Aftersun 𖤓 peeta mellark

iii. navy blue and gold

•°. *࿐

iii. navy blue and gold

     ARRIVING AT THE CAPITOL, and watching the crowds fawn over the incoming tributes gave Avonlea the most sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. She remembers the shouts of her name, the people reaching out and grabbing her, the flashes of cameras and the shoving of guards. At her age, she didn't understand why they loved her so much, she was just a girl from district four with horrible luck. That was one thing that remained the same since she won her games, her confusion surrounding the Capitol's deep interest and investment into The Hunger Games. 

As Peeta and Katniss were escorted by Effie to meet their stylists for the first time, Avonlea made her way to the stylist head quarters where all the designers for that year's Hunger Games stayed, and met with Xanthos, her personal stylist from her games. Xanthos shot to fame after Avonlea won her games, he had been designing costumes for district 4 tributes for years before her but once she stole the Capitol's hearts and was crowned victor of the 72nd Hunger Games, everyone either wanted to be with him or be him, there was no middle ground.

"My star, my golden girl, how was the trip? you must be so thirsty" he smiles as he leads her out of the stylist head quarters and towards his working space. Xanthos' personal studio was cozy and comforting in comparison to the Capitol made stations for showering, waxing, hair and make up that the tributes had to use. The room was lined with large windows covered by golden drapes, mirrors with lights shining from all sides, chairs with automatic recliners and pop out sinks, unique shaped shelves with abundant products lining them, a large chandelier hanging from the roof and idiosyncratic black and white lines and shapes covering the walls. The space was basically Xanthos if he was a room: golden, luxurious and maximalist.

He sat her down in a large golden cushion chair which adjusted into a comfortable position the second she sat down as a butler approached her to take her drink order. He then called his assistants in and started mumbling different orders to each of them from a clipboard in his hands. Finally, he came up behind Avonlea and ran his hands through her hair, stopping to rub the ends between his fingertips. "How long has it been since your last trim, hon?"

Xanthos was bold with every choice he made, he wouldn't settle for normal or average. Everything had to be over the top, new, different, awe factor, never seen before. For Avonlea, who always stuck to societal norms and tried to keep away from attention, this was sometimes confronting, but she never complained and trusted Xanthos with her life.

The reason Xanthos chose to work with district 4 his entire career was his obsession with blue and gold. While most other designers made the district 4 tributes wear brown for their woven fish nets and green for the seaweed, Xanthos had a vision, and it was filled with navy blue and gold. Even once Avonlea had won her games and he quit his job as tribute designer in favour of being her personal stylist, he was still consistent with his colour pallet.

As Xanthos' assistants got to work lasering all of Avonlea's body hair and washing her face, Xanthos made finishing touches to her dress which was placed on a mannequin in the corner of his work place. As she was rushed to and from different chairs in the room she watched in the corner of her eyes as he delicately stitched more blue sequins onto the golden base of the dress then after another overlook, flicked his knife out and cut a slit from just below the right hip all the way to the bottom of the dress.