Black hair is the high-shine finish of the archetypes, the shade that looks lacquered under a spotlight and liquid by candlelight. Six women in the issue wear it, every head of it long and nearly all of it ruler straight, and the effect in a dim Mayfair bar sits somewhere between a vintage film still and a fragrance campaign.
The colour is where the resemblance ends. Among the six are a tennis player, a pianist, a lover of old films, a boxer, a potter and a swimmer who follows stand-up comedians from club to club.
Angelika, 172 cm and athletic, lives in Mayfair and plans an evening like a local: the galleries of Cork Street while their lights are still on, then Park Chinois on Berkeley Street once the band has started. Karolina, slim at 174 cm, prefers a recital at St George's, Hanover Square, a short walk from Bond Street, followed by dinner at Jean-Georges at The Connaught, where she will show you architectural details you have strolled past for years.
Danielle, curvy at 170 cm, claims the corner banquette at The Fumoir inside Claridge's, and her talk drifts from the lighting in film noir to a favourite poem over a single stirred drink. Milena, 175 cm with a sharp flick of liner, treats Sketch on Conduit Street as her personal stage: cocktails in the East Bar first, dinner under the art afterwards, and a verdict on the furniture by dessert.
Roxi, 168 cm and curvy, spars at a boxing gym in the mornings and books a booth downstairs at Gymkhana, where she will talk you into the dish you were wary of and then help herself to a taste. Violetta, the tallest woman in the issue at 178 cm, starts among the shelves of Heywood Hill on Curzon Street and finishes high above Park Lane at Galvin at Windows, landing a perfectly straight-faced joke just as the city lights come on.
Jet hair frames a face strongly, so the six tend to keep everything else clean: a column of black satin, a charcoal slip, a scarlet lip or a single gold cuff is usually the whole story. For black tie, any of them will arrive in something long; for a pub dining room, something relaxed and every bit as polished.
Karolina, Milena and Violetta are also statuesque, and so is Angelika, who doubles as toned and athletic. Danielle, Milena and Roxi belong to curvaceous. By chapter, Angelika and Roxi are in early twenties, Danielle, Karolina and Milena in late twenties, and Violetta in thirties and beyond.
Most of these evenings fit neatly into three hours at £1,050, which is precisely the length of the late edition, with bars, a late table and a walk back to your hotel. The opening hour is £400 whichever of the six you choose, the remaining figures are printed on the rates page, and she receives the fee in person on arrival.
Mention a favourite or describe the mood of the evening. Bella comes back with who is free, the fee and an arrival time.
