My dad—when he deigns to talk to me about what I do—likes to start fights about fashion magazines. He doesn’t understand why I’d ‘work for free’ for ‘a load of stuck-up cows’ when I could be doing something ‘worthwhile’. (He has many strong opinions about ‘honest’ work, even though a range of various, mysterious ailments have kept him out of full time employment since I was a baby.) It’s easier to pretend that I’m an idiot airhead than it is to tell him the truth; when you have always felt that the world excludes you, there is a perverse and complicated pleasure to be taken from pursuing a place in one of the most exclusive industries in the world. The more I work, and the harder I try, the greater my chance of belonging becomes, and if I can belong in fashion, I can belong anywhere. Yes, it’s weird that I spend so much time thinking about Harri’s coat. But I’m not considering it in any greater depth than my bullies spent considering my trainers.

Literally riding Harri’s coat tails, which are flying out behind her, I see a group of women being swept along in her wake. Goodness, that one is tall. She seems much older than Louise and me. Maybe she’s come over from Panache—but, I realise with guilty horror, I think she might be the only black woman I’ve ever seen in the Hudson building. She moves like a model. Immediately I’m aware that I’m slumping, my spine tilted like a Tyrannosaurus rex’s. I sit up a little straighter. She’s smiling and laughing at something Harri said. Could she be management? Does Harri have a boss?

This ray of sunshine is followed by a pair of scowling dark clouds. One is tall, in jeans and a white shirt, hair in a Grand Old Duke of York special, neither up nor down. You’d brush it, wouldn’t you, for the first day? The other is shorter, boring trousers, even more boring grey jumper, angry eyebrows that start full and dark and arched, but become straighter and skinnier, like a sperm. These two don’t look very magaziney. Maybe they’re just setting us all up on Payroll.

‘Goodness, you’re early! We’ve just had a management meeting, we didn’t expect to see you—we didn’t think anyone would be quite so keen,’ says Harri, sounding a lot less friendly than she had when we’d talked before.