The Versatile Master Artist

Every February, the Autumn/Winter Fashion Week is a battleground for fashion luxury companies to boost their product visibility in the world of fame and fortune.

From Paris to New York, from Chanel to second-tier small brands, supermodels with slender waists and long legs compete for attention on the same stage.

As the Chief Art Officer of Amida,

this was still his first time coming to Milan Fashion Week.

Van Doorn’s usual schedule during this time in previous years was to attend the more historically significant Paris Fashion Week and participate as an art designer in a press interview after Amida’s new product show on the opening day.

But this year,

he was arranged by the company for a temporary ”transfer” to Milan Fashion Week.

For the Chief Art Officer of a France brand, this was not good news.

”Darling, Milan Fashion Week is also significant, one of the international four major fashion weeks, it’s not worse than Paris here.”

The door opened, and his short-haired assistant and lover stood on the ladder, taking a breath of the Italian winter air.

She lazily pecked Van Doorn’s earlobe, then gently held a lady’s cigarette between fingers dyed crimson and lit it: ”I actually prefer the winter Mediterranean. We could take a helicopter to the mountains for skiing.”

”You know nothing, idiot.”

Van Doorn roughly slapped the cigarette out of the female assistant’s hand.

When in a good mood, he didn’t mind the female assistant smoking and even found it quite sexy, but now, he had no interest in others’ secondhand smoke.

Van Doorn knew,

as a France brand, Amida,

participates in all of the international four major fashion weeks.

However, with resource allocation, Paris Fashion Week is certainly the most important.

Each year, the best-selling or most valued designer new products are showcased at Paris Fashion Week’s ”Amida New Product Launch”.

As for Milan Fashion Week,

”Milan, a place 30% cheaper than Paris, I hate it here. Damn Italians have no sense of time.”

Van Doorn muttered viciously.

He descended the ladder, looked at the concrete ground in front of the hangar, and found the hotel-booked Rolls-Royce airport reception car was still not there.

While waiting,

he irritably took a cigarette from the pack and lit it himself.

Whenever people talk about the history of Milan Fashion Week, it’s unavoidable to mention—

it was a replica of Paris Fashion Week made after the Italian clothing industry was repeatedly defeated by the France high-end luxury goods post-World War II.

Just like the slogan of the first Italian Fashion Week: ”We are 30% cheaper than Paris products, crafted more delicately, using superior materials.”

In Van Doorn’s heart,

Milan Fashion Week was nothing more than a knock-off of Paris.

But in previous years, Van Doorn’s booth at Paris Fashion Week had been replaced by works from several other younger designers at Amida Company.

The company’s official explanation was—”We hope to give more fresh blood the opportunity to showcase themselves.”

Van Doorn knew the real reason behind it.

”Damn YouTube influencer, damn lame critic, damn monkey online illustrator.”

He took a vicious puff of his cigarette.

In the field of fashion,

success is determined by traffic, as is failure.

Being harshly criticized on the world’s top influencer’s video by art critics affected Van Doorn.

Especially when that critic Miss was stunningly beautiful, the video has now been viewed more than five hundred million times.

He originally accepted Thomas’s invitation just to grab some traffic blood.

Now, fine,

there indeed was traffic.

But in front of these hundreds of millions of viewers, he lost such face.

Many young people who buy artist trendy brands pursued nothing more than ”prestige.”

Yet his work was harshly criticized by an art critic from seemingly professional angles.

This was fucking deadly.

Van Doorn’s series of later counterattacks were completely a forced move.

Frankly, he had heard of that Miss Anna Ilina—the female heir of this generation of the long-established artist family.

Even though the Ilyena family was now in decline, a fallen tree and scattered monkeys situation, yet a hundred-foot worm dies but never falls.

Such a deeply-rooted figure in the art circle, there was no need to foolishly offend her.

But... is this bitch out of her mind!

It’s just a freak video shot by a big YouTube influencer to satisfy the audience’s curiosity, why so serious.

Van Doorn even suspected,

whether Anna was already acquainted with that unknown online illustrator privately, this video was a setup to use him as a stepping stone to fame for them.

With a change of thought,

he threw this idea out of his mind.

Even Van Doorn had to admit that the online illustrator’s level was really decent.

If she were a friend of the Ilyena family, there were legitimate ways to gain fame.

No need to do this at all.

”Luckily, she was too young. And fortunately, that guy was just a worthless online comic artist.”

Van Doorn felt his response overall was very fitting,

whether it was pressuring the ”Oil Painting” magazine council, slandering Anna during interviews as climbing up based on her family’s name, or saying that the African artist was just a monkey who only knew how to paint stereotypically, oblivious to art concepts... the effect was very good.

The latter was actually not slander,