture of us all with Josie, and had sent it to all the other shops, telling them that I would be going anticlockwise around the country and that they would be notified before I arrive. He supplied me with my own laptop and an email address so that the owners could contact me directly with their thoughts on the subject matter.

After the Portsmouth job was finished, we had the autumn catalogue to produce, with the now-usual modelling and production of the artwork. As before, it was smooth, and we were ready and printed well before the start of the season. The gallery showing was successful, with the gallery taking on-line orders prior to the opening, with a dozen of our shops buying their page. The rest were bought by visitors. I bought the one which had me in the dress I was wearing to the gallery. That was one which I wanted on my wall at the house.

My next shop was Brighton, not one of the original outlets. They wanted a depiction of the “Pavilion” in the background with the owners in the foreground. The Portsmouth shop had wanted the “Victory” on theirs and had supplied a postcard of a painting of it at sea. I was learning new skills on the job, as I had never painted a ship or a building before.

I had that one finished and moved on to Hastings, before going home for the showing of my own works at the gallery. Henry had looked at them all and had declared that I was getting better, adding another thousand to the prices. I had the support of the girls and we all glammed up for the occasion. I was now able to afford some real jewellery for this and felt very glamorous as I talked to the gallery clients. Once again, nearly everything sold, so I would be expecting another windfall.

One thing that was unexpected was that Sally met up with a nice guy. He was the son of one of the council members, and had just completed his studies in IT. He came into the office and helped us upgrade the systems, knowing what the new programs could do better. Before the end of the year, she moved out of the house and moved in with him in his apartment.

The rest of us decided that we could maintain our costs with just the four of us, so there was a bit more room to play around in. Her room was bigger than the ones on the upper floor, so Monica moved down, leaving me with the two rooms on the top floor. I didn’t mind putting in extra to use the extra space to relocate my easel and work in progress.

Before the end of the year, we had produced a winter catalogue, and I had been to Folkstone and Dover, and we had been photographed for the spring catalogue, now working weeks ahead of what we used to. The suppliers were happy to come to the party as it gave them a longer time for the full production. We closed the office for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year, enjoying the time off.

This year, for the first time, I told the others that we were going to have a Christmas dinner at home. Monica had some skills, and I had some as well, so we clubbed together to buy in what we were going to serve and cooked the meal while the other two sat in the lounge. It was a successful event and we threatened to do it again, sometime. We joined the crowd at the ‘Angel’ as usual for the other meals.

Monica and I took a few days to go over to the Isle of Wight, staying in the hotel where we had stayed for the shoot. We were welcomed in and told that our summer campaign for the Island had been very well received. We spent those days just sightseeing, often in pouring rain, but it was away from work, so we didn’t care.

In January, I completed the murals for Canterbury and Chatham, as well as finishing the spring catalogue. There was a lot on the media about a bad flue strain that was starting to kill more and more people, especially older ones. Robert called us to the office for a meeting. He was wise enough to know that a pandemic would lead to a big loss of sales, and the rumours about lockdowns had him spooked. Sally had been looking at the internet since moving and said that a lot of other outlets had websites, showing us a few on her computer.

Robert was now used to how the business had changed, and understood that we needed better online presence, getting Sally’s boyfriend in to give us a website and training all of us in its usage. The three warehouses were told to upgrade and be ready for more small deliveries, with our carriers getting the same message. Between us, we designed our web pages and the payment system. All payments would come to a new account marked ‘Home Office’, with the shops getting credited with payments from sales within their area, so that they wouldn’t miss out. I spent a lot of time loading the system with the digital images.

I believe that we were thought crazy by some of the shop owners, but we were vindicated when the first lock-down was announced at the end of March. The shops all had to close, but we carried on selling online. It actually made more work for us as the office became the control room of the Hook and Hokem empire, from ordering to the sales. The four of us went into the office in our running outfits, in pairs, as that was allowed. Sally wasn’t far away so able to work. Marilyn couldn’t get in, so took half-pay leave.

We loaded up selected pictures from the spring catalogue, with a ‘New!’ against them and a special price. They had been ordered and some had arrived in the warehouses. It was a surprise as the orders came in, with a lot of people from all over the country having nothing to do but browse the internet. Josie was able to come in to help out where she could.

We kept Marilyn and Robert abreast of what was happening. As the lockdown eased in May, Marilyn came back to work and was brought up to speed with the system. Unfortunately, during that first wave, we lost three shops with the deaths of the franchise owners. Ipswich, Boston and Torquay, all new outlets that had opened in the last five years. As the premises were owned by the franchise, and the stock had all been paid for, they had auctions to clear and the shops were put on the market.

I had no time to paint anything. As soon as restrictions eased in the May to June, we had the summer outfits delivered and arranged the photoshoot with the studio. It was good to get out and about, and it took four days to complete the shoot. This time, Robert decided that we had done our last printed catalogue and would just upload the new line directly on the site, taking off all the previous autumn pictures.

We had another lock-down at the end of October to the beginning of December. We kept selling and the website was able to be used by every shop. The biggest thing that we learned was that we could now keep good stocktake records and knew more of what we were selling. We lost more shops in that period, with Rotherham, Ilfracombe, and Salisbury being recent additions, so we had nothing that we needed to do. Pembroke was one of the older ones, so Robert still had money owed to him, and the premises were auctioned for him to be paid out.

Throughout most of the year, Monica and I shopped and cooked for the four of us, we did go out when we could, but the two of us made sure the others ate their vegetables. I kept in touch with my parents and was happy that they had stayed at home and avoided getting the virus.

I was getting ready to start painting murals again when we had the next big lock-down in January, which lasted until May, another tough time for us, but we were able to work through it as before. This time, though, we lost more shops, Shrewsbury. Bideford, and Yeovil were recent additions, but Penzance had to be auctioned off. With a quarter of the stores closing, it affected the franchise fees, but we were selling close to the same volume. The thing was that the balance of the ‘Home Office’ account was growing, with sales in the closed store areas remaining with us, along with the sales from places where there had never been a store.

The five of us had carried the company as much as we could, and as things improved, we all needed a rest. One of the side-effects of the whole affair was that the workroom was being filled with extra staff to keep up with the online orders and allocating them to the correct warehouse for shipment. We also started to get returns, which needed a whole new system to handle. I was, as far as the internal work was considered, redundant. Robert had decided to use the modelling agency more for the photos, seeing that it didn’t cost him anymore and we were not out of the office for days. Some of the new girls could load the website with the images, and the site was now finished with my input with the artwork.

He hosted a lunch for the five of us and thanked us for saving the company from ruin. We would each get a week off, on full pay, to rest up, helped with each of us getting an envelope. Mine contained a cheque for two thousand pounds. I didn’t ask what the others got, but, by some smiles, it was around the same. I spent my week at the house, painting, and then I was going to be back on the road to do the rest of the murals, now just nineteen to go.

On the Sunday, I was loading up the car with the paints and other things when I got a phone call. It was from the manager of the modelling agency.

“Trixie, I see that you girls aren’t coming in to model for the next season. Can you tell me what’s happening?”

“We’ve been taken off that job. With the company now selling online, it was thought that it needed professionals. Print catalogues are now history.”

“That means that the artwork I bought will now become a collector’s item?”

“I suppose so. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Yes, there is. Are you going to be anywhere near London soon?”

“I’m just packing the car now. My shop mural painting had to take a break, and I’m heading off to complete the circuit. My next shop that is still open is in Millwall, then I’m at Holborn, before going into Essex. After that, I’m likely to be away for three to four months before finishing in Bournemouth.”

“Excellent. I will text you an address and contact number to call when you’re in London. A colleague of mine has been looking at your website and is taken by your looks. I know that you’re still a guy underneath, but she doesn’t, so you should take some time off to rectify the situation.”

“I’ll think about it, thank you.”

I ended the call and contemplated the conversation. That night I asked the girls about hormones and, when I left the next morning, I had several boxes of birth control pills, given to me by Gloria and Judith, who had no reason to need them.

I found the Millwall shop and unloaded my things. The owners were glad to see me and happy with the increased online advertising, as they were starting to get a lot of new custom. They wanted the Millenium Dome in the background, and I unloaded, laid the drop sheet and cleaned the space before leaving them to find the hotel I was going to stay at. I was going to take a lot more care with the murals, as I was likely to be looking for another job when I had finished.

I worked through the Tuesday and Wednesday, finishing it on Thursday morning. They wanted me to come in on the Saturday for the ‘Mural Sale’, so I cleaned up, packed the car, and went to the hotel. I rang the number I had been given and was asked to go and see them that afternoon.

It was a modelling agency, several times bigger than the one in Southampton, and I was welcomed in. I had been able to shower and dress better than my painting outfit and thought that I was reasonably presented. I wasn’t a patch on the girl on reception, or the others in the office. I doubted that any of them had even heard of Hook and Hokem.

The lady that I talked to, Yvonne Harrington, as we sat in easy chairs in her office, wanted to know about me, and how I had become a model. She had a couple of pictures from the website in a folder. I had to explain that it was because I was the graphic artist for the company, and it had been decided that all of the models would be the six of us that worked in the office.

“So, none of these had ever modelled before?”

“That’s right, only Sally and Monica were keen, but Gloria, Judith, and Marilyn were pulled in later.”

She called up the website and I had to point out the other five.

“The agency in Southampton will be providing the future models. We have far too much to do in the office to be off for several days in a studio.”

“You’re telling me that the six of you run the company?”

“Yes, the stores are run by franchisees, so there’s a coordinator, an office manager, an accountant, two that do stock control, and me. I started there to produce printed catalogues, but they’ve finished now we’re online.”

“So, why are you in London?”

“I’m painting murals in every store, well, every store that’s still open. I’ve just finished the one in Millwall, with them having a sale on Saturday. Tomorrow, I have to start one in Holborn, which is a bigger shop, so I expect that they will want a bigger picture. Then, I’m off to Essex and around the country. I think that I’ll be finished sometime around November.”

“Have you painted anything else?”

“Oh, yes. I started painting scenes of Plymouth to sell to the tourists. Since I’ve been in Southampton, I’ve had two shows in a gallery, with everything sold. There was another of forty originals of catalogue pages I had produced, a couple of years ago.”

“Do you have any photos?”

I pulled my phone out. Did I have any photos!!! I opened the file from the first show, which included my self-portrait. She worked through them, so I opened the second show, which she also looked at.

“You, young lady, are extremely talented, and lost to the world down there. If I offer you modelling jobs, would you be able to paint more, for sale here in London?”

“That would depend on where I can live. I share with three others at the moment and it’s quite reasonable. I do have some savings but would need a good income to live. I can’t start until I’ve fulfilled my work at Hook and Hokem, that wouldn’t go down well with me.”

“Well said. I can assure you that your talents will be used here. We have a graphics department that produces story boards for fashion shows and other posters. Come with me, I’ll show you, if I can find my way there, I haven’t bothered them in a year or so.”

She led me through the maze of corridors until we walked into a large room with four drawing boards, desks, and a couple of big printers. I looked around, seeing one older woman at a drawing board, one, quite stern-looking, sitting at a desk looking at a screen, and another young girl at the last drawing board. She was looking at us with wide eyes. Perhaps she had never seen her boss before.

She put her pencil down and walked towards us.

“Trixie? My God, you’re Trixie!”

She hugged me and the stern woman came over to us.

“Janice! Stop mauling Miss Harrington’s guest.”

Yvonne held up her hand.

“It’s all right, Wilma. Let Janice speak. Tell me, Janice, how did you know this is Trixie Southby?”

As Janice was trying to gather her thoughts, I was looking at the Hastings original for the catalogue that was on the wall behind her desk.

“Did you buy that when it was for sale in the gallery in Southampton?”

“My mother got it for me, for Christmas. She owns the Hastings store, and she thought that I would appreciate it. I started wanting to work in fashion when I was still at school. We went to Plymouth for a holiday, and I saw a painting in the market there. It was cheap, but I loved it, with all the girls in their summer dresses. I’ve kept every issue of the catalogue since the first. ‘Girl with a Curl’ one. I thought they were brilliant. Mum would bring them home. I’ve got the full set up to Covid in my desk.”

Yvonne wanted to see them, and the two them looked at the catalogues. Wilma stood beside me and spoke softly.

“So, you’re the Trixie that Janice has been raving about.”

“That’s me. Sorry I’ve upset the normal day in here. It’s a nice set-up. I had the same set-up in Southampton. It’s now pushed into a corner and the room is filled with desks and girls working on computers.”

“Are you here to work for us?”

“That’s up in the air. I was asked to come and talk about modelling. The artist bit came up in conversation, and here I am.”

Yvonne and Janice turned to us. Yvonne held up the catalogues.

“How much of these is your work?”

“I did the ‘Girl with the Curl’ one first, including the drawings. The dresses were taken from the suppliers pictures. I did all of the graphics up to the time we went to the website, then I did the website design. All the jingles are mine, as well. With that poster on the wall, I had visited all forty stores, and you have two catalogues there with the forty different locations.”

Janice giggled.

“I told you she was brilliant, Wilma. Now we’ve looked at the catalogues I can see her there in every single one. She is my hero, but it’s still that first painting that got me into fashion.”

“Fifty pounds at the Plymouth Market. Plymouth scene and girls in summer dresses. Signature is T.S?”

“T.S. Yes. Oh! Trixie Southby, of course!”

“That was my early efforts, Janice. It kept the wolf from the door. You’ll be happy to know that the last three of those Plymouth pictures sold for five hundred each at that gallery.”

Yvonne took charge and sent the others back to their desks, ushering me out of the room and back to her office, where we sat down again.

“Well, that was enlightening. That Janice is a clever girl, I had a sneak look at what she was working on. I should be looking into the back offices more often. Now, what do we do about you?”

“What do you want to do?”

“What I want is to give you a retainer, so that when you finish what you have to do, you will come back here and work in the dual roles that you did with Hook. If you can give me a list of where you’ll be until then, I’ll contact you if anything comes up that’s close by. I’ll try to make it weekends.”

I gave her my full contact details and the list of shops I still had to go to. I reminded her about the sale at Millwall on Saturday, as well as a likely one at Holborn the Saturday after. Before I left, I asked her if there was a good GP nearby that I might be able to see. She pulled a card out of her drawer and gave it to me.

“This one sees our girls. Tell him I sent you and you should be able to get in.”

I thanked her and she saw me out, via the cashier where I signed for five hundred, as a retainer, repayable if I go to work anywhere else. The doctor was not far away, so I walked there and asked for an appointment, telling the receptionist where I had come from. She asked me to wait. A half an hour later, I was sat in the doctor’s office.

“What can I do for you, young lady?”

“I’ve been asked to work with the modelling agency, but there’s something I need to have happen before I start. I need to have gender reassignment surgery, as I’m still a boy under this dress.”

“How long have you been passing?”

“About two years. I had wondered about my feelings, but it was a situation where I needed to be female to pose for a fashion picture. I’ve dressed ever since and have been in a lot of fashion shoots for a dress shop catalogue.”

“Are you on any hormones?”

“I started taking birth control pills a week or so ago.”

“Right! Stop taking those. Go behind the screen and strip to your undies. I’ll call in the nurse when you’re ready. We’ll take some blood and check you over. Are those falsies glued on?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any itching under them?”

“No.”

I went and undressed while he added me to his computer. When I was ready, I had to lie on the bed as the nurse came in. He checked me over; the nurse took blood and a mouth swab.

“Are you in the city for long?”

“Until next weekend, then I’m taking a trip around the country for my work. I can come back almost any time if I have to.”

When he was finished, the nurse brought in a tray with a couple of syringes on.

“This is where we start if you want to carry on. These are a fast acting and a slow acting hormone. If you let me use them, I’ll see you in a month and then refer you on to a specialist. After that, it doesn’t take long to have the operation.”

He added my home address and email address to the phone number I had already given. Then I had to bare my butt and he gave me the hormones. I was on my way.

Marianne Gregory © 2024