“I want to be important. By being different. And these girls are all the same.”
― Sylvia Plath
Name:
Rose Lavender Ellison
Alias:
Rosie Ellison, Lavender Earnshaw
Age:
Twenty-three
Gender:
Female
Occupation:
Likes:
Old-fashioned gentlemen, anything retro esp. 40's to 60's clothing, kooky-looking fabrics, alternative fashions, alternative music, fish and chips, chocolates and the beach.
Dislikes:
Ignorant, bigoted arseholes, shapeless clothing, anything dull, bland or boring, lack of personality
There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.
― Bette Davis
Personality:
"Oh, you're asking about Rosie? She's a minor underground celebrity. All that sub-culture stuff, you know? Shame about her shop... Still, you can't keep a girl like that down.
Rosie is a through and through optimist. She is rarely seen without a smile on her lips and her friends and acquaintances claim that there has never been an occasion where she has been in an openly bad mood. She is the kind of woman to sing in the shop when nobody's there, and to dance when there are. The recent destruction of her business was a hard blow to her, but she has retained her cheery demeanor; she still can cater to some online orders and she can reopen when the insurance money comes through.
Beneath her upbeat exterior, Rose is a ruthless businesswoman with an eye for fabrics and quality dress-making. She knows what she likes, but is slow to let her heart overrule her head. She can spot a bargain from a rip-off at fifty paces, and will only ever pay [or sell it] what it's worth. She refuses to be played for a fool, and generally, will not let the same happen to anyone else.
Needless to say, Rosie is a confident, outgoing woman. She likes people, and despite her kookiness at times, people generally like her. She takes immense pride in her work, and while generally able to take constructive constructive criticism, she takes insults about her clothing personally. She is not a woman to sit by when others are being attacked, physically or verbally, for their appearance. She has taken self-defense lessons, has three older brothers, and typically is wearing shoes with killer heels... She's not a black belt, but she can handle herself pretty well considering.
Biography:
- Rose Ellison was born the youngest of five children in an upper-middle class neighbourhood in London City, England. She lost her parents in a car accident when she was three, but raised by her grandparents, had a happy and otherwise unremarkable childhood. Her grandmother, a performer during the war, became a major influence on her growing up. Rose grew up seeing the glamorous pictures and listening to her records; she held more respect for her gran than she did any pop star, even into her teens.
Rosie's parents were both career minded people; they didn't count on a set of triplets after their first child, or an accidental third pregnancy. It was mentioned in their will that they wished for each of their children to pursue a 'proper' career, and the appropriate money set aside for their education. The eldest child, Maria, became a doctor like her mother, while the triplets, George, Ed and Charlie, went into law, finance and business. Rose knew early on that medicine wasn't for her, and the idea of spending the rest of her life in suit, pinned in an office somewhere bored her to tears.
Instead, Rose enjoyed shopping for fabrics and studying dress patterns, eventually altering and then making her own clothes from scratch. After passing her A-levels, she reluctantly chose to study business at university, taking evening classes in dress-making and seeing classes.
It was at uni where Rose started getting attention for her dress-making skills. In her third year, she and two of her roommates clubbed together and started running a tailor-made dress shop out of their dorm. Together they featured prominently in the end of year fashion show, earning a small name for themselves. One thing led to another, and soon they found themselves running a small business. Things were going swimmingly until a spat occurred between the girls that involved money, two boys and a bra appearing in the wrong room. They went their separate ways and Rose in the meanwhile returned to her studies.
After graduation, Rosie found herself revisiting her days as a dressmaker, but it wasn't until she got a phone call late one night, asking her if she was still in business. When she replied that the business was gone, the question was re-phased; Does Rose Ellison still design dresses?
The voice on the end of the phone belonged to an agent of a rising star in the underground music scene. She had bought the dress second-hand online and had liked it so much, she'd checked around, wanting a new one. She eventually bought several dresses for a rather large sum, and inspired a trend in vintage style dresses, especially hard to find one off pieces by the elusive Lavender Earnshaw.
Rose originally left London with the intention of going to New York to open a boutique to feature pieces by up and coming, slightly offbeat and kooky vintage inspired clothing. Due to an unforeseen set of circumstances, she had to stay for a weekend in Miami. She never got on the flight to New York, and hasn't looked back since.
Recently, with no warning, Rosie's shop was robbed and destroyed in an arson attack. She lived above the shop, but luckily for her, was on a night out with friends when the attack happened and not tucked up in bed, burnt to a crisp. She is set to claim insurance, and didn't lose anything too valuable in the blaze. Until such a time comes when Rosie can move back into her flat, her brother is putting her up in the hotel under her real name. After all, there is only a handful of people in the world who can link the face of Rose Ellison to the name of Lavender Earnshaw.