#like they’re manufacturing interest instead of letting the creativity interest the fans by itself

[fakecats]

i wish eve would bring back indie animators instead of those big anime studios to animate his mvs sure the animation might be better but there’s no personality

[fmdtaeyongarchive]

↬ 괜찮아 괜찮아.

date: ~march/april 2019.

location: n/a.

word count: 1918 words.

summary: my attempt at setting a world record for how many times i can write some variation of “ash is thankful to candy”.

notes: creative claims verification for fantasy!

ash gets to work on the song not too long after he has his first conversation with candy about it. he leaves the conversation inspired and wants to see if he can whip up the beginnings of something to work on so he can create some kind of demo to send her to demonstrate to her that he’s interested and he believes in her ability to pull off a solo. even a solo made by him if that’s what she really wants. he’s proud of himself and his growth as a writer and producer, but his first instinct is still to doubt her judgment in coming to him. why him of all people when bc has some of the industry’s top hitmakers available feet away at any given time and ash is pretty sure he already peaked with his last album? the confidence she seems to have in him reassures him, though, in a way that lets him push past that block of insecurity that so desperately wants to wall off his artistic muse more quickly than usual, and, for that, he’s silently grateful to her before he’s even begun to work on the song in earnest.

at the beginning, he has no clue if he’ll make it very far before he surrenders and suggests someone else take up the mantle of candy’s album, but it’s a new root of inspiration for him, being so directly asked to create a song by someone who isn’t a messenger from bc entertainment’s a&r department with a pre-decided list of genres and themes and concepts they want incorporated to manufacture a hit, and he wants to toy with it for as long as he can before letting himself completely give up. ash has found he’s not very good at being handed a laundry list of items to work off of, if the numerous rejections he’s gotten by higher ups in his attempts to fulfill bc’s desires is any sign to go by. but candy isn’t bc, she’s a dear friend and someone who let him talk out the creative process with her to ensure they could find an understanding with each other instead of doing what bc does: piling everything onto him with too many unrealistic expectations and too few questions he’s able to ask. and that makes all the difference in the world, it seems, because once ash gets going, he finds it all comes almost unfairly easy to him for once.

he sets aside the lyrics for now. the track he has in mind after letting it bounce around in his head all day is driven by its atmosphere, something the composition and production, and eventually candy’s voice, will be critical in creating even beyond whatever words he comes up with to reflect the seductive fantasy concept she told him she’s looking for.

drafts of songs he’s supposed to send to bc soon for review along with ones he’s working on entirely of his own accord get pushed aside to focus on this one track. he keeps in mind what candy had said she wanted in her ideal solo debut, even the parts he doesn’t have any control over like lingerie styling and a mature, possibly shocking, music video. he can’t make those things happen, but any detail is a hint to what he could do to give her the closest thing to what she’d envisioned. if candy’s all in about it, ash will be, too. if it ends up being too atmospheric, too sensual and hazy, he can reel it back in until he finds the perfect balance. he briefly recalls an acting lesson he’d taken a few years ago back when bc had thought that’d be a good direction to try pushing him in. “it’s always better to overact than underact,” he’d been told by his acting teacher, “because overacting means you’ve already passed the ideal and you simply have to find your way backwards to it.” it isn’t something he’d thought of much since bc had mercifully dropped plans for that career path after his scandal, but now that he thinks about it, it’s smart, and it can apply just as easily to the creation of music. more layers means more opportunities to see what will work and what won’t. the first draft he comes up with doesn’t have to be perfection neatly wrapped in a pretty package with a bow. in the end, ash scales his earlier drafts back to something simpler than he starts with, but it allows him to tie in the experimental, playful synths that are used in the final product in a way he wouldn’t have risked if he’d kept it less hectic from the start.

ash makes sure to establish the base of the composition in an area that sets up the song for what he wants it to be. the main melodic line is, naturally, in a higher register than he normally writes, but he settles in a key and range he gauges to be well within candy’s abilities. he’ll send it to her later to see if it’s comfortable for her, since his main frame of reference is having heard her sing within the context of lipstick songs. he hasn’t written for her before, but there’s no one he really has that kind of knowledge of yet anyway, other than himself. if it works out as intended, he wants it to sit in an area that lends itself to the mix range of her voice that can lilt into something breathier and headier to keep with the tone, or maybe, if it suits her better, a shallow chest voice. it won’t require vocal gymnastics or skillful belts, but the melody takes shape into something that he envisions relying heavily on her delivery.

working on the song, one word in particular comes to mind: closeness. the tension of two people drawing closer together until they can both feel their breath mixing between them, the torment of being so close to touching. the slow burn moment of hesitance and coaxing before a barrier is crossed, that’s what he wants the instrumental to feel like because that’s the most simple fantasy in the most vivid detail. the song doesn’t need to be the entire fantasy; it can be a teaser.

it’s something he’d be scared to create for himself, the expectation of sensuality that comes with having to contribute to the mood vocally something he’d struggle with embarrassment over when put into a recording booth, but the knowledge candy’s expressed more comfort in the concept allows him to push past his own boundaries and make something suited for her instead. she seems more sure in herself with this kind of image, and that’s something ash admires about her: her ownership over herself in an industry that likes to play with idols like discardable dolls that will outstay their welcome in a few years time.

at some point, when he gets frustrated with the track sounding too dated (he’d wanted to incorporate some 80s sounds, not make something that sounded like it’d already been done thirty years ago), he finds himself straying to listening to past lipstick songs, grasping for inspiration. this isn’t a lipstick song, though, he eventually has to remind himself after his fifth listen to “hurt locker”. it’s a candy song, and much like he would hate to be handed a rejected knight track to head an album, he isn’t going to half ass this and leave his friend with something derivative of a bigger picture. instead, he makes a point to stray from the sounds most frequently heard in lipstick’s production. it’s not a song made for six or seven voices, it’s a song made for one. that’s the key to the intimacy of it, the illusion of a one on one conversation, as long as he didn’t wander too far off into trite fanservice. regardless of anyone else’s intentions, he isn’t in this to rile up the hormones of lipstick’s fans, he’s in it to tell a story. a story that’s different to most of the ones he’s tackled in the songs he’s created before, yes, a fantasy instead of a harsh reality, but a fantasy nonetheless.

once he’s happy enough with the instrumental, ash knows he can’t put off the lyrics any longer. he’d been so worried about them after his struggle with writing what he’d written of “swim good”, but when he gives in and the time comes to create the words to the song, inspiration swarms to ash much easier than it had before in his attempts to approach more blunt sensuality in music. he credits that largely to the fact that he won’t be required to sing any of the words himself and he thanks candy under his breath in the stale air of his studio again for the ease with which he’s able to create multiple lyrical drafts to see what fits the track he’s created best.

some choruses are more forward, some more coy, some more dangerously toeing the line of what an idol can get away with singing (he doesn’t anticipate those to be the ones he goes with even as he writes them, but they’re a fun exercise in expressing himself lyrically in much different way than he has before), but the one he ends up choosing is a delicate mix of everything. or at least ash thinks it is, and he hopes the people in charge of ultimately approving the song and its lyrics agree. the final chorus is subtle, but seductive. alluring, but not aggressive. and he bases the verses around that simple, but satisfactory chorus. any fantasy needs a steady center to swirl around in a haze of desire.

the chorus isn’t too wordy, but he still wants it to be lyrically driven instead of propelling forward by twisting synths to keep a throughline in the music. it all needs to be on the same level, in a way, to keep the fantasy going without pulling the listener out of the experience. as he moves to writing the verses, he keeps that in mind, putting extra work into keeping them all consistent with the chorus and playing with a slow, unfolding reveal of a fantasy. it’s fun to present words so forward and clear in their intentions while still holding back enough to keep it within the good sensibilities of the public who will listen to it. the idea of not faking innocence leaves him more room than the sugary sweet naivety of many an idol song with underlying innuendo. instead of acted inexperience, the focus of the lyrics is on coaxing the listener (reassuring is another word ash keeps in mind), though ash is careful not to assume innocence, faked or otherwise, on the part of the listener either and crosses off several lines that play too reliantly into that.

in the end, the lyrics are a game of gentle push and pull in a way, leading but not forceful, flirting, but not crude, and, frankly, ash really likes what he’s done when the whole piece comes together. he’s happy with himself for creating something he would have never thought he was capable of only a couple of months ago. comfort is found in writing for someone so different from him as a performer and idol, and for the first time, when presenting a song he’s written for someone else, he feels far more pride in his work than he feels nervousness of rejection.

[quicksilversquared]

The Crocodile Glasses

When knock-off copies of Jagged Stone's super-awesome Eiffel Tower start popping up, Jagged is not pleased. Still, it doesn't take long to come up with a solution- he just needs to release his own official line of sunglasses! And naturally, he needs one Marinette Dupain-Cheng to design them for him. Now, if only Marinette could figure out how to execute some of Jagged's more out-there ideas...

(AO3) (FF.net)

When the first reports of knock-off Jagged Stone sunglasses came in, the singer-slash-songwriter was furious.

"A designer made those specially for me and I won't have someone else profiting from her work," Jagged told Penny as he filled out the paperwork for the report. His assistant loyally copied down every word for the press release. "That's not fair to her."

"Will you be releasing an official Jagged Stone Glasses line, sir?" Penny asked. "That way your fans can buy the glasses legally and the designer can get a portion of the sales."

Jagged Stone perked up at the suggestion. "Yes! Perfect! What do we need to do to get that started? We would need to get in contact with a sunglasses manufacturer, right? You could do that, couldn't you Penny?"

"I can do that." Penny made a note. "Do you want her to design any other sunglasses so you can have a variety to offer?"

And that was how Marinette found herself getting a call at eleven o'clock at night from the rock star's assistant, asking for three more sunglasses designs.

"Jagged wants the Statue of Liberty- in American colors, of course, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and one other- oh, let me think, he was throwing out ideas left and right- oh, right. The Loch Ness Monster. In Scottish flag colors."

Marinette could only blink blankly at the phone in her hand. The phone call from Jagged Stone's assistant had been out of the blue in the first place, and it was just getting weirder and weirder. "Those are some...interesting designs," she managed. "Uh, why does he want these all of a sudden? Is he doing a world tour?" Marinette had rather been under the impression that Jagged Stone had just finished a world tour and was taking a break to work on a few new songs.

Penny laughed at that. "No, not at all. Jagged wants to release a line of sunglasses and I suggested that he have more than just the Eiffel Tower ones. Since we're in another country, if you could just draw the prototypes and then Jagged can decide which ones he'd like best. I suspect that the Loch Ness Monster will get scrapped, but Jagged wanted four sunglasses to start with and he was running out of ideas."

"Should I experiment some, maybe?" Marinette suggested. A couple ideas that she wanted to play with were already bubbling up in her mind. "Come up with some ideas of my own?"

"Perfect! Yes, yes, definitely. That sounds great. You can send designs as you make them and then once you've exhausted your ideas we can chat a bit more about which ones are most likely to work out." Penny sounded more than a little excited by Marinette's suggestions. "Great! I'll give you my email so you can send me the designs. Thank you so much, Marinette. Jagged is very excited to see what you come up with."

"Of course," Marinette managed before Penny ended the call. As soon as she was sure that the call was definitely ended, Marinette set her phone down and let out a long, high-pitched squeal of excitement.

"That's great, Marinette!" Tikki squealed, swirling up into the air and doing a little dance. "You're getting noticed! And you're going to be designing a line of sunglasses for a rock star! That's going to look fabulous on your resume!"

"Yeah," Marinette said breathlessly. A small smile spread across her face. "Yeah. If I can pull this off...it's gonna be great."

Marinette ended up buying a whole new sketchbook to dedicate solely to Jagged's sunglasses designs. She used the new notebook for two reasons: one, so she wouldn't tear out all of the pages in her design sketchbook as she made draft after draft of the designs Jagged had suggested and a couple of her own, and two, because the pages were large enough for her to make full-size sketches. If she so wanted, she could cut the pieces out, fold them in the right places, tape them on normal glasses frames, and wear them around.

Of course, that would require actually finishing the designs. Marinette was having a little trouble with them.

"They're cheesy and a bit out there, and I realize that Jagged's style is a bit cheesy and out there, but there's a thin line that I need to walk here. It can't be so out there that it gets ugly." Marinette let out a frustrated breath and flipped to a clean page to start to sketch whatever came to mind. She had been too focused on Jagged's suggested designs and not enough on her own. Maybe experimenting a little would get her creative juices flowing again.

"Are you doing any other country-themed designs?" Tikki asked as she watched Marinette draw. "Like the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty?"

"Maybe. I don't know what else I could do." Marinette let out a long sigh. She reached for her computer and pulled up a search for country symbols. The list she got wasn't quite what she was expecting- it involved a lot of random animals instead of national monuments, like she had been kind of hoping for- but she scanned it anyway. Even she probably couldn't pull off cow-shaped glasses or cherry blossom glasses (they just wouldn't fit with Jagged Stone's aesthetic, not at all), but the Canadian maple leaf would probably be pretty easy, and while the Komodo Dragon from Indonesia would probably confuse a lot of people, a crocodile would make a lot of sense. It would also be really cool if she could make something like that.

The only question was how on earth she would color crocodile sunglasses. With the national symbols and monuments she could just use flag colors and patterns, but Fang's skin color just wasn't interesting enough for Jagged Stone-worthy sunglasses.

"I'll just figure out how to center the crocodile on the glasses before worrying about how to color it," Marinette sighed after a moment. She flipped the page again and started sketching a base glasses frame. "I would make the tail go around the side of the head, but then you just don't see it. But if I just do a straight tail, there's just a blobby thin stick sticking out of the side of the glasses. It would stick too far away from the head."

Tikki looked pensive as she floated down to settle on Marinette's lamp. "Maybe you should look up pictures of crocodiles and see if you get any ideas. It helped you think up ideas for glasses!"

"It wouldn't hurt to check, I guess." Marinette set her sketchbook aside and reached for her computer again. The first few photos that came up weren't much help- half-submerged crocodiles did not a good reference make- but a photo in the third row showed a crocodile whose tail was curled back on itself.

Perfect. As long as the tail didn't double back so much that it bumped the wearer's nose, that would eliminate the problem of having the tail stick out too far and risk breaking.

And of course, it didn't take too long for Marinette to hit another snag.

"Crocodiles are hard," Marinette grumbled as she erased yet another line. "So many bumps and the proportioning and ugh, this is going to look awesome if I can ever get it right but it's so hard."

"You could probably do a simple outline to start," Tikki pointed out. "So you can get the tail curl right and make sure that the design can go over your nose before you go to all the effort of making it more accurate."

Marinette perked right up. "You're right, Tikki! That's important."

A few minutes later, Marinette was cutting out her simplified crocodile glasses outline. She tossed the scraps of paper from the outline to the side so she could fold her paper glasses.

"Okay, I'm definitely going to have to do something with the nose area," Marinette said as she tried to settle the glasses on her nose. "Uh, let me attach these to actual glasses frames. It's a little too flimsy on its own."

Marinette set the paper glasses aside as she reached for one of the pairs of sunglasses she had littering her desk and the tape she had sitting nearby. A few minutes later, she was trying the glasses on again.

"The crocodile will have to arch out a little around the nose," Marinette decided with a sigh. She made a couple small snips and crimped the paper until it curled around her nose instead of pressing against it. "I'll have to make notes in the design I send to Penny. This is getting so complicated already!"

"It looks interesting!" Tikki said, flying around in front of Marinette. She beamed at her Chosen and then realized that Marinette couldn't see anything. Tikki paused, then asked, "Do you want me to take a picture of you with your phone so you know what you look like?"

"That would be great, Tikki. Let me just grab- uh-" Marinette reached out, patting her desk as she searched for her phone. Her lips turned downwards as she continued searching. "Oh, hold on a minute-"

"I got it," Tikki said, dodging Marinette's hand. "Just sit back and smile."

Marinette sat back and smiled. Tikki let out a tiny squeak when the phone nearly wobbled out of her grasp, but she caught it just in time and took a fairly clear picture.

"That doesn't look awful," Marinette said a minute later as she looked at the picture. "It's obviously nowhere close to finished, but I can see where it's going."

"I think Jagged Stone will like it," Tikki said as Marinette set the glasses aside. "You just have to find the right pattern to go on it!"

"Ooh, I don't even know where to start with that," Marinette sighed as she glanced around her desk. Her tablet was around here somewhere; if she could find it, she could just whip up a couple basic designs to kind of get an idea of what direction she wanted to go to try-

Instead, she spotted the remnants of the page she had cut the paper sunglasses from, sitting on top of the CD that she had designed. The CD was facedown, and the design was showing through.

And it looked awesome.

"That's perfect," Marinette breathed, freezing as she stared at the paper draped over the case. The CD was too small to fill the entire cutout, of course, but there was just enough of it for Marinette to visualize how it would look when it was finished. "Oh my gosh, that's perfect. It's not just a random patterns, then, it's actually Jagged-related-"

"What is?" Tikki wanted to know immediately. She zoomed around Marinette's head impatiently. "Have you thought of something?"

"More like the universe thought of something, and I saw it." Marinette pointed to the CD and the discarded page, fingers already itching to get working on putting glasses and pattern together. "If I remove all of the text from the pattern that I used on the back and then extend in a bit- oh, it's gonna look awesome!"

Tikki cheered.

By the end of the day, Marinette had gotten very, very frustrated with the crocodile glasses. Her breakthrough with the coloring for the glasses had been encouraging, but she had hit another roadblock not long after that. The crocodile outline was proving nearly impossible to get right. Marinette had gotten the proportioning right reasonably quickly, but getting all of the little bumps and curves right was difficult, to say the least.

"This just isn't working," Marinette sighed as she erased another line. "I just can't get the outline right. I practically have to trace... a... crocodi-" A pause. "Hmm."

"Hmm?" Tikki asked.

"That actually might be a good idea. I'd have to find a reference photo and use my tablet and make sure I don't mess up the layers, but it would be faster than doing this." Marinette pushed her sketchpad to the side and reached for her tablet, energized once again. It didn't last long. "Okay, now let me look up a few pictures for- oh no!"

Tikki immediately shot over. "What's wrong?"

"I've been totally ignoring my homework! I got so caught up in designing that I completely forgot to do my homework!" Marinette shoved her tablet aside again and flung herself across the room towards her backpack, immediately in a panic. "And I'll be going to the movies with Alya tomorrow, so I need to get it done now!"

"You don't need to panic, Marinette! The movie won't take the whole day!"

Backpack in hand, Marinette raced back to her desk and started pushing things aside, clearing a good work space so that she could spread out her books. "Maybe, but what if there's an akuma attack? Ooh, and I had gotten so good at planning ahead and getting things done in case an akuma popped up last minute!" Marinette flipped frantically through her pink planner until she got to the right page. "And I have so much to do this weekend, too! I have a reading for Literature and then a paper for Physics and-"

"Are they all due on Monday?" Tikki asked as Marinette continued to list homework off at lightning speed.

Marinette checked. "Most of them are! There's only a couple that are due Tuesday, but I can't put them off because I'll get homework Monday night, of course, and-" Marinette suddenly paused. "Oh. I suppose I could do the stuff that's due Monday morning first. I can always get some stuff done over lunch- unless there's an akuma, of course- and unless my luck really sucks, then there shouldn't be an akuma that night, too, and I can just really buckle down then."

"That sounds smart, Marinette!"

The glasses designs got pushed further and further to the side as Marinette plowed through her assignments. By the time her eyelids were drooping closed, she had finished almost all of her assignments for Monday.

"I'll get up and finish those first thing tomorrow," Marinette said as she yawned her way up to her loft. "I want to get them done before Alya comes over."

Tikki giggled. "You, get up right away? I'll believe it when I see it!"

Marinette... sort of got up right away. It took some prodding from Tikki.

"You need to work on your Physics assignment," Tikki reminded Marinette as her Chosen blindly whacked around, trying to shut off the alarm on her phone. "Come on, get up."

"That's hardly an incentive to get up," Marinette grumbled as she finally found her phone and turned the alarm off. "Ugh. Why did I ever plan to get up at this hour on a Sunday?"

"The sooner you finish your homework, the sooner you can get back to designing Jagged Stone's glasses," Tikki sing-songed, tugging at Marinette's blankets. "Or the sooner you can go to bed tonight!"

"Sleeeeeeeep."

"Nope! It's morning time!"

Marinette groaned and rolled over twice more until her feet dangled off of the bed. She dragged herself out of bed and down her stairs, groaning the whole time. There was a general rustling about as she got ready.

Marinette's phone chimed and Tikki checked it as Marinette continued to drag a brush through her hair, grumbling the whole way. The little kwami grinned, knowing full well that the text Marinette had just received would light a fire under the girl and really get her going- well, if it didn't distract her too much. Tikki would just have to spin it the right way.

"Nino and Adrien are going to join you and Alya at the movies!" Tikki called down to Marinette. "So if you want to be able to stick around afterwards and hang out with Adrien after the movie is over, you should hurry up and get started on your homework."

Marinette squealed and her sluggish speed suddenly quadrupled.

When Alya showed up hours later, Marinette was well into the last of her projects. It wouldn't be a problem to finish late that afternoon, or maybe that evening.

"I'll be sitting next to Nino, of course," Alya told Marinette as Marinette shoved both her normal sketchbook and her Jagged Stone sketchbook into her bag with a handful of colored pencils. "And we'll try to shove Adrien into the seat next to you."

"I can't wait," Marinette said, grinning as she slipped the strap of her bag over her head. "Are we meeting them there?"

"They're downstairs, actually," Alya admitted as they headed down the stairs to the Dupain-Cheng living room. "Your parents offered them samples and, well, you know that neither of them would turn samples down."

Marinette had to laugh at that. "Right. Did they just decide to join us so that they could swing by and get samples?"

Alya tapped a finger to her chin. "You, know, you might be right. I did suggest that we just meet them at the cinema, but they both insisted on coming by to pick you up."

Both girls were giggling when they entered the bakery. Adrien and Nino were standing by the counter, nibbling on cookies. Tom was holding several buns in his hands, clearly about to hand them over to the boys.

"Aha! We were right, Marinette. The boys were only joining us for the food," Alya announced. Adrien jumped and spun around, looking a little guilty. Nino polished off his cookie and took the offered bun, clearly completely unabashed by being caught.

"The company is good, too," Adrien offered, swallowing the last bit of his cookie. Mr. Dupain offered him a bun, and Adrien only paused for a moment before accepting the treat with a sheepish grin.

"Clearly," Alya said dryly. She rolled her eyes with a grin. "Come on, guys. We have a movie to watch."

Their movie outing went smoothly. Nino and Alya plopped themselves at the end of a row, forcing Adrien to sit next to Marinette. Adrien didn't seem to notice his friends' manipulation at all as he sat down next to Marinette with a grin.

"What's up, Marinette?"

"N-nothing much," Marinette managed. She had decided that she wasn't going to say anything about the glasses for Jagged Stone quite yet, at least not until the designs got approved. Maybe she would keep quiet until the glasses came out, so it could be a surprise. It still all seemed a dream, far too good to be true. Part of her was almost worried that if she mentioned the glasses commission to her friends now, Jagged Stone would suddenly change his mind and drop the project completely.

"Oh, don't give me that," Alya said, turning around so she faced Marinette. "I spotted a new sketchbook going into your bag today. Do you have a new project? Tell tell tell!"

"Nope, nothing new," Marinette claimed, wincing internally. She should have known that Alya's sharp eyes would pick up on that right away. "I just wanted to try something different with my sketchbook."

"Ugh, that's no fun," Alya grumbled. She pouted at Marinette and then turned back to talk to Nino, leaving Marinette to face Adrien.

"Anything new with you?" Marinette asked after a too-long pause.

Adrien shook his head. "Not really. I had a fitting yesterday for a photoshoot next week, though. And none of the shirts fit."

"Really?" Marinette couldn't believe that anyone associated with Gabriel Fashion would make anything the wrong size.

"Uh-huh. And they have to let out the pant legs a little as well." Adrien grinned. "I'm growing, apparently. Finally."

"Says the tall person," Marinette joked.

Adrien's grin grew. "I'm sure you'll grow. Eventually. Maybe."

The lights dimmed suddenly, cutting off their conversation before Marinette had to think up an answer to that. The movie previews and ads started playing as a few stragglers filtered in. Marinette relaxed into her seat as the movie started.

Just for now, she wasn't going to worry about her homework, akumas, or the list of glasses Jagged Stone had requested. She would deal with all of that later.

As it turned out, it was a very good thing that Marinette had gotten her homework out of the way before she went to the movies. Adrien had been free all afternoon, so they hung out for several hours before an akuma made their group scatter. By the time she and Chat Noir defeated the rampaging superhero, it was time for her to go home for dinner.

As she waited for class to start on Monday morning, Marinette couldn't help but fidget. She had managed to whip out her Statue of Liberty glasses the previous night, which meant that she hadn't had a chance to fiddle with her crocodile glasses design at all. She had hoped to have an outline at least started, but she hadn't even found reference photos yet.

So when Madam Bustier had to dash out of class to do a few last-minute errands before class started, Marinette didn't wait more than a few seconds before pulling up a search on her tablet. There was no shortage of photos of Fang- after all, where Jagged Stone went, Fang went- but very few of them actually had Fang in the kind of pose that Marinette needed.

"What are you up to?" Alya asked as Marinette kept scrolling down the page. "Is that Fang? Are you doing something else for Jagged Stone?"

...okay, maybe doing obviously Jagged Stone-related research while at school wasn't the best idea if she wanted to keep the sunglasses project a secret.

"Oh, no, I, uh," Marinette started, flailing a little for an excuse. Really, by now she should be a master excuse-maker with all of the times she had to lie to cover her tracks when she had to go fight akumas, but no such luck. It was nothing short of a miracle that no one had called her out on the increasingly shoddy excuses she made to get away for akuma attacks. Her eyes fell to her tablet, scanning Fang's photos for something, anything she could use as an excuse.

Her eyes fell on Fang's collar and her mind sped back to a post she had seen on a Jagged Stone discussion board ages ago. It had been a stupid comment for sure, and one that she wouldn't ever bother wasting any of her time on normally, but it would do.

"There was a post that I saw online recently that claimed that Jagged Stone was mistreating Fang and that his collar was way too tight," Marinette claimed, hoping that she sounded believable. "So I'm looking up photos of Fang and, like, Jagged rarely even has the collar on him, see? It's only when they're out and about and Fang might wander into the street or something. And then the collar is plenty loose."

"Don't even bother arguing with them, Marinette," Nino said with a sigh, turning around to join the conversation. "They're probably one of those 'animal rights activist' people that are so extreme that they can't stomach the idea of even the most responsible beekeeping."

"Beekeeping and collecting even a little honey, you mean," Adrien added. "I don't think anyone has any problem with just beekeeping for the sake of having bees around."

"Unless they're daring to have the bees there to pollinate their crops," Alya added with a roll of her eyes. "Because it's unpaid labor, y'know."

"I'm mostly doing it in case there's anyone on the board that might just blindly believe them," Marinette said before Alya could wander too far off topic. "I know they wouldn't be persuaded, but it's important not to just ignore it and let misinformation spread."

"I guess you're right," Alya sighed. She glanced over at Marinette's tablet again. "But why are you looking at so many photos? Wouldn't you just need a couple for your post?"

"It's for research," Marinette insisted. "I wanted to verify that Jagged Sone always has the collar really loose, and that they wouldn't just scroll down a little and come up with a photo that was taken at a bad angle or something." She glanced down and scrolled a little further. Finally a photo that matched the profile she needed popped up, and Marinette swiped to save it. She would have to find another photo for Fang's curled tail, but this photo- taken from the first row while Fang (and Jagged) were on stage- would be good enough for her to start getting her design started.

Alya shook her head as Madam Bustier walked back into the room, new papers in hand. "I'm telling you, you're spending too much time on this. But it's none of my business what you do with your free time, I guess. Fight internet idiots if you want."

Marinette smiled as she closed out of her search. Her secret was safe.

For now, at least.

After a few hours spent fighting her tablet and trying to get the layers to work with her, Marinette finished her crocodile outline. After that, it was no big hassle to clean up the CD cover background that she wanted to use and extend it a bit so that it filled the crocodile outline. Marinette spent a few short minutes getting the same pattern onto the glasses' arms.

"Where are you going to sign it, Marinette?" Tikki asked as she watched Marinette work.

Marinette glanced up, startled. "Sign it?"

"Yeah! Like you signed the hat!" Tikki plopped down to Marinette. "So people know that you designed it!"

Marinette bit her lip. "Oh, I don't know. I mean, it's Jagged's line of glasses. He might want his name on them, or maybe his logo instead."

Tikki frowned. "Do you really think so? Maybe you can have Jagged Stone's logo on one glasses arm and your signature on the other."

"Ooh, I don't know. I mean..."

"Chloe's glasses have the designer's name on them," Tikki pointed out. Then she looked at Marinette's anxious face again. "Or you can make two versions, one with your name on it and one without. That way, you can ask Penny and Jagged Stone. I bet they'll want to use the one with your signature! There's no harm in asking. Jagged Stone seems really nice!"

"I guess you're right, Tikki." Marinette looked back down at her tablet. "Maybe I can do it in black, so you could see it up close but not from too far back."

Tikki frowned but didn't argue. "If you're sure that that's what you want, Marinette!"

"I'm sure. I can alter the color on the other frames so it blends in just as well with those. I'll still have ask Penny and Jagged Stone if they want it on there, though." Marinette saved the page she had been working on before flipping to a clean page. She could just use the same kind of signature that she had used in the hat design contest- upside-down but with clear, easy-to-read letters written in her neatest cursive- but somehow she didn't think that it would be quite right on a pair of sunglasses. Maybe she could do tighter letters, tall and thin. It would be more compact and easier to see close up.

Marinette practiced her signature several times, trying to get something she would want to put on a label. Her biggest problem was that her letters were too spread out, no matter what she tried. If she wrote slower, trying to get the tight curls and slightly cramped letters, her lines would be wobbly even with the program's stabilizer. It was frustrating to no end.

"Could you Photoshop it?" Tikki asked after Marinette discarded yet another fail. "Compress a normal signature or something?"

"No, I-" Marinette paused, then frowned. "Actually, that might work. I wouldn't be able to start with a completely normal signature, of course, but that would be easier than what I'm doing now, I think. Thanks, Tikki!"

"You're the one who knows how to do things. I just poke you in the right direction." Tikki floated down to the desk and perched on a clear spot to watch Marinette work. "How many more glasses designs are you going to make? You've already made two."

"Jagged Stone wanted at least three more designs, but I want to do one or two more than that. He might not like one of them, so if I have extras then maybe I won't have to do a bunch of meetings."

"Do you know what else you're going to make?"

"Penny mentioned the Leaning Tower and the Loch Ness monster." Marinette selected the signature she wanted to manipulate with a few quick taps and slowly started compressing it. "The Leaning Tower's overall silhouette isn't too hard, but I'm not sure how I should do the little arches. I could have a textured sunglasses, but people would only be able to see that from close up, or I could do little cutouts, which could affect the strength of the glasses, or I could make the back part of the arches black, I suppose, or maybe I could just make it darker."

"I think the last one sounds best," Tikki said. "Or maybe a combination of the last one and the first one. That would be fun!"

"It might be more expensive, though. I need to keep that in mind." Marinette considered her signature, frowned, and did another. "And I don't even know where to start for the Loch Ness monster. The pictures I found earlier are all over the place with the head shape and I have no idea what to do for the bottom. I mean, I would assume fins, but..."

"And it might end up too similar to the Fang-shaped glasses. Maybe I can do some doodles but only go back to it if Jagged Stone asks. Penny did say that Jagged was kind of scrambling for ideas."

"I think he'll like the crocodile glasses better," Tikki said confidently as Marinette made a few alterations to her signature and tried compressing it again. It was almost perfect, so Marinette expanded it again and copied it carefully, making the small changes that she had marked. This time when she compacted it, the signature turned out perfect.

"That looks really professional, Marinette," Tikki exclaimed as Marinette saved the perfect signature and discarded the others. "I bet you could use that when you become a professional designer even, it looks so good!"

Once the crocodile glasses were finally finished, Marinette turned her attention to the Leaning Tower glasses. They would probably need some sort of counterweight so that they wouldn't press down strangely because of the tilt from the Leaning Tower, but she could worry about that later. Marinette spent a while experimenting with different techniques for the arches before Tikki reminded her that she did in fact have homework that she was supposed to be working on.

"This would be so much easier if Jagged Stone had come up with this idea during the summer," Marinette groaned as she cracked open her Physics textbook. "I could work on it whenever without having to worry about getting assignments done."

"But then you would be spending all of your time with Alya and her sisters or Manon, and you know perfectly well that they would see you sketching and not leave you alone about it," Tikki pointed out. "And you know that if any of your friends or classmates caught sight of Jagged Stone's logo, they would be hounding you about it." A pause. "I still don't understand why you aren't telling them yet."

"It doesn't feel real yet," Marinette said absently as she picked up her pencil. "And if I tell them, then they'll want to watch. I don't know if Alya could resist having a scoop like that." Marinette bit her lip. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that she could keep a secret, but if she said anything at home and her sisters overheard..."

The entire city would know by the end of the day. Alya's sisters were not known for their secret-keeping skills.

"Are you going to tell them once the designs are accepted, then?" Tikki asked. "Alya could probably keep quiet about it until the official announcement is made."

Marinette wrinkled her nose, attention already half on the problem she was staring at. "Mmm, probably not. Design acceptance to production could take months. I think I'll surprise them once the designs go public. It'll be funny."

"Alya will end you," Tikki predicted. The little kwami giggled. "And then she'll probably scream for ages. I can't wait."

Marinette stayed focused for several weeks, trying to balance schoolwork, akuma-fighting, helping her family, and fiddling with her glasses designs. The other glasses fell into place pretty quickly- a Leaning Tower of Pisa, Canadian red-and-white maple leaves, and Big Ben. Marinette did little adjustments to each, cleaning up designs and altering Jagged's logo and her signature to better go with each of the glasses.

Finally, after weeks of work, Marinette had the files ready to send to Penny.

"I think your explanation is perfectly clear, dear," Sabine said as she finished reading the email Marinette had composed. It explained a few things about the designs- the need for a small counterbalance in the Leaning Tower glasses, the small arch outward across the bridge of the nose with the crocodile glasses, the copies of the arms of the glasses, both with and without her signature- and also had a brief note about why there was a lack of a Loch Ness monster, though Marinette made it clear that she could definitely try to make something if Jagged Stone felt strongly about it.

"That's good. I don't know what else I could say." Marinette worried at her lip as she scanned her email. Letter, check. All of the attachments, check. It was really nerve-wracking sending in something that would (hopefully) go on her resume. She knew Jagged Stone would love the Statue of Liberty glasses, probably, and definitely the crocodile glasses, but the nerves didn't leave.

"It looks fabulous. Just hit send before you think about it too much." Sabine gave her daughter's head a loving pat. "Besides, they requested you. You don't need to worry about first impressions."

"That's true." Marinette moved her cursor over the Send button, still indecisive. "But maybe I should see if there are any more tweaks I could make-"

"Or you could wait until Jagged Stone and Penny give you feedback on your designs," Sabine pointed out. "These look fabulous. If they want any changes, it'll be based on taste, not on technicalities."

"I suppose." Marinette stared at the screen, then turned away and clicked fast before she could change her mind. She cringed, then slowly turned back to the computer.

Message sent.

"All right, that's great!" Sabine chirped cheerfully as Marinette closed out of her email. "Now, come on downstairs. We have a batch of macarons that need to be made and we're running a little behind today."

"Of course!"

Penny was far more enthusiastic than Marinette had expected. She responded right away, exclaiming over the designs. She thought that Marinette's signature was fine, but she had a small suggestion for changes to Jagged's logo on the glasses- instead of matching the colors, she suggested a black logo edged with gold for a pop. It was an easy fix, and then Marinette sent off the files again.

And then came time for showing Jagged Stone what she had come up with. Since Jagged was in America but he wanted Marinette to hear his feedback as he saw the designs for the first time, they were doing a video call. Penny had printed out the designs Marinette had sent so Jagged could see them as they discussed each one.

Marinette was very, very nervous.

"Marinette!" Jagged Stone crowed as their video call went through. "Hey there! Penny keeps telling me how awesome your designs are, so I can't wait to see what you've come up with!"

"I can't wait for you to see them," Marinette said, hoisting a confident smile onto her face. Penny had liked her proposed designs, so she shouldn't be too nervous.

Penny appeared behind Jagged Stone on the screen, carrying a file folder under her arm. She settled in the chair and smiled at the screen. "Hello, Marinette. I think everything looks fantastic, but let's just get Jagged's stamp of approval, shall we?"

"Sounds good," Marinette said. She just hoped that her voice wasn't shaking too much.

Penny started off with the glasses that Jagged had suggested. He was absolutely thrilled with each of them and insisted on modelling each of the cardboard samples. He couldn't see anything through them, of course- the finished product would have the same slats as the Eiffel Tower glasses so that the wearer could actually see but it would be too much work to do the same on the cardboard prototypes- but Penny took pictures of him modelling each pair of glasses so he could see what they would look like. The two country-related designs that Marinette had come up were next, and both met Jagged's requirements.

"And we've saved the best one for last," Penny announced as Jagged Stone set the Canadian maple leaf glasses aside and looked at the photo Penny had taken with a grin. "Are you ready for this?"

Jagged Stone perked up. "There's another? Marinette, you've really outdone yourself this time!"

Marinette only smiled.

Penny pulled the crocodile glasses out of her folder and handed them to Jagged Stone. The rock star's eyes lit up as soon as he saw them.

"It's Fang!" Jagged Stone exclaimed with a grin, holding the glasses up to admire them. "That's great! And this pattern- it's from the album cover you did, isn't it? It's fabulous!"

Marinette could only grin.

"I need to have a pair or seven of these right away," Jagged Stone continued as he plopped the glasses on his face. He posed with them. "And- oh! Crocodile sunglasses! Do you want to know what idea that gives me?"

"What idea does that give you, Jagged?" Penny asked patiently.

"Crocodile sunglasses! Sunglasses for Fang!" Jagged Stone's hands flew into the air, nearly hitting Penny in his excitement. "We can match! They would just have to be a bit wider to fit Fang."

Marinette blinked. What?

Thankfully Penny looked a little puzzled as well. Her mouth worked wordlessly for a moment before she finally spoke. "...and how would the glasses stay on? Crocodiles don't exactly have ears that stick out."

Jagged Stone waved an airy hand. "Oh, I'm sure someone as talented as Marinette can figure something out. It wouldn't be a problem, would it, Marinette?"

...um.

"I, uh, don't exactly have a crocodile to try things on," Marinette managed, trying to think fast. She didn't want to just outright say no, though she couldn't deny that it was very, very tempting. She had an in with Jagged Stone and she wasn't going to lose it just because the rock star wanted something ridiculous. If she outlined why crocodile glasses couldn't be made, then maybe he would drop the idea on his own. "Uh. There would have to be something that the glasses would attach to, like a collar but, like, not so far back and not so loose. It would have to turn with Fang's head. I'm just worried that Fang might, uh, object to having something there."

Jagged Stone finally pulled the crocodile glasses off so he could see again. He looked pensive. "Hmm. I'll talk to my crocodile trainer. He might have an idea." Jagged beamed again, clearly sure that the problem would be dealt with in no time. "And what other modifications do you think we'd have to make for Fang's glasses?"

"The nose pieces," Marinette offered after a short pause. Were they really going to do this? Drat.

"They'd have to be angled differently, and maybe be longer and a little curved for more stability."

"We're supposed to go to Paris in three months," Penny said, checking her clipboard. "We could get the regular glasses into production stage in the meantime, and then once we're in Paris we could do an actual crocodile fitting. Marinette could make a rough cardboard prototype to test once we arrive." She sent Marinette a somewhat apologetic look. Clearly she had had the same reaction as Marinette to Jagged Stone's initial suggestion, but she wasn't going to be the one to argue.

"Perfect! I can't wait." Jagged beamed at Marinette. "I think these crocodile glasses are gonna be my new favorite glasses ever."

"There's just a couple small details left to talk about with the glasses design," Penny mentioned, pulling their attention back to her. "Marinette put your logo on the left arm of the glasses. I suggested that rather than matching colors, it might be better to have the logo black and then edged in gold."

"I like it!" Jagged exclaimed. "Very high-end. I like the size. It's big enough to see, but it doesn't overwhelm the glasses."

"And on the other arm is Marinette's signature. It's in a different color on each pair of glasses so it's more understated." Penny picked up the Canadian maple glasses and pointed to the signature.

Jagged Stone turned the crocodile glasses over and peered at the arm. After a moment, he seemed to find it. He frowned.

"Sir?"

"I don't like the signature," Jagged Stone announced. Marinette's stomach dropped. She had overstepped, she knew it, she shouldn't have put her signature on there at all-

Penny looked a bit concerned. She glanced over at Marinette. "Uh, sir..."

"It's too subtle. I can barely see it!" Jagged Stone waved his arms in the air again, gesturing wildly as he spoke. "Make it bright! I want to see it shine, Marinette! You know what would look good on all of these? Gold embossing! You put in a ton of work here, Marinette. People should definitely know that you made these."

Marinette blinked. Jagged Stone...wanted her to make her signature more obvious?

"I think that's a good idea," Penny agreed, looking much more on board. "It's a pretty signature. Very professional. We're already doing gold embossing on Jagged's logo. You're the one who did all of the work, so we should be able to see your signature on it."

"Right, of course," Marinette managed. "I'll make those changes right away. It shouldn't be too hard."

"All right. I think we're good here, then!" Jagged Stone beamed at Marinette. "I can't wait until these go into production!"

Somehow Marinette kept the secret through the months of delegations and back-and-forth with the sunglasses company with the designs. She managed to sneak away into the hotel and do the sunglasses fitting with Fang without alerting anyone, even Chloe. It had gone smoother than she had expected- Fang hadn't snapped at her at all, and he had been very patient as she made adjustments. He hadn't put up with having all of his vision obscured (Marinette had had to cut the slats in the cardboard prototype she was using and then she had to fiddle with curving the arms of the glasses so that they would dip downward out of his field of vision), but he didn't mind having the glasses strapped to his head once he could see again.

Jagged was delighted, Penny was pleased, and Marinette played fetch with Fang until an akuma attack popped up and she had to leave. The sunglasses were slated to debut in a month, when Jagged Stone would be starting another tour and introducing a few new songs, and everything was going smoothly. The first metal and plastic prototypes were out and looking absolutely fabulous.

Marinette couldn't wait.

The news of Jagged Stone's glasses line exploded immediately at school. Almost everyone knew that Marinette had been behind the original Eiffel-Tower-inspired pair, but the rest of the line was a mystery.

"The first pictures of the other pieces in Jagged's collection just showed up!" Alya announced between classes, waving her phone. "He's back in America for the start of his next tour, and he has Statue of Liberty glasses!"

Marinette smiled as her classmates crowded around the photos. There were a lot of comments about how nice the glasses were, though most of the class wasn't particularly interested in owning their own pair.

After all, there was very little point in wearing American-themed sunglasses in Paris.

Over the next week, pictures continued to show up. In Jagged's Canada stop, he wore the maple leaf shades Marinette herself had come up with. In London, it was the Big Ben glasses that Penny had suggested. In Italy, two Leaning Towers made themselves at home on Jagged's face. The crocodile glasses had yet to show up, but Marinette knew that Jagged Stone was saving those for last.

Two weeks after the first of the new glasses were seen, a photographer finally managed to get a photograph of the shiny signature on the side of the glasses. Reflected light obscured the first half of the name, but the second half was somewhat visible. The tabloids went wild trying to figure out who had designed the pieces. The signature didn't match that of any big designer, and it was just a little too shiny to make out the curling letters. The mystery added a whole other layer to the excitement surrounding the Jagged Stone glasses.

"Are your Eiffel Tower glasses going to be sold with the line, Marinette?" Alya asked one morning as she paged through the most recent article. "Because they definitely should be, they would fit in perfectly with everything Jagged Stone has shown so far."

"That would be super cool," Nino exclaimed before Marinette would respond. "One of your designs would be sold all over the world, then! That would just be...wow."

Marinette grinned. Oh, they didn't know half of it. "Yep, Jagged Stone contacted me to ask if it would be all right. I said yes, of course."

...technically, it wasn't a lie. Before Penny had even asked Marinette whether or not she would be willing to design more glasses, she had asked if it would be okay if Jagged Stone manufactured and sold glasses modeled after the ones she had made during Career Day. It was just...not the whole story.

Her friends looked suitably impressed.

"That's actually what inspired Jagged Stone to do the glasses line in the first place," Marinette added, just because it was so much fun to tease them. She grinned at the three dropped jaws that met that announcement. "Because there were knock-offs of my Eiffel Tower design being sold. That ticked Jagged Stone off, because I wasn't getting the credit, and so he decided to release them himself."

"That's great," Adrien started. He sounded a little hesitant all of a sudden, though, and Marinette frowned a little at that. Adrien fiddled with his lip for a moment, then added, "But credit isn't everything. I know it's important to have the recognition and all, but you made the design. Are you getting, y'know, paid at all for that?"

Marinette grinned again. That was sweet of Adrien to want to make sure that she was getting properly compensated for her work. "I am! He's overpaying me, really. Almost all of the profit for the glasses I designed goes to me. That's basically unheard of."

"He just wants the cool glasses," Nino guessed with a snicker. "That's actually really cool. I'll buy a pair for everyone I know."

Marinette couldn't help but laugh at that. "That's really not necessary-"

"It is totally necessary. I mean, it might take a little while if they're like, super-expensive, but it'll happen. It'll be my Christmas present for everyone this year." Nino nodded seriously. "Eiffel Tower sunglasses for everyone. It's gonna happen."

Her friends' high opinions of Jagged Stone ("He actually pays his designers! He didn't care about the money from the sunglasses!") lasted until Thursday of that week. That was when Jagged Stone debuted the crocodile sunglasses, accompanied by Fang with his own special crocodile-fitted pair. It would have gone just as smoothly as the other sunglasses introductions, had Jagged Stone not been asked about the new sunglasses as he headed from his hotel to the concert venue.

"Oh, yeah, I love these!" Jagged Stone enthused as he adjusted the crocodile glasses on his nose. "They're fabulous! It's Fang, can you tell? Of course you can, my designer did a great job on these!"

"And you even got a matching pair for Fang," the interviewer said as he jogged alongside Jagged towards the door, clearly intent on getting as much information as he could out of the rock star before he vanished into the building.

Jagged looked positively thrilled that the reporter brought it up. Or, rather, he was grinning widely. It was kind of difficult to see all of his expression with the sunglasses in the way. "Yeah! These are my new favorite pair of sunglasses, so of course I got Fang his own pair. He looks great."

Jagged fielded one more question before he ducked into the building to get ready for his concert, but Alya didn't even notice. She was too busy fuming that Marinette's Eiffel Tower glasses had been knocked from their status as Jagged Stone's favorite pair of glasses ever.

"I mean, the crocodile glasses are pretty cool, I guess," Alya grudgingly admitted as she ended the video. She turned around and Marinette hastily rearranged her grin (Jagged Stone had called the crocodile glasses his favorite! He had already said it to her, of course, but it was something else entirely to hear him say that on international television) into something more neutral. It was a good thing that she had been standing at the back of their group, or otherwise someone would have spotted her seemingly out-of-place grin. "But your glasses were his favorite!"

"Yeah, that sucks," Nino said, frowning. "But at least Marinette's glasses were his favorite for a year, right? Not many people can say that."

"And at least her glasses are getting released as part of his line," Adrien reminded Alya. "And he only thought of doing the sunglasses line because of Marinette's glasses."

Alya nodded. "That's true. Oh! And there was news about that too, actually." Alya waved her phone at them before realizing that the screen was off. She set it to the side before she could accidentally send the device flying. "Jagged said that the ads for the glasses would be appearing in Metal Lourd and other rock magazines in their next publication. The article I saw said that then we should probably find out about the designer for the new pieces then, too. They mentioned you too, Marinette," Alya added. "They said- oh, let me find it- they said that 'Jagged's line will also feature his iconic Eiffel Tower sunglasses, made by designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng.'"

"That," Nino said decisively, "is super cool. Don't forget us little people when you become famous, Marinette."

Alya snatched up a copy of Metal Lourd as soon as the next issue hit the shelves and hurried out to join the rest of their group in the park. Nino and Adrien hung over her shoulder as Alya paged frantically through the magazine looking for Jagged Stone's sunglasses ad. They had all insisted that Marinette get the best seat next to Alya, so that she could see her sunglasses in the ad really well.

Marinette didn't tell them that she had already gotten copies of the photos used in the ad.

"We can see the whole designer logo in these pictures, but it's waaay too small to read," Alya complained. The mystery had been driving the reporter up the wall. "Does anyone have a magnifying glass?"

"It looks like all of the glasses have it," Nino said, hanging over Alya's shoulder so far that Marinette was afraid that he was going to lose his balance and tumble forward. "Not just the new ones."

"Oh, that's weird," Alya said. She peered closely at the ad and then nudged Marinette. "Look, Marinette, they have your Eiffel Tower glasses here in the ad, but they have that gold signature on the arm, just like all the others do. The glasses company must have made a mistake-!"

Marinette let a small, impish smile slide onto her face as Alya, Nino, and Adrien all glanced her way. Her friends all looked confused for a few seconds, wondering why she wasn't upset that another designer's signature was on her work. She didn't say anything as she waited for them to figure it out.

Naturally, Alya guessed it first. She gasped, one hand flying to her mouth. "Wait. The signature on your glasses is the same as the signature on the others. You little-! You never said anything!"

Marinette burst out laughing as the boys finally caught on and let out twin shouts of surprise. "I wanted to surprise you! I was thinking of waiting until the official announcement came out, but-"

"I would have ended you. How in the world did you keep quiet about such a huge secret? I would have burst!" Alya exclaimed. "Ooh, how did I not guess sooner? I had an inkling that you might have a new project when you got that giant sketchbook, and then I spotted you looking at pictures of Fang and I still didn't figure it out until now!"

Marinette gave another small smile. Keeping a huge secret? Alya had no idea.

"And no wonder you weren't upset when Jagged Stone said that his new crocodile glasses were his new favorite!" Nino laughed. "Those are fab, by the way. I'm gonna need to buy a pair."

"Who altered the sunglasses for Fang?" Adrien wanted to know. He gaped at Marinette's grin. "Really? Wow! I wouldn't have had any idea where to start."

"I was a bit lost at first too," Marinette admitted. "Jagged just sort of sprung the idea on me during the design approval meeting. And of course I couldn't just outright say that he was crazy for even thinking about crocodile sunglasses... for a crocodile."

"They seem to work pretty well, though. Fang tolerates them and it doesn't look like he's wandering into anything."

"I had to alter the arms so that Fang couldn't see them," Marinette admitted. "He tried to throw them off when we put the cardboard prototype on the first time. I hadn't thought about that when I made it." She giggled as a particular memory hit her. "I had to look up the field of vision for crocodiles to figure out if Fang would even be able to see the glasses. He could, so I knew that I would have to make the slats in the model before Fang would stop trying to throw them off."

Alya let out another sudden shout of surprise and then waved the magazine at them all again. "There's an article about the glasses right here on the next page, and they guessed right about the designer! Look, look!"

They looked. Sure enough, one of Metal Lourd's writers had indeed noticed the matching signatures and had speculated that Marinette had been the one to design the other sunglasses. They had apparently also gone to all of the trouble to look very, very closely indeed at the signature and had managed to pick out Marinette's name among the golden sprawl.

"School is gonna be crazy on Monday," Alya said, elbowing Marinette teasingly. "Everyone is gonna read this and want a bit of your attention so they can hear about how you got the job. Speaking of which- I wanna know first! Talk, talk, talk!"

The sunglasses ended up being a smashing success. The original Eiffel Tower design and the crocodile design were the most popular by far, but the other designs sold reasonably well. Marinette found herself grinning whenever she spotted someone in the street or at school wearing glasses from Jagged Stone's line. It was a great feeling, seeing people wearing things that she had designed. She had almost died of happiness on the day that Adrien had showed up to school wearing a pair of the Eiffel Tower glasses. Marinette couldn't have possibly asked for anything more.

And then her phone rang. It was Penny.

"Hey, Marinette! Would you be interested in doing another album cover?"

[dippedanddripped]

In October 2017, the impossible happened.

Supreme, once operated from a single store on New York’s Lafayette Street, had quietly sold half of its business to multinational private equity firm The Carlyle Group for a reported $500 million, valuing the company at a staggering $1 billion. Many of Supreme’s long-time fans weren’t impressed, accusing the brand of “selling out,” believing that with wealthy investors involved, the brand’s growth would compromise its authenticity.

Aware of the potential backlash, Supreme boss James Jebbia kept the sum of the deal under wraps for months, afraid it could damage the street cred Supreme had carefully cultivated since its launch in 1994.

Cultural credibility, after all, is the secret ingredient that turned Supreme products into status symbols for youth tribes around the world. In the process, Supreme subverted the definition of “luxury” to a point where high prices and avant-garde designs are no longer the sole drivers of desirability.

Cred is what gives Supreme’s scarce box logo tees $800 resale values and differentiates them from any other white T-shirt on the market. They are 25 years of subculture and narrative embedded in one simple item of clothing. And that is the exact example many fashion brands have tried to replicate, with only a handful succeeding.

But cultural cred is intangible. It transcends geography and demographics and isn’t created by one group alone. It’s ambiguous and imbued with nuance, making it hard to define and put into practice. Brands that try to place themselves as authentic to youth culture via strategy alone are indisputably inauthentic.

Cultural cred is made up of various components, many ever-evolving, with specific overarching elements that need to coexist. Without all the pieces in place, a company risks losing resonance and longevity with the influential Gen Z and millennial generations of shoppers, which represent $350 billion of spending power in the US alone. So how do brands crack the code?

Make product responsive

Core to any fashion brand is its product. For consumers, product is the trophy that both unifies them with peers and sets them apart.

“Simply, it’s about making product that young people aspire to wear,” says Sofia Prantera, the Italian-born Slam City Skates alumna and co-founder of London streetwear label Aries.

But what’s perceived as coveted today will have changed by tomorrow, with buyers expecting clothing to be designed, produced, and delivered at the electric speed of Instagram. Streetwear’s business model, rooted in easily churned-out T-shirts, hoodies, and accessories made in limited quantities and distributed through weekly drops, lends itself well to these fluctuations in desirability. For those wanting to keep up with their customers, it’s vital to create products responsively.

In 2011, H&M-owned fast-fashion retailer Weekday launched Zeitgeist, a project in which T-shirts and tote bags were screen-printed in its stores. The designs reflected current affairs and spoke directly to the retailer’s Gen Z and millennial audience. Examples included “Love Wins Deutschland,” celebrating Germany becoming the 23rd country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage; “Fight Like a Girl,” in support of the Women’s March against President Trump; and “Make London Europe Again” against Brexit.

But one size doesn’t fit all. Ideally, working with collaborators should be localized to speak to specific regions. Most of all, expansion into new fields shouldn’t be forced on consumers, and brands shouldn’t forget the products that made them authentic in the first place. Think Supreme skate decks, BAPE full-zip hoodies, or visvim’s FBT shoes.

“Someone like Palace has grown very fast but it has also grown organically,” says Prantera. “They’ve retained independence and I think it shows with their output, because some of their releases aren’t necessarily commercially friendly.” In other words, it feels real.

The element of surprise can’t be overlooked either. Collaborations are often used as a tool. Although unsustainable, not only is continuously replenished (collaborative) product good for business and brand marketing, unexpected products are a clever way for fashion brands to see how their community responds to products put out in real time. It’s a way to test how far a brand can push before it strays too far from its authentic core.

Speak through, not to your audience

Relevant product alone, however, won’t be enough to engage today’s fragmented buyer. Today, being culturally relevant means one must know when, where, and how to speak to your audience. For years, traditional messaging has remained the same and, as the use of social media in the fashion industry became oversaturated, consumers have become immune to homogenous, disengaging content.

What differentiates a label is its attitude, tone, and brand activity. Only by having a distinctive voice can a brand generate shareable content that resonates. Companies can no longer put out content for the sake of it and let engagement metrics overshadow narrative-driven marketing.

Problems occur when brands see their communication channels strictly as additional ways to push out new product. This approach is wrong because brands are essentially telling their followers that unless they’re consuming, they can’t fully take part in the dialogue.

Instead, fashion houses should see social media as a tool to inspire, to expand their universe with content that digs deeper into the company’s backstory, product, and community, while acting as a forum for discussion among followers.

“Don’t only speak to your community, speak through and with them,” says Leila Fataar, founder of Platform13, a London-based brand consultancy that specializes in creating and maintaining cultural relevance for companies through on-brand activations and by connecting them with influential industry insiders. Its roster of clients includes adidas, Under Armour, and Beats by Dre.

Getting the mix right are labels such as Nike, The North Face, and Stüssy, as well as 1017 ALYX 9SM, JJJJound, and BODE. All strike the right ratio and speed when it comes to novelty, product, and honest, value-driven storytelling. It allows followers to become part of the brand’s direction.

“Patagonia is also a good example,” says American industry veteran and creative business consultant Julie Gilhart, who has worked with everyone from Amazon, Prada, and Jil Sander to Goyard and Mulberry. “They have really good communication. They don’t really do anything without talking about it first. If they don’t, their customers are going to talk about it and [the company] is going to do something about it. Your community is sort of like your family.”

Embrace cultural voices

It’s true. Brands should treat their community with love and respect. Fostering a community that sticks, however, is a challenge. A strong community means relinquishing some measure of control to the consumer. This is a scary thought for many companies, but it’s something that gives a brand meaning beyond product alone.

“Sometimes I say no to nice brands because I feel there isn’t enough energy or attitude to bring them into the market,” says Slam Jam founder Luca Benini. “Immediately after I see the product, I check who’s behind the brand and what their approach is. In the long term, this makes the difference.”

Stavros Karelis, founder of multi-brand retailer Machine-A, explains, “There’s a very big turn in our industry, from bigger is better to being more specific to a core audience, not satisfying every single demand. That way you grow steadily in a safe manner.”

Karelis has proven to be an expert in scouting brands with staying power early on. He names Kiko Kostadinov, Grace Wales Bonner, 1017 ALYX 9SM, and Cav Empt as prime examples of labels that have all-encompassing visions of their clientele and brand.

“Someone like Matthew Williams [of ALYX] kept his brand very specific for the first few years,” Karelis says. “There were no shows, no presentations. He communicated his message through specific retailers and through campaigns. It shows that he waited for the right time to build community and educate everyone before it exploded.”

While social media has connected those who are like-minded in their niche interests, it has also meant the death of underground subcultures at the local level, once the foundation of fashion communities, with everything becoming more accessible.

“Growing organically while maintaining your original customer is a challenge,” admits Prantera. Community, she says, is something very difficult to establish and something you can’t manufacture. “You either have it or you don’t.”

Indeed, brands only become authentic by supporting culture, not by hijacking it. At the same time, they need to focus on being anything other than a faceless corporation. And that’s easier said than done.

So how can brands, new or established, build, foster, and then leverage their community to grow a culturally credible brand?

“It’s not rocket science,” laughs Fataar, explaining how brands need to focus on people with similar mindsets rather than the same demographics. “They also need to have conversations with the community they’re trying to be part of and see what they can do to add value to that community instead of just talking to them for a PR story. That’s when brands do well and, to me, that’s what creates cultural relevance.”

Fataar highlights Gucci’s partnership with Harlem couturier Dapper Dan as a sincere case study. “How long did that take to do? But look how much it has done for the brand,” she says.

Where fashion brands often fall down, she adds, is when they identify the wrong people to spread the message, often prioritizing popular online influencers new to the scene over those with true influence.

“You’re not a cultural voice just because you have loads of followers,” Fataar says. “A cultural voice is someone who’s earned their stripes and not just told a story. They’re the ones who have been part of the change and have helped shape the culture. Some of those people don’t even have social feeds, but they’re the ones making stuff happen. If you want to talk to a community of people, you get these cultural voices in to do it. Hopefully, your brand values are the same and you can come up with something that’s important and relevant.”

For Angelo Baque, founder of Awake NY and former brand director of Supreme, building a community means looking inward first. “Instead of putting all this energy into thinking about how to make a million dollars, I’m thinking about how I can incubate and mentor new photographers and find new talent to contribute to the brand, like I did at Supreme,” he says. “You have to think about the long game. With Supreme, people tend to not understand that it’s been around for 25 years.”

Without values, you stand for nothing

One of the best examples of a brand growing its cultural relevance for more than 50 years is outdoor giant The North Face.

“When our brand was born, there was little competition, so making good product was sufficient,” says The North Face’s global general manager of urban exploration and mountain lifestyle Tim Bantle, whose team has been responsible for collaborations with Supreme, sacai, and Junya Watanabe. “Then the industry evolved, and then we were great at creating unique content to support the product through photography and stories of incredible expeditions. For a long time that was sufficient.”

But the environment changed in the last decade, says Bantle, who now believes product and storytelling are only half of the work that needs to be put in. “Once you layer in additional values as a brand, that’s when you start getting a complete package,” he says. “You really can’t be the brand you want to be without addressing these [external] dimensions.”

Whether it’s Nike supporting former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Gucci and Levi’s speaking out against gun violence, Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing making genuine strides in hiring refugees, or The North Face’s “Walls Are Meant for Climbing” campaign, which took shots at President Trump’s call to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, the brands of the future will be driven by purpose as much as profit. The days of surface-level consumerism are over.

Gilhart argues that, in today’s environment, by not standing for something, you’re at risk of losing the cultural cred you’ve built up with your community. “You may disappoint a few, but it’s worth it,” she says.

Antonio Achille, senior partner and global head of luxury at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company agrees. “Projecting a brand image needs to be based on a very authentic set of values. If there’s a disconnect, it’s a boomerang in your face,” he says.

Bantle adds, “The big institutions that people have historically relied on for a sense of identity and belonging simply aren’t as effective as they used to be. People’s choices of where their dollars go need to go to companies that reflect their values and something bigger than themselves.

“We’ve really turned up the dial on the values component in the last couple of years because it’s the right thing to do. It helps us connect to our audience in a way we feel proud of and can stand by at the end of the day, and it will only become more important as we grow.”

Make sustainability and transparency the norm

Values shouldn’t be limited to external messaging. Those wanting to stay relevant need to be transparent about the way they operate, from how a company treats its employees to sustainable sourcing, production, and distribution.

Research by Boston Consulting Group shows that 73 percent of the world’s clothing eventually ends up in landfills. Meanwhile, 75 percent of consumers surveyed by the group view sustainability as extremely or very important. And consumers have the power to make businesses accountable. According to the report, 50 percent of consumers say they plan to switch brands in the future if another brand does more to protect the environment and help society than their preferred one.

From Burberry burning clothing worth millions (a practice it says it has discontinued) to H&M sitting on $4.3 billion of unsold stock, companies will have to radically rethink their approach to the “end” of a product’s lifecycle.

“If you want to be in it for the long haul, not starting a business in an environmentally and socially responsible way is a risk,” says Gilhart, who adds that future investors might be scared off by consumers potentially calling out a brand’s unsustainable practices. “It’s the number one thing. You don’t want to start something that’s unsustainable when you have as much information as we have now. We’re on borrowed time.”

Companies such as Everlane, Allbirds, and Noah understand this. In May, Noah explained to its Instagram followers in great detail why the prices of some of its sweatshirts and rugby shirts had gone up, guiding users through its supply chain with images of its factories and workers, and breaking down the costs of each individual item.

Noah was founded by former Supreme creative director Brendon Babenzien and has become known for its value-driven approach to fashion, raising money and awareness for causes including the Black Lives Matter movement, ocean clean-up, and programs that support LGBT+ communities.

While it has maintained that it’s “not a sustainable company,” Noah’s willingness to work toward solutions and put integrity above trends, working exclusively with suppliers and manufacturers that treat workers fairly, has created a template for a modern and culturally credible fashion brand.

“The new consumer is very sensitive about increased transparency,” says McKinsey’s Achille. “Before, the primary source for consumers to get your brand identity was through in-store experiences and customer service. Next came marketing. Now it’s not just about the frontline anymore, but it’s a much more holistic equity that you need to build in terms of brand identity.”

Prantera of Aries agrees. “The more vertical your business is, the better it will do. It might not be the most financially friendly solution, but it’s for sure the purest,” she says. “The way people are paid, where you manufacture, how you treat your suppliers, it’s all about how your business appears. It’s not just about design and PR anymore.”

Altogether, what defines cultural credibility probably can’t be encapsulated in one simple formula, but the fundamentals are detailed above.

“Nobody knows how long it takes to build a successful brand. Some brands happen overnight and some take years,” says Gilhart. “But if you start to build a good foundation, which [includes] sustainability, community-building from the get-go, being direct-to-consumer, knowing what you stand for, and being consistent with it, it’s very good. It doesn’t matter who you are, you just have to be transparent and authentic.”