Ragged Lace
Patents: House Cynis, House Tepet, House Sesus, House Mnemon
Price: • • • • •
Description: The Ragged Lace exclusive Fashion boutique occupies a building that used to be a modest Patrician palace in the Eastern Districts. The inside of the building is decorated in a spare, elegant style with restful colours. It is very quiet, and the air smells fresh and sweet making it a sharp contrast to the noisy market outside.
Servants stride from place to place with great purpose and efficiency on socked feet. The clientele is, without exception, both wealthy and well-bred... the Outcaste and the patrician, let alone the common citizenry, have no place in this establishment. When a Dynast sets foot in Ragged Lace, he or she is escorted to a small suite of rooms with its own staff to be measured and interviewed about the clothing that will be made for them. Everything is custom, combining the artistry of the designer with precise measurements to fit the wearer's profile and personality, and to suggest each item was not wholly unique would offend the highly skilled staff. The marble-tiled entrance hall is home to a number of display pieces prepared by the designer to catch the eye and fit the season: these designs might be adapted and sold, but others see a different role: fitted to the shoulders of beautiful up-and-coming young Dynasts, for whom such magnificence would be unaffordable, they travel the social circles of the Scarlet Dynasty spreading word of Ragged Lace and its peerless mistress.
The second floor is a hive of industry. Tailors and seamstresses scurry about cutting, sewing, and pinning. While their hands are busy, so are their mouths and the shop side of the Ragged Lace is known by some to be the very best place to hear the latest gossip of the Imperial City. Indeed, the staff is so well informed, that some Dynasts make it a point to shop here just to buy information from their fitters.
The styles produced here represent the bleeding edge of fashion, but the designer is one of the great social mysteries of the Dynasty. Nothing is clear about Onherra, neither her House, her aspect (most agree that she must be Exalted), nor even 'her' gender. She's extremely eccentric, dressing herself from head to toe in veils and scarves, only her eyes (painted with garish, iridescent make-up) are ever visible. Onherra is known to take offense when she is not invited to a party, but she rarely shows up when she is invited. Her voice is seldom heard. Instead she whispers to her beautiful man-servant and he announces her wishes in his thrilling baritone voice.
The fashions devised by Onherra are complex and varied, each outfit an expense of Jade that might otherwise construct warstriders or put legions in the field.
