WELCOME
To the 100th Annual Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival!
Friday, September 18, 2105 — Sunday, September 20, 2105
We are thrilled to welcome you back to Newport, Rhode Island, for this very special, 100th-anniversary celebration of the Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival. Since 2005, The Preservation Society of Newport County has invited vintners, culinarians, brewers, celebrity chefs, and foodies from all over the world to explore the pleasures of fine wine and cuisine in this breathtaking seaside setting. Our historic mansions were once the summer retreats of fin de siècle America’s rich and famous, and the Wine & Food Festival is proud to continue the mansions’ traditions of regalia and excellence by welcoming you, year after year, to our elegant festival experience. We are especially pleased to welcome you back to Rosecliff mansion, now open to the public after a three-year-long, $12.2 million restoration of its grounds.
Please, join us for our expert-led seminars: educational and enjoyable sensory journeys taking you on a tour of the wines of France, Italy, Spain, California, England, Norway, Canada, and many more. This year, the fun goes beyond the world of wine in the V.I.P. Tasting Tent, where Kurpinsky Vodka, Narragansett Spirits, and Scrimshaw Gin will be serving samples and discussing their products.
This year, our premier event, the elegant Vintner Dinner, will be hosted by two-time James Beard III award winner and Emmy winning host of Green Gastronomy, Sinéad Bolton. Lionel Lloyd, ragtime pianist and Assistant Professor of Music History at the University of Rhode Island, will accompany the event, playing jazzy hits from the Gilded Age (though he is known to bend to a few modern-day requests). This mesmerizing combination of taste and sound, set against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean, is sure to create a once-in-a-lifetime experience catering to all of the senses.
Don’t forget, the festivities are not limited to the Newport Mansions. The festival partners with local restaurants to offer fine dining and wine menus just for the occasion.
Finally, our thanks extends to all of the sponsors whose financial support makes this event a success year after year. We also thank you, our guests. You are not only here to enjoy and learn about food in a one-of-a-kind setting, but you are here to support the continuous efforts of the Preservation Society of Newport County, a non-profit organization that is vital to Rhode Island’s cultural life and economy. All proceeds from the festival go to support us in our ongoing mission to preserve and protect Newport’s historic homes and landscapes.
Bon appétit!
Tempest Alan Sloan
Chief Executive Officer
The Preservation Society of Newport County
Detail from the Wine & Food Festival
R O S E C L I F F , est. 1 9 0 2
Friday, September 18, 2105
The day before the start of the Wine & Food Festival, Catherine Huang, Rosecliff’s Executive Curator, lent a hand to the workers and helped them set up the wine tasting tents on the mansion’s grounds. From the ballroom, Tempest Alan Sloan watched Huang remove her suit jacket and roll up her sleeves to pitch tents with the groundskeepers. Huang felt Sloan’s eyes on her the entire time: steady, persistent, and slightly unnerving. Sloan’s presence was no less unsettling the morning of the festival. They walked through the wine tasting tents with Huang, finalizing small details before the festival guests were welcomed. Sloan’s eye was meticulous, and they found an imperfection at every table: wrinkled tablecloth, askew business cards, napkins one tone off from the right shade of Newport Mansion Green. . . . every flaw corrected by Sloan was done with a silent reproach towards Huang, asking why she hadn’t noticed these details herself.
Huang was detail-oriented, but not towards napkins and letterheads. Huang was accustomed to managing museum collections, organizing exhibits to tell stories — thinking big. But Rosecliff’s long reconstruction had put her out of practice. The most recent — and likely last — museum exhibition hosted by Rosecliff was entitled “Anything You Want: African American Dressmakers and Newport’s Elite.” The collection of turn of the century evening gowns, tea dresses, undergarments, sleepwear, and sportswear once belonging to Newport’s most distinguished socialites had been showcased under a different title. For the new exhibition, however, Huang decided to pivot the focus towards highlighting the unseen designers and creators of the gowns. Dr. Dayle Dorothy Decker, a consulting curator from Salve Regina University, helped guide the Preservation Society in their presentation. Decker suggested the exhibit draw connections between the exclusion of the dresses’ designers as credited artists and colonial Newport’s prominent participation in America’s slave trade. By gathering clues from two hundred-year-old journal entries, ledgers, photographs, and proof of purchases, the gowns were — for the first time in their lives — displayed without the names of their original wearers and instead featured the names of their creators. Although the planned “Anything You Want” year-long residency at Rosecliff was unceremoniously cut down to a single day, the exhibit’s few visitors (mostly local academics) praised it as an innovative amending of history.
“Anything You Want” opened on the first day of summer 2102 and ended the next day. Hurricane Spencer, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico as the Preservation Society was dressing its mannequins, took an erratic spin upwards into New England and soaked through every gown. Yards of pink satin, silk embroidery, felted wool, beaded bodices, and kimono cut dressing gowns were irreparably damaged. The loss, the Preservation Society specified in an official statement, was a tragedy not only for the destruction of the artifacts themselves, but for the erasure of the artistry and craftsmanship of the Black designers and seamstresses who created them. The work of these women had already been overlooked by their contemporaries, and now — the Society feared — without any physical presence their work was likely to be forgotten entirely.
Huang, however, was comparatively optimistic in the aftermath of Hurricane Spencer. She suggested that “Anything You Want” could continue without the gowns, and that photographs would be sufficient in communicating the dresses’ complex splendor. Huang also suggested that the presence of photographs in lieu of the actual garments could serve as a solemn warning as to the consequences of improper safeguards against the extreme weather events bearing down on the New England coastline with more and more frequency each year. Huang proposed the same thing to Devin Seabrooke, Director of Gardens and Grounds, who was tasked with repairing the colossal damage to Rosecliff’s yards. Before Spencer, Rosecliff’s lawn was a lush green sweep which descended gradually into the Atlantic Ocean. After Spencer, the cliff that the mansion sat upon was gone, the rock crumbled away so the shoreline abutted the house itself. Instead of building an artificial cliffside and re-landscaping the yards (as Seabrooke proposed) why not overlay Rosecliff’s ocean facing windows with photos of the former lawn? Create an approximation of what was while acknowledging what is?
Seabrooke’s plan was more popular with the Preservation Society than Huang’s, and the estimated $10 million restoration project swung into action with the bang of a gavel. InfinityMix Solutions, a concrete and construction management company based in Pennsylvania, was contracted to rebuild Rosecliff’s lawns. A steel rib cage approximating the former cliff face had only just been punctured into the rock when Hurricane Tatiana, a category four to Spencer’s five, swept in and erased InfinityMix’s nascent progress, extending the project’s deadline (and budget) by a not inconsiderable amount.
As destructive as she was, Tatiana was slower and more calculated than Spencer. She could be tracked, giving the Preservation Society a timeline by which they could operate. Any artifacts that could be physically removed from the mansions were transported to a safe facility further inland. Meanwhile, the extensive work restorationists had already completed on Rosecliff’s floors, walls, and ceilings were covered in plastic tarps. Everyone crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. After Tatiana, Huang attempted to begin another discussion about the questionable necessity of displaying Rosecliff’s original furniture when imitation pieces would have sufficed. If education was one of the Preservation Society’s goals, what importance did displaying Theresa Fair Oelrichs’ original Chinese silk screens, sterling silver tableware, and baroque vases have in that mission? Imitations, Huang said, could educate the public while protecting the originals.
Again, Huang was shot down. Anyone could do imitations, said Tempest Alan Sloan, only Newport could do Newport.
“Only Newport Can Do Newport” was promptly submitted to the tourism bureau as a slogan, and was stamped in 32 point, emerald green font on the programs for the 100th Wine & Food Festival.
F E S T I V A L I T I N E R A R Y &
S E M I N A R S E R I E S
Wine Director and Moderator, Rosamond Horne
Friday, September 18, 2105
The Expanding World of Wine
Friday, September 18, 11 AM
Rosecliff Terrace
Changing global temperatures have made it possible for winemakers to grow grapes in climates once considered too cold to produce fine wine. Over the years, the best of the best winemakers have moved from historic growing locations and into more northerly regions. Sommelier and Food Writer, Albert Watkins, will be joined by Dr. Simonetta Goodwin, Professor of Applied Meteorology and Climatology at Vanderbilt University, to present and compare wines from new and traditional winemaking locations.
Wines of Norway
Friday, September 18, 12:30 PM
Rosecliff Salon
An informative and delightful blind tasting with Oddbjørn Bakken of the Norwegian Wine Producers and Sommelier Association. New winemaking techniques and grapes grown on the slopes of sun-facing fjords have made Norway one of the most successful producers in the new wine market. Features a variety of high-quality wines in different styles.
Haute Caviar v. Imitation Caviar: What’s the Difference?
Friday, September 18, 2 PM
Rosecliff Dining Room
This seminar seeks to answer the long-debated question: which is better, classic “haute” caviar or imitation caviar? Imitation caviar provided by BioKitchen is affordable and — most of all — sustainable, but many argue you can’t provide a substitute for classic, elegant, produced-by-real-sturgeon caviar. Presenter Steven Merle invites you to explore the differences and similarities between the contested two. We will discuss how to best enhance texture and taste with appropriate wine and champagne pairings.
Designing the Perfect Charcuterie Board (And Wine Pairing)
Friday, September 18, 3:30 PM
Rosecliff Terrace
Our fan favorite workshop is back! Presented by Lucille Farnham, Chief Mixologies at Ocean Mist in Westerly, RI, and Sampath Nagarkar, popular EduStream.com Educator. This experience will teach you how to “wow” your friends with your exceptional flavor palate. Which cheese goes best with prosecco? Will fig jam compliment my 2099 marsanne? Or will a sharp mustard do? This workshop is sure to be as educational as it is delicious.
Detail from the Wine & Food Festival
W H I T E H O R S E T A V E R N , est. 1 6 7 3
Friday, September 18, 2105
On the first night of the Wine & Food Festival, Tempest Alan Sloan entered the White Horse Tavern with a cadre of curators, directors, and historians from the Preservation Society.
Every year since the Wine & Food Festival’s inception, the White Horse Tavern in downtown Newport partnered with the festival’s restaurant program. For Joe Sacchetti, the White Horse’s current owner, the partnership was a matter of obligation, tradition, and necessity. The restaurant partnership produced valuable income, and Sacchetti put the majority into renovations and upkeep every year. Once owned by the Preservation Society, the White Horse Tavern was 400-or-so years older than many of the society’s properties, and Sacchetti was getting the impression that Sloan wanted it back. Squeezed into a corner close to the Newport marina, the White Horse was one of the best preserved (and one of the few remaining) colonial era buildings in Rhode Island and was also (possibly) the oldest tavern in the United States. It would be an impressive feather returned to the Preservation Society’s cap, and the more Sacchetti thought about it the more he liked the idea of them taking it back.
Sacchetti always credited the White Horse’s endurance to its previous owners, a group of concerned Newport citizens who pooled their money to preserve a piece of their city’s culture. After flooding destroyed the entirety of The Point (an historic neighborhood of tightly packed colonial homes only a few feet above sea level) the men and women of Newport History Keepers purchased the White Horse Tavern with the aim of saving it from the same fate. Unlike homeowners in The Point who had rebuked the installation of exploratory flood-proofing techniques on the basis that they were “anti-historic neighborhood,” the NHK were eager to fit the White Horse with flood-proof technology.
Carry Frost, a retired attorney and spokesperson for the NHK, said in a statement to The Providence Journal that the White Horse Tavern’s exterior would be altered “only slightly” by a Canadian architecture and engineering company that had already had tremendous success retrofitting buildings in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Essentially, the White Horse was “amphibiated” from the inside out. Buoyancy blocks and vertical guideposts were installed underneath the tavern so it could float to the surface of rising floodwaters and then sink back down to the property line once the water dissipated. Though the Canadian company’s work in New Orleans had legitimized what — on paper — read like an insane concept, the plan to float the White Horse Tavern met opposition. The project necessitated the tavern be elevated for three to five months for the installation of the guideposts and floatation devices. Neighborhood residents complained about the eyesore the construction created, the almost twenty-foot temporary elevation of the building disrupted downtown Newport’s natural sightline. Others complained that any disruption to the White Horse Tavern’s original structure ruined its historical integrity and pointed out that colonial Rhode Island’s General Assemblies didn’t meet in a tavern that amphibiated. Frost and the NHK were quick to shoot dissenters down, pointing out that the very purpose of continued operation of historic taverns like the White Horse was to create a vibrant, living connection to history, not a museum piece.
Sacchetti purchased the White Horse Tavern well after the NHK renovated it for flooding. All of the neighboring buildings on Marlborough Street had been amphibiated by the time the tavern fell under his tenure — in fact, the White Horse’s flotation devices were out of date when Sacchetti purchased it, making an update his first big expense as owner. Colonial governors may not have met to strategize battles in a floating tavern, but the White Horse’s modern-day clientele were accustomed to it. The building rose and fell, as easy as breathing, during long rainstorms, the waiters and waitresses never missing a step as the floor elevated and dropped. Hurricane Spencer was the tallest anyone at the tavern had felt the building rise. Sacchetti and his employees were stuck inside when the hurricane suddenly descended on Newport. They huddled in a corner of his office and waited for the wind and rain to ease, listening to the White Horse’s guideposts groan as they tried to extend beyond their design.
Save for a few broken windows, the White Horse Tavern escaped the hurricane unscathed, though it was clear the buoyancy system needed another update. Another three to five months of no customers and no work while the building was elevated, stripped of its flotation elements, and fitted with new ones. The Wine & Food Festival, Laura Howard-Sacchetti reminded her husband, would pay for that. Kennedy descendants, movie stars, foreign wine makers, and the richest of New England’s rich paid for the White Horse Tavern’s upkeep in fifty-dollar plates and bottles of 2040 sauvignon blanc.
Sacchetti took a stack of menus from his hostess’ arms and sat Tempest Alan Sloan personally.
T H E V I N T N E R D I N N E R
A Collaboration of Chefs
Hosted by Two-Time James Beard III Award Winner Sinéad Bolton
Saturday, September 19, 2105, 7 PM – 11 PM
— Rosecliff Ballroom —
Join us in welcoming Sinéad Bolton, Emmy winning chef, TV personality, writer, and environmental advocate as the host of our 2105 Vintner Dinner! This dinner will be chef-driven and will include a unique collaboration of ideas and sensory experiences from four diverse and celebrated chefs.
The multi-course dinner will begin with a first course curated by host Sinéad Bolton, known for her innovative and creative repertoire of dishes crafted from sustainably sourced foods. Chef Tatum Darell, winner of Kitchen Conquest: All Stars season 2 and frequent presenter on Sun’s Up, America! will put a sophisticated twist on his “down home” palate for the main course. Constantino Caprice, Executive Chef at Molto Bene in Providence, RI, and runner-up on Cooking with the Stars (with his teammate, popstar Hartley Sunshine) will contribute his unique and delicious fusion of flavors to the menu. Finally, Feliciano’s in Boston, MA, Executive Pastry Chef, Katey Judd, will bring the evening to a sweet and indulgent conclusion with her confectionery creations. Wines from Norway, presented by Oddbjørn Bakken of the Norwegian Wine Producers and Sommelier Association, will be paired for each course.
With a combination of delicious food, cocktails courtesy of Kurpinsky Vodka, and an elegant setting in Rosecliff’s newly renovated ballroom, the evening has all the elements of a memorable and elegant experience.
Detail from the Wine & Food Festival
R O S E C L I F F, est. 1 9 0 2
Saturday, September 19, 2105
What was originally predicted to be a serene and temperate weekend — perfect for Rosecliff’s triumphant return to the Wine & Food Festival — had suddenly turned into a turbulent one. Cosmo Sarti at WJAR Providence was predicting strong winds and at least .20 inches of rain per hour. The kitchen staff gathered around a TV and watched Sarti point to a multicolored pinwheel called Hurricane Vanessa, using his finger to trace its unforeseen detour from the Gulf of Mexico into the southern United States — until Tempest Alan Sloan turned the TV off and told everyone to get back to cooking. Hurricane Spencer was on everyone’s mind, and Devin Seabrooke told the groundskeeping crew to begin disassembling the miniature city of wine tasting tents from Rosecliff’s lawn. From the ballroom windows, Ophelia Tillie watched the dismantling as she sipped from a glass of 2084 riesling.
A few hours ago, Tillie had sat on The Breakers’ great lawn, dressed in a stifling period gown. She and her co-star, Zach Endicott, were filming a scene for the second season of Consuelo Vanderbilt’s Private Diary. Tillie played the titular dollar princess, great-granddaughter of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Endicott played Winthrop Rutherfurd, the socialite Consuelo loved and wished to marry in place of a passionless British duke chosen by her mother. In between takes, Tillie and Endicott complained about the heat, about the sweat congealing in their complicated costumes. Now, looking at the incoming storm, Tillie’s bare skin pimpled, and she drew her shawl tight.
Outside, the ocean was turning choppy, and the sky gurgled gray and hot. Waitstaff led dinner guests to tables arranged underneath a ceiling painted a soft blue, a facsimile of a tranquil summer sky. When entertaining on summer days, Theresa Fair Oelrichs would throw open the ballroom’s French doors and windows to give her guests the impression that they were sitting outside while really sitting inside. Such an effect felt mocking now, and the blue ceiling laughed at Tempest Alan Sloan as they left the kitchen. Sloan ducked into an anteroom and searched for hurricane reports on their phone. Catherine Huang joined Tillie by the window and considered the size and cost of the newly finished grounds.
For the first course, Bolton served smoked salmon roulade with asparagus in a shrimp sauce. The salmon and shrimp were synthetic — from Bolton’s own BioKitchen company. Bolton was both an appropriate and risky choice for the Vintner Dinner’s host. She’d visited Newport and the mansions while filming a travel edition of her TV show, and this made her “family.” But Bolton’s advocacy for synthetic eating and conservation was unpopular amongst the sort of people who made up the Wine & Food Festival’s typical clientele. If yesterday’s caviar-tasting seminar indicated anything, it was that “real” seafood was conserved and farmed for the enjoyment of those who could afford it. Bolton’s food was for grocery store shoppers and chain restaurants.
Most of the Vintner Dinner’s attendees assumed Bolton’s first course would come courtesy of BioKitchen, and they chewed politely, anticipating the arrival of Tatum Darell’s main course.
Joe Sacchetti and Laura Howard-Sacchetti were each invited to the Vintner Dinner, an observance of the longstanding friendship between the Preservation Society and the White Horse Tavern (and, perhaps, also a bid by Tempest Alan Sloan to bring the tavern back into the Preservation Society’s ownership). As the Sacchettis were seated, glints of lightning started to flicker outside, and the husband and wife took out their phones to see what the weather had in store for the White Horse’s vertical guideposts. Another strong hurricane, three years after Spencer, was too soon, and the restaurant’s buoyancy systems needed another update.
Tillie’s glass of riesling was emptying quickly. Huang, unprompted, started to ask Tillie questions about Consuelo Vanderbilt’s Private Diary — questions about the costumes, mostly. She told Tillie about “Anything You Want” and the ruined exhibits, while commenting that the TV show was a fine tribute to the artistry the Preservation Society had lost in Spencer. Tillie promised to pass Huang’s praise on to the costume department. Tillie herself was an actress/singer/supermodel/fashion designer. “Wear Your Art” was her label’s tagline. For the Vintner Dinner, however, Tillie wasn’t wearing her own art, but a crimson gown by her friend, designer Malani Nelson: sleek, cool, sexy, and revealing (especially in comparison to the corsets and collars Tillie had worn for filming). Tillie tipped her wine glass back, draining the contents, and Oddbjørn Bakken raced to replace her drink before a waiter had the opportunity.
Silverware tinkled against plates; the guests were finishing the first course and waiters whisked away cleaned off dishes. Bolton approached a podium and microphone set against the blackening ocean view, ready to introduce Tatum Darell and his pedestrian main course (featuring prosciutto wrapped mac’n’cheese cups). But first: a revelation. The salmon and shrimp the guests had just enjoyed, Bolton said, unaware that everyone already knew, was artificial — lab grown and developed by her very own BioKitchen.
The guests applauded, weakly, for Bolton’s announcement while thunder slapped somewhere over the ocean.
S U N D A Y F E S T I V A L B R U N C H
Featuring Signature Dishes from Chef Charlie Soriano and Chef Topaz Tash,
and wines from Grey Sail Winery
Sunday, September 20, 2105, 10 AM – 12 PM
— Rosecliff Ballroom —
Guests attending the Sunday Festival Brunch will enjoy a scrumptious buffet brunch prepared by Chef Charlie Soriano and Chef Topaz Tash from The Ocean Blues Restaurant in Middletown, RI. Chef Soriano and Chef Tash have prepared a one-of-a-kind sea food brunch to commemorate the 100th Wine & Food Festival, featuring locally sourced quahogs and fresh Maine lobster. Refreshments will be provided by Grey Sail Winery, with an open bar courtesy of Harbour Blend Vermouth.[1] Tempest Alan Sloan, Chief Executive Officer of the Preservation Society of Newport County, will deliver closing statements to celebrate the end of another successful festival.
From: The Preservation Society of Newport County <noreply@preservenewport.org[2] >
Subject: Cancellation of Remaining Festival Events
Hello:
It is my dearest wish that you all find yourselves safe and sound on this calm Sunday morning. It is with great regret that I must inform you that today’s Sunday Festival Brunch is canceled due to damage suffered by Rosecliff’s ballroom by the surprise touchdown of Hurricane Vanessa. Today’s seminars and the farewell address have also been canceled.
The Preservation Society of Newport County sincerely apologizes for any and all inconveniences this poses. Please understand that this cancellation was thoroughly considered, and that the safety of our festival guests and presenters is of the most importance to us. Ticket holders will have the option to be fully reimbursed for their purchases or to trade their tickets in for a guaranteed spot at the 2106 Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival brunch.
Sincerely:
Tempest Alan Sloan
Tempest Alan Sloan
Chief Executive Officer
The Preservation Society of Newport County
R O S E C L I F F
Sunday, August 27, 1905
It was hot, and every window in Mrs. Oelrichs’ bedroom was open to the sea, but Ethelinda Nelson was dressed from head to toe in velvets and furs. Sweat was forming at her brow, collecting in her armpits, and dripping down the wide spade of chest between her breasts. Staining her own underthings was no matter, but she worried about damaging Mrs. Oelrichs’ clothing. Maudie’s head hovered by her mother’s knee, carefully studying the fit and cut of the fabric, and only every so often securing some bunch of it together with a pin she held in her lips.
“You have got to hurry up, I’m turning into soup.”
“Only one more minute, Mama,” Maudie promised.
“We have other appointments,” Ethelinda pressed. “Miss Consuelo is waiting for us.”
“I’m only trying to do a good job,” Maudie said, her brow perspiring with concentration as much as Ethelinda’s was from the heat.
Maudie had apprenticed to her mother most of her life. She started off as a little baby, making a game of snipping and pinning dresses while Ethelinda worked in the back of Mme. Lefèvre’s Boutique. When Maudie accompanied her mother on fittings, her only job was to anticipate when Ethelinda needed something and hand it to her. But today, when Mrs. Oelrichs met them at the foot of Rosecliff’s staircase, dressed and ready to meet fancier ladies than Ethelinda and Maudie for tea, she wept that she had completely forgotten about the fitting. She couldn’t disappoint Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish and Mrs. Belmont with a cancellation, but the Berwinds’ Christmas ball will be upon her before she knew it, and Mrs. Oelrichs wouldn’t like to attend undressed with the Roosevelts in view — then she looked Ethelinda up and down. The hysterics ceased, and Mrs. Oelrichs, pulling on her gloves finger by finger, decided that she and Ethelinda looked to be about the same height and figure, and that her own seamstress would not mind being fit for the dress in her absence.
“Anything you want, ma’am,” Ethelinda said as Mrs. Oelrichs left her and Maudie alone to fit her Christmas gown without her.
It wasn’t the first time Maudie had fitted a dress, but it was the first time she’d done so for someone as important as Mrs. Oelrichs. Ethelinda stood in front of Mrs. Oelrichs’ bedroom mirror[3] , and directed Maudie’s hands as Ethelinda spun, turned, and hooked her head over her shoulder at her own reflection. Maudie was doing a fine job, but as the task dragged on and the summer’s humidity seeped into the velvet, Ethelinda assisted her less and less. She became testy and just wanted to take off the burdensome thing.
“Finished!” Maudie declared, sinking a final pin into the dress. “Turn around, take a look.”
Ethelinda spun to face her reflection and nearly tumbled backwards from the shock of it. The woman in the mirror had Ethelinda’s face, but Mrs. Oelrichs’ skin was wrapped around her. Ethelinda had never realized during all of her cutting and sewing how red the fabric was, how deep the color. It warmed and illuminated her skin in a way it wouldn’t have for Mrs. Oelrichs, it would only have made her complexion more pink. The construction of the dress forced Ethelinda’s spine straight and her hips forward, giving her no choice but to hold herself fancy and proper like Mrs. Oelrichs and her friends.
Maudie laughed, catching her mother by the elbow and righting her. “You look like the angel on top of a Christmas tree, Mama! Wait —”
Maudie scuttled fast into Mrs. Oelrichs’ wardrobe and pulled out a plump stole of black-black fur.
“Oh, Maudie, don’t —”
But the moment Maudie rested it on her mother’s shoulders, Ethelinda felt her cheek lean into it, savoring its plushness. . . its lavishness. . . and feeling sorry for whatever animal the stole once was.
Maudie leaned into it as well, resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. She sighed, dreamy, and somewhat sad. “Don’t you wish we could wear clothes like this all the time?”
Suddenly, Ethelinda remembered the heat.
“No,” she said, unwrapping the stole from around her shoulders and handing it back to Maudie, with hard-nosed instructions to put it back exactly as she found it. Ethelinda had started apprenticing under Mme. Lefèvre when she was sixteen, just like Maudie, and had been working for her for almost twenty-five years. In that time, the glamorous lure of gold thread had long since dulled, but she remembered what that fantasy felt like in those private moments when she pulled on a silk slipper and pretended it was for her. Those moments were seductive, and dangerous because that extravagance was so easy to begrudge.
“It’s not meant for us, Maudie,” Ethelinda said to her daughter, her reflected fingers starting to unbutton Mrs. Oelrichs’ gown. “It’s fun to play, but this richness? You can’t make it last.”
Riah Hopkins (she/her) is presently a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of South Dakota, although she lives and works in Rhode Island. Riah is one of the founding editors of Broken Antler Magazine, and her fiction has been previously published in EDGE CITY, Exposed Bone, PULP Lit Mag, and more.
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