"Speaking of which, I first had this idea when I was participating in a Chanel Haute Couture show fitting. Many people don't understand why a handmade custom gown is so expensive, and they aren't clear about how many tedious processes are involved. Since I had this opportunity, I came up with the idea for this 'Fashion Workshop' program."
"So, you plan to start your first episode with Chanel?"
"Yes, Karl will even be appearing in person during the production process; it's a rare opportunity. Of course, Simon, if you insist on starting with Gucci, I can also adjust the program schedule. Anyway, the first three episodes are finished, and the second one is Gucci."
"Listening to your tone, it's as if I'm a very petty man."
"If I really thought that, I wouldn't have dared to choose Chanel from the start."
"You certainly have a way with words."
"Tsk, your tone is really a bit world-weary. Janet, don't you think so too?"
"Indeed, sometimes he is just like an old man."
"Heh."
At the cocktail party, the Westeros couple was discussing a program planned and hosted by Jerry Hall.
"Fashion Workshop," as the name suggests, mainly takes viewers on tours of the manual workshops of major fashion brands.
In the fashion industry, there are all sorts of manual workshops, from ones for buttons and feathers to those for wedding dresses and gowns. Since these are small-batch and purely handmade, the prices are naturally expensive, and most belong to the luxury category.
For example, for a custom wedding dress, from design to completion, it might take a large number of high-level technicians from different workshops several months to finish. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration at all for a top-tier wedding dress to cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
During the years of Gucci's revival, Sophia spent a large part of the brand's expansion energy on acquiring various old-school European manual workshops to increase the brand's intrinsic value.
After Fashion TV was established, the staff couldn't just sit in a meeting room creating programs behind closed doors. Instead, like a fashion magazine, they 'solicited contributions' from the television fashion world, seeking various program ideas.
In this process, Jerry Hall provided a program proposal for field visits to various manual workshops.
In the fashion industry, the manual workshops under major luxury brands—specialized workshops for buttons, feathers, clothing, hats, and footwear with traditions that might span a hundred years—are simply too numerous to count. These workshops also possess deep cultural heritages worth writing about. Therefore, Jerry Hall's idea was quickly accepted by the Fashion TV production team, and the first season of thirteen episodes was ordered, with Jerry Hall herself serving as producer and host.
In the original timeline, the public's impression of Jerry Hall was basically limited to two things: being the wife of Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, and later the wife of News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch.
Just these two things were enough for many to confirm that she was a very formidable woman.
In fact, that was indeed the case.
Being able to drag a playboy like Mick Jagger into the grave of marriage, and finally having a twilight romance with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, is something an ordinary woman could not do.
A smart and formidable woman naturally cannot be just a piece of eye candy by a man's side.
This former supermodel is already 36 years old this year, and her runway career is basically over. Being able to seize the opportunity of Daenerys Entertainment establishing Fashion TV to successfully transition behind the scenes once again proves this woman's strength.
As for the "Fashion Workshop" program, both the Fashion TV management team and Simon himself are very optimistic about it.
As long as the program's quality is high enough, a series of documentaries about the fashion industry's manual workshops could entirely become a signature for Fashion TV. Moreover, it would be a classic series that could be replayed for a long time. In the future, as Fashion TV expands globally, playing this series on any regional network would not seem out of place.
At the same time, promoting the manual workshops of the fashion industry allows viewers to more deeply understand the value and heritage of major luxury brands, which is actually a form of promotion.
After talking for a while, knowing that Simon had other people to attend to, Jerry Hall took the initiative to say goodbye and walked away.
However, as she left, this woman didn't forget to find an opportunity to quietly throw an ambiguous glance at Simon, with a posture that suggested he should call her in private.
Janet seemed completely oblivious to this, taking Simon's arm and saying, "She's really tall, even a bit taller than you."
In high heels, Jerry Hall's height could reach 1.9 meters, which indeed made her look a bit taller than Simon. Such a height is enough to make most people, regardless of gender, feel inferior. However, because of her excellent physical foundation, even at thirty-six, this woman still appeared full of charm, easily arousing a man's desire for conquest.
The two continued socializing for about half an hour. Noticing that Janet seemed a bit tired, Simon took her and left the party early.
Back at the Fifth Avenue apartment, Janet leaned her head directly on Simon's shoulder in the elevator and squinted her eyes. Simon concernedly pulled the woman into his arms, pressed his forehead against hers, and felt no fever. He asked, "Uncomfortable?"
Janet reached out to wrap her arms around the man's waist and clung to him, tilting her face up to rub against Simon's chin, saying, "There's just been a lot going on lately."
It wasn't just Cersei Capital; Janet's current authority basically covered the entirety of Daenerys Entertainment.
Especially during the season at the beginning of the year when the companies in the Westeros System summarized their financial information for the past year, the woman had to read several financial reports almost every day to ensure there were no errors. Combined with managing their private lives, she indeed seemed very busy every day, which was completely inconsistent with her lazy personality.
He lowered his head and pecked the woman's lips. When the elevator doors opened, Simon simply picked Janet up and carried her toward the apartment, saying, "If you don't want to do it, then don't. You're better at arranging these things than I am."
Held in Simon's arms in a princess carry, Janet simply kicked off her small high heels and gently shook her pair of fair little feet, saying, "No, maybe, I can't quite explain it, I've just been a bit tired lately."
Lady A, Allison, opened the door inside the apartment. Simon entered the living room and wanted to put Janet on the sofa, but the woman wouldn't let go of his neck, so he simply sat down on the sofa while holding her. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Take some time to go to the hospital for a check-up."
"I don't want to go to the hospital."
"Then I'll call one to the house," Simon said, looking up at B Girl, who had also come out to meet them. "B, make arrangements for a doctor to come over tomorrow to check on Janet."
"Um, forget it, I'll go to the hospital. Let's go back to Los Angeles, to our own hospital."
Compared to going to a hospital, Janet even less wanted a doctor to come to the house.
From very, very early on, Simon knew that Janet had a natural resistance to doctors and hospitals.
The Westeros Family's private hospital had been in preparation since Janet was pregnant with Melbourne and was now basically complete. It had about twenty of the industry's top doctors in various fields and was normally only open to the high-level executives of the Westeros System.
Simon carefully examined Janet's face, which was flushed from having just had some wine. Seeing the woman mischievously make a face at him, he didn't press too hard.
After seeing Steve Ross's condition after he fell ill with cancer, Simon placed great importance on his own health and the health of those around him. The two of them would undergo a comprehensive physical examination every six months. The last check-up was in early January, and Janet's physical state was very healthy; it was impossible for something to have gone wrong in just one month.
---
After completing the launch of Fashion TV on Monday and staying in New York for another day, on Wednesday, February 10, Janet returned to Los Angeles, while Simon set off for Europe, planning to attend the opening ceremony of the Berlin Film Festival on February 11.
After the reunification of East and West Germany, the international political situation shifted, the Cold War completely stopped, and Germany began to focus on its own cultural development.
In recent years, the Berlin Film Festival has become a cultural project that the German government values more and more.
Simon's attendance at the opening ceremony of the 43rd Berlin Film Festival was the result of strong invitations from various parties.
Speaking of which, among Europe's three major film festivals, Cannes and Venice, Simon had appeared more than once, but he had never attended Berlin before. Considering the necessary trip to Europe to handle the affairs of various Westeros companies at the start of the new year, Simon accepted the invitation.
Moreover, although the Berlin Film Festival has always been somewhat indifferent to Hollywood films in terms of awards, Hollywood films are actually a very important category at the festival every year.
Taking the last few years as an example, outstanding Hollywood films like *Dances with Wolves*, *Moonstruck*, *Born on the Fourth of July*, and *Driving Miss Daisy* have basically all appeared in the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival each year.
The current Berlin Film Festival, in order to attract more content, does not even restrict the exhibition of films that have already been released.
The Hollywood contingent in the main competition unit of this year's Berlin Film Festival remains strong. Among the 26 films in the main competition, there are a total of six Hollywood films: Ang Lee's *The Wedding Banquet*, Michelle Pfeiffer's *Love Field*, Robin Williams' *Toys* (which was released last year), Spike Lee's *Malcolm X*, Jack Nicholson's crime drama *Hoffa* (released late last year), and Johnny Depp's *Arizona Dream*, accounting for more than one-fifth of the main competition slots.
[A/n: For fuck's sake Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film maker not Chingchong's]
Among the six main competition films, *The Wedding Banquet* was produced by High Gate Pictures.
After the decent success of Jackie Chan's *Twin Dragons*, Daenerys Entertainment has placed more importance on investing in Asian-language films over the past two years. *The Wedding Banquet*, however, was a script that Kathryn Bigelow had privately recommended to Simon.
Because of her experience studying film at Columbia University, Kathryn has always been close to the New York film circle. Her relationship with Simon is almost common knowledge, and combined with Daenerys Entertainment's emphasis on independent art films, there are always filmmakers who submit scripts to Simon through her channels.
Because Simon would agree to invest without hesitation every time, the scripts that actually made it to Simon through Kathryn's hands were not many. *The Wedding Banquet* was one of them.
However, even coming through Kathryn's hands, the budget for *The Wedding Banquet* was not high, only $1 million.
Furthermore, High Gate Pictures also signed a long-term three-film contract with Ang Lee.
This provision was personally instructed by Simon.
Lee is one of the few Taiwanese directors who can break into Hollywood and achieve success. Since he encountered him, Simon naturally wouldn't let him go. Afterall, he needed some pawn's who could be used to enter the Asian market.
---
Departing from New York on the afternoon of January 10, after more than seven hours of flight, he arrived in Berlin. The local time was already after seven o'clock on the morning of January 11.
The opening ceremony red carpet was to begin at five o'clock in the afternoon, so Simon first went to his residence in Berlin.
Due to various reasons, Berlin's impression in many people's minds is often not as prominent as London or Paris.
Even when ranking major European cities, Berlin is often listed alongside other major cities but frequently struggles to grab much of a sense of presence. This phenomenon is just like Germany as a whole.
After World War II, even as the front line of the Cold War, Germany remained very low-key on the international political stage. East and West Germany silently depended on or were controlled by the two major Eastern and Western powers, yet they unknowingly developed into the third-largest economy, second only to the United States and Japan.
When Simon first began purchasing properties in Europe, East and West Germany had not yet merged, so he did not buy property in Berlin.
In recent years, Simon's personal wealth has grown rapidly, giving him the strength to support his idea of owning property in major cities around the world, and Berlin was naturally included.
Compared to the estate on the outskirts of Paris, the Kensington mansion in London, or the mountain villa in Cannes, Simon's residence in Berlin is much more 'ordinary.' It is a five-story white European-style apartment located in the center of Berlin. The apartment backs onto the Spree River that runs through the city and is less than two kilometers away from iconic Berlin landmarks like the German Chancellery and the Brandenburg Gate.
Not only that, this apartment is interconnected with several other buildings of similar style, forming a U-shaped gated community with a perimeter wall on one side. Therefore, one can enjoy the view of downtown Berlin through the windows on the side near the Spree River, while also ensuring the privacy of the apartment. It was precisely for this latter point that Simon bought an entire five-story apartment.
Just looking at the geographical location, the apartment's original price was not low. To buy the entire building and account for the renovation costs of more than 60 rooms inside, the total investment reached $25 million, and the renovation took the entire past year.
In the early nineties, a $25 million mansion was basically equivalent to a $100 million mansion later on.
Besides Simon, there was probably no other billionaire who, just to own his own property in a city where he might not even stay once or twice a year, would invest $25 million into it. After all, for this property, everything Simon invested was solid cash.
And $25 million in cash is not something most top billionaires with net worth of only a few billion dollars can easily produce at this stage.