Tina, pre-makeover:
Grey turtleneck (Gap)
Black jeans (Gap)
Black ankle boots (Clarks)
Total est. cost: £230
‘I’m not good at clothes or make up.’
‘And that’s everyone else arriving now.’ Annie stood up and looked out of the window at the silver 4 pulling up in the street in front of Tina Balotti’s flat.
She and Bob had arrived here half an hour earlier, so they’d had coffee with Tina and found out a little about her while trying to put her at ease. Tina was younger than Annie had expected. But then all Annie had been told was: ‘Single mum, lives with her little girl, works full-time, contacted us herself.’
Then Finn had shown her a snapshot of a girl in a white duvet coat with long, wispy black hair and a sweetheart-shaped face.
‘I think she’s going to scrub up very, very well,’ Finn had added. ’I think she’ll be our knockout. She’s got a good figure, a nice face, she just doesn’t know how to make the most of herself. But by the time you three have finished with her…’
It turned out Tina was only twenty-four, but she already had a three-year-old daughter, her own flat and a full-time job. The flat was tiny but it was bright, light and comfortable. Annie and Bob had squeezed onto the little sofa together as Tina served them mugs of coffee.
‘Where’s your gorgeous little girl?’ Annie had asked, pointing at one of the many photos dotted all over the room.
‘She’s at my mum’s today,’ Tina replied. ‘She does two days at nursery and three with her gran.’
‘And you’ve got the day off. Lucky you!’ Annie told her. ‘You’re going to have a fantastic time.’
The question ‘So why did you get in touch with us?’ had proved a little tricky for Tina to answer.
She’d shyly fumbled her way through an answer: ‘Oh, I’m not good at clothes or make up… I don’t go out much… I mean, I’d like to go out more, but since I’ve had Julia, I’ve been hidden away and I think I want to get out again now… kind of.’
‘Great!’ Annie had encouraged. ‘We’re here to help you, give you all the good advice we can think of.’
Now that Finn and the others had arrived, Annie went out to greet them.
Miss Marlise stepped down from the car, took one look around and declared, ‘Oh my god, what a dump!’
Admittedly, Tina’s block of flats was the only new one on the street; the rest did look as if they could do with some care and attention. But still.
‘It could be worse,’ Annie reminded her. At this Finn handed her a holdall and said, ‘Better not leave anything in the car round here.’
When Annie realised she was carrying Marlise’s holdall, while Marlise marched towards the house empty handed, she felt like dumping the bag down there and then.
But then Svetlana was at her side, wrapped in another fur coat because her high heels and glamorous dresses really didn’t stand up to the chilly weather.
‘What the makeover woman like?’ she wondered.
‘She’s only a girl really, shy… and quite sweet.’
‘Another saddo?’ Marlise turned to ask, having overheard Svetlana’s question.
Annie wasn’t sure how to reply to this because Cath, Jody and Tina hadn’t struck her as ‘saddos’. They were all just looking for the little push to take them to the next stage of their lives.
‘She had a baby at twenty-one or something?’ Miss Marlise snorted. ‘Isn’t that a bit tragic?’
‘Well…’ Annie began, thinking of herself at the same age and trying not to rise to this remark as her hand gripped Miss Marlise’s luggage, ‘but Tina has a flat, a job, her daughter’s lovely. She’s pretty together, she just wants to get out more.’
‘A mum at twenty-one. Talk about your life being over before it’s even begun,’ Miss Marlise went on. ‘What the hell am I going to be able to do for her? She’s not exactly going to need career advice.’
Leaving Annie open-mouthed in surprise, Miss Marlise marched ahead of them, high-heeled boots rapping on the concrete path.
‘I had my daughter at twenty-one!’ Annie hissed at Svetlana, ‘and I loved every moment of it.’
‘Tscha! But you had lovely man there with you. This girl is single,’ Svetlana pointed out. ‘Verrrry different story.’
By then they were at the doorway to Tina’s home, so there wasn’t time for any more discussion.
Everyone was squeezed into the sitting room and introduced to Tina, who seemed to shrink a little with shyness.
After only a few moments of small talk, it was time for Finn to bring out his clipboard and get the shooting schedule started.
‘If we do Tina with Svetlana and Miss Marlise first,’ he began, making a quick check on his watch, ‘the four of us will be able to check into the hotel and plan for our shoot tomorrow morning, which would be great, wouldn’t it, girls?’ He looked up at them for confirmation.
‘Bob and Annie, if you do the shopping session afterwards, you’ll have all afternoon with Tina, you won’t need to rush, and if it goes on past close of play, Bob,’ Finn’s voice dropped, ‘obviously you bill me for the extra… How does that sound?’ he asked cheerfully. ‘Good? All happy? Wicked! Nikki, let’s get Tina ready to roll.’
Svetlana’s approach was quite interesting, Annie had to admit as she peeped out from the kitchen to see what was going on in the sitting room. Together, they were looking through Tina’s photo albums, but flicking quickly past any cute baby and toddler shots of Julia and homing in on Tina’s old boyfriends.
‘This Julia’s father?’ Svetlana asked.
When Tina nodded in reply, Svetlana made her ‘Tcha’ sound.
‘A big man,’ Svetlana added. ‘Can be frightening, no?’
Tina nodded again.
‘Good you get rid of him – but you decide to keep baby?’
‘My mum and dad helped me to make that decision,’ Tina admitted.
‘Ya. Verrry kind,’ Svetlana said, and Annie was surprised to hear the note of softness in her voice. She’d never asked Svetlana anything about her own mother and father, but she would store those questions up for the next time she got a chance.
‘Annie, are you going to look through Tina’s wardrobe with her?’ Finn wondered, when he was satisfied that he had all the footage he wanted of Tina with Svetlana and then Tina with Miss Marlise.
Annie’s reply was simple: ‘No. No need. I suspect if I look in there, I’m going to find all sorts of sensible work outfits and practical mum outfits and we don’t want any of that on this shopping trip, do we, Tina?’ She shot Tina a smile. ‘The girl wants to get out. She needs to get out and have some fun again. So, c’mon, grab your coat, I know just the place for you. Bob and I are whisking you off to Zara… Mango… all the fun places.’
‘So, how long has it been since you went shopping for yourself, sweetheart, and not for your lovely baby girl?’ Annie asked as she watched Tina move around the brightly crammed rails, racks and shelves in one of Annie’s favourite high street shops.
Tina really did look like a girl let loose in a sweetie shop. Her eyes were wide and she hardly dared to put out her hands to touch things, in case she was told that she wasn’t allowed to have them.
Once again, Finn had warned Annie to keep the budget ‘well below two hundred pounds if you can’, but in this shop, prices were low enough for that not to pose too much of a problem.
While Tina looked with excited curiosity all around her, Annie got on with the business of pulling out pieces for the changing rooms.
Looking at Tina’s narrow hips and skinny legs, she guessed she was a size 8 from the waist down, but maybe a 10 on top. Annie’s brief from Finn couldn’t have been clearer – he wanted her in a knockout dress or miniskirt and skimpy top, with heels, big hair, full make up. Ingredients to transform timid Tina into the bombshell Finn was waiting to capture on screen.
Busily, Annie loaded up with short dresses sprinkled with sequins, netted skater skirts, strapless tops, lots of shine, juicy colours and delicious textures.
Because the shop was busy, even on a weekday afternoon, the staff had obligingly cleared out the biggest style consultant’s room for the filming session.
To Annie, each new outfit seemed to work better on Tina than the last. Underneath her baggy tops and scarves, she’d been hiding a fabulous figure, with long legs and a glamorous cleavage that she was clearly a little shy about.
‘You need to give those girls a little bit of love,’ Annie encouraged, trying a corset top out on Tina. ‘That looks absolutely brilliant on you. I’m sorry, but you can’t deny it.’
She stood back to admire Tina in the tight black top, teeny pink puffed skirt and high patent boots. There was no doubt that Finn was going to love this look, but Annie could tell immediately that the problem was going to be convincing Tina, who was scrutinising herself in the mirror with something close to a scowl on her face.
‘Let’s ask Bob what he thinks,’ Annie suggested. She pushed back the curtain and gestured for the cameraman to take a peek.
‘Unbelievable!’ was his appreciative comment. ‘You look amazing, Tina! I can hardly recognise you.’
To Annie, he directed a thumbs-up and said, ‘Finn is going to be very happy.’
Then he hoisted the camera to his face and began to film.
But still Tina stood in front of the mirror and scowled.
‘What’s the matter?’ Annie wondered, but suspecting she already knew. ‘Is it too much of a change? Too much of a complete surprise? But you are such a great-looking girl. I can’t help feeling that the world should know.’
‘It’s just… it’s just so… well, isn’t it just a bit… obvious?’ Tina asked finally. ‘I mean,’ she went on, ‘miniskirt and boob tube and hair out and high heels. I mean… it’s just too much.’
As soon as Tina said it, Annie knew it was true. Well, of course it was true. Would she let Lauren go out like this? No. And even though Tina was eight years older than Lauren, it was still too much. Finn might like it. Finn might want to see this kind of ofver-the-top transformation on screen, but Annie was here to help Tina, not Finn, and as Tina said: it was too much.
Then came the kicker to tug at Annie’s heartstrings. ‘It just isn’t me,’ Tina declared.
‘Well, you have to be you,’ Annie decided, certain that if she could make Tina look fabulous on Tina’s terms, it would work for Finn. ‘Is there anything about this outfit you like?’ she asked.
Tina looked carefully. ‘Actually… I do quite like the top,’ she said, and seemed to be surprising herself.
She was right. The black sweetheart-shaped corset looked amazing set against her pale skin and strong shoulders.
‘And there was a pair of shoes we saw earlier that I really loved.’
‘Oh… I know the ones you mean,’ Annie said, recalling the shiny, liquid black lace-ups with high heels and laces of satin ribbon.
‘So maybe, to tone it down between the corset top and the shiny shoes, we should have a gorgeous pair of slim satin trousers,’ was Annie’s suggestion.
‘Trousers, yeah!’ Tina brightened at this, ‘Black?’ she suggested.
‘Yeah, let’s try black.’
Tina scraped her hair back from her face and held it up for a moment.
Annie admired Tina’s pretty features and then spotted something she hadn’t noticed before, an intricate tattoo of a rose at the nape of Tina’s neck, the stem and the leaves curling out towards her shoulder.
‘Oh, look at that!’ she exclaimed, ‘that’s so pretty, we should definitely have that on show. Tina,’ she said in a voice that was gently scolding, ‘you’ve been keeping all the very best things about yourself hidden.’
‘Well… maybe that’s the way I like it,’ Tina said softly.
Annie stepped in behind her for a closer look at the rose. She wasn’t any kind of tattoo aficionado, but this one had been very well done. It had been carefully traced along the neck and delicately shaded to complement Tina’s pale skin.
‘Do you like it?’ Tina asked.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Annie told her.
‘I just had it done a month ago. The scabs have only just healed and—’
‘You’re almost ready to show it off,’ Annie guessed.
‘Yeah… my… friend designed it. And we took it to this tattoo artist.’
‘Very talented friend,’ Annie said and was surprised when a pink blush spread up from Tina’s neck to her face.
‘More than a friend?’ Annie asked.
‘Maybe,’ Tina admitted, casting her eyes down. ‘Maybe she is more than a friend.’ Then a surprised look crossed her face, as if she’d said more than she’d meant to.
‘Well, that’s very interesting.’ Annie gave her an encouraging smile; it wasn’t the first time she’d heard someone’s changing-room secrets. When people were stripped down to their smalls, they often bared all kinds of truths about themselves.
‘So, there are lots of interesting things going on in your life at the moment,’ Annie said.
‘Yes… I suppose so.’
‘So, new Tina deserves a new look.’
She then held Tina’s hair back, away from her face. ‘Have you ever thought about cutting your hair short?’ she asked. ‘You’ve got such a pretty face with such beautiful bone structure, and with short hair, the rose would be on display whenever you wanted it to be.’
Tina’s eyes widened: ‘Oh wow… I think I’d love to cut my hair off! But I’m just not sure… where… or how—’
‘—To begin? Don’t worry about it for a moment. Leave it to me,’ Annie insisted. ‘Right, first of all, let’s sort out the satin trousers and then we get ourselves down to the swankiest salon in town. Bob!’
There was a clunk as Bob, to Annie and Tina’s surprise, pressed the pause button.
‘You filmed all that?’ Tina asked.
‘Don’t worry, they’ll only use a bit of it,’ he assured her. ‘Annie, don’t you think we should ask Finn about the haircut? I mean, he was wanting a very different end result.’
Annie thought about the sketch Finn had shown her. Yes, he’d actually drawn a sketch of how he wanted Tina to look after the makeover: the long hair, the legs, the heels and the boobs. She glanced again at Tina, who was currently looking exactly as Finn wanted her to look, but kind of hating it.
Annie knew just what Finn would say if she told him that Tina was going to wear slim black trousers and they were taking her to a salon to have her hair chopped off. He would say ‘NO!’
Whereas, if he saw the end result – the sleek head with the rose tattoo on top of the tight corset and shiny trousers – he would realise what a knockout Tina was, without having to be so obvious. And Tina would just glow by looking exactly as she wanted to look.
‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine,’ Annie told Bob, ‘honestly. This is going to work out so well. Tina will look amazing. We’re going to knock Finn’s socks off with this one. Remember Jody’s little trilby hat? That wasn’t in the schedule either and Finn loved it.’
‘Yeah, but this is… this is big. This isn’t a hat, this is a major haircut – it’s irreversible.’
‘Trust me,’ Annie insisted.
‘Yeah!’ Tina agreed, totally won over by Annie now.
‘You’re going to go down a storm,’ Annie insisted, but she could feel a cool undertow of uncertainty now. Her argument was: this is going to be so much better… but Finn had given very specific instructions and suddenly Annie was wondering if he would see it her way.
But Tina had decided now, and Annie didn’t want to let her down.