Chloe by Design: Balancing Act

by Margaret Gurevich

  This has been such a journey. I thought I knew how everything worked, and now I know there’s still so much more to learn. Even if I get to be as successful as Stefan, there’s more to learn.

  I take the subway to Bryant Park. I remember how the subway used to scare me. It seemed so confusing at first with all the routes laid out in different colors. Now hopping on the train feels like second nature.

  At the park, I walk past the tables where Alex and I played Jenga. I think about what she said before she left: “I’m still a Santa Cruz girl at heart.”

  I used to think I was too. Now I’m not so sure. I listen to the honking horns and fire sirens outside the park. I look at the crowds of people and vendors. Each area of sidewalk is covered with people or stands. I find an empty bench and take out my sketchpad.

  Today, I don’t focus on just one person. I try to capture as many looks as I can. I draw a girl in cropped pants and lace-up oxfords with large gold hoops in her ears. I shade in the checkered pattern of another woman’s minidress, then focus on her beige wedge sandals laced up the calf. A teenaged boy in jeans and a polo shirt throws a Frisbee to his friend. I notice the Stefan Meyers logo on the boy’s jeans and think of the gift Laura, Taylor, Michael, and Stefan made me. Someday people in this park will be wearing jeans with the CM logo.

  I go back to the sketches I just drew and add the CM logo to the pieces. This year will be all about adding to my CM brand. That, and learning how to make my designs crisper. And when I see Stefan again next summer, he’ll see how far this California girl has come.

  Margaret Gurevich has wanted to be a writer since second grade and has written for many magazines, including Girls’ Life, SELF, and Ladies’ Home Journal. Her first young adult novel, Inconvenient, was a Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Teens, and her second novel, Pieces of Us, garnered positive reviews from Kirkus, VOYA, and Publishers Weekly, which called it “painfully believable.” When not writing, Margaret enjoys hiking, cooking, reading, watching too much television, and spending time with her husband and son.

  Brooke Hagel is a fashion illustrator based in New York City. While studying fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, she began her career as an intern, working in the wardrobe department of Sex and the City, the design studios of Cynthia Rowley, and the production offices of Saturday Night Live. After graduating, Brooke began designing and styling for Hearst Magazines, contributing to Harper’s Bazaar, House Beautiful, Seventeen, and Esquire. Brooke is now a successful illustrator with clients including Vogue, Teen Vogue, InStyle, Dior, Brian Atwood, Hugo Boss, Barbie, Gap, and Neutrogena.

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  Chloe by Design is published by Capstone Young Readers

  A Capstone Imprint

  1710 Roe Crest Drive

  North Mankato, MN 56003

  www.capstoneyoungreaders.com

  Text and illustrations © 2015 Capstone Young Readers

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gurevich, Margaret, author. Balancing act / by Margaret Gurevich ; illustrated by Brooke Hagel. pages cm. -- (Chloe by design)

  Summary: In this collection of four previously published works, Chloe Montgomery, winner of the Teen Design Diva contest, embarks on her prize — an internship with a famous fashion designer in New York City.

  ISBN 978-1-62370-258-8 (paper over board) -- ISBN 978-1-62370-521-3 (ebook pdf) -- ISBN 978-1-62370-566-4 (ebook)

  1. Fashion design--Study and teaching (Internship)--Juvenile fiction. 2. Fashion designers--Juvenile fiction. 3. Internship programs--Juvenile fiction. 4. Mentoring in business--Juvenile fiction. 5. New York (N.Y.)--Juvenile fiction. [1. Fashion design--Fiction. 2. Internship programs--Fiction. 3. Mentoring--Fiction. 4. New York (N.Y.)--Fiction.] I. Hagel, Brooke, illustrator. II. Title. III. Series: Gurevich, Margaret. Chloe by design. PZ7.G98146Bal 2016 813.6--dc23 [Fic]

  2014046867

  Designer: Alison Thiele

  Editor: Alison Deering

  Artistic Elements: Shutterstock