Fasion Girl Milani

FIRST MEETING

After a short time, volunteer Vera again was asked for help. Soon she was at the door, gathered courage and pressed the bell. There was a pleasant trill. Vera heard the tramp of someone's feet, who seemed excited 

-Mom, it's her, it's her! 
 
The door opened and Vera saw a pretty girl in red sweatpants, green shoes and yellow sequined sweater. A large blue bow with white polka dots adorned her head.   
Vera was momentarily dumbfounded by such a color abundance. She naturally had good taste, it manifested itself in everything. She carefully selected  her wardrobe, the furniture in the apartment,  notebooks and wallets, which always had been designed in the same style. Milani's wardrobe stunned her.   
However, the girl herself was obviously delighted with her outfit. Things surprisingly did not fit together, but Milani did not seem to notice. She clearly enjoyed the fact that she made an impression on Vera.   
- Do you like it? -she asked.   
“Of course,” Vera responded, “there are so many beautiful colors. 
There was a mirror in the hallway, and Milani decided to turn around in front of it again, to evaluate her outfit.   
“Let's count how many colors you have and which ones,” Vera suggested.   
Milani smartly counted 5 colors, but she had a clear problem with the names. She confused blue with green, yellow with red, only white and black she knew for sure.   
“At least she’s all right with the counting,” Vera noted to herself, and said aloud:   
- Well, what a fashion person you are! I also love to dress well. You and I can be friends on that.   
Milani broke into a smile and pulled Vera by the hand: "Let's go to my room!"
She was a charming child, a very funny and active girl. She loved clothes, to dress, and constantly changed and showed off in front of the mirror. Like most children with Down syndrome, she always insisted on her choice of clothes, which simply drove her mother crazy when they had to leave the house. Milani was completely devoid of any concept of an acceptable combination, and her usual wardrobe was a bizarre mixture of different colors and styles.   
Before leaving, her mother told Vera:   
- She was waiting for you so much and was worried ... She chose the best of her favorite outfits for a very long time. This is always a big problem for us. Every time you need to go somewhere, Milani chooses the most incongruous things. The saddest thing is that I cannot convince her to change. I tried to teach her how to dress properly and choose things, but Milani, unfortunately, does not remember colors at all, so I gave up on this idea. Now I don't react. People on the street smile at her, so she must think she is beautifully dressed.   
On her next visit, Vera brought some of her fashion magazines with her. She and Milani looked at them for a long time and discussed who liked what, and Vera told her the news:   
- You know, darling, it is considered the most fashionable now to wear clothes of three colors or less. Can you show me your favorite colors?   
Milani took out three things of different colors. Vera did not ask to name them, but one of them, purple, was Vera's favorite too.- Oh, it's purple, like mine, which  I love. Do you like my sweatshirt?   
That day, they had a wonderful time together, discussing clothes in magazines and noting things which were purple. 

PHOTOGRAPHY FINDS  its USE
 
The first meetings with Milani went well. Vera sincerely became attached to the girl and no longer felt uncomfortable by the grotesque choice of her clothes. However, she wanted to help Milani and her mother, who was upset because of her daughter's inability to dress normally. Gradually, Vera came up with a plan,, whereby she considered the possibilities of photographic art.   
Many years ago, from one of his trips abroad, her father brought Vera a good Praktica camera. Few people had cameras back then. At best, one of the high school students had a simple Soviet one. Parents hoped that this would help Vera establish communication with school friends.   
In a short time, she became star at school. However, her popularity did not last long. She liked to photograph nature, birds and architectural structures much more than people. Vera carried her love for photography, as well as for books, through her whole life. Over time, of course, she bought herself a digital camera.   
The next visit she brought her camera.   
- Milani, let's make our own fashion magazine with your outfits, since you are such a trendsetter. 
-How? 
- Very simple, bring out all the green things, just like my skirt.   
Milani opened the closet, took out a couple of things, and thought they were different shades of green. 
 
“Yeah, girl is able to pick up things on a certain basis. This is already something”, Vera thought, and said aloud: 
- Well, go ahead, get everything that looks like my skirt. They are all green.   
Milani immediately perked up and quickly took out all her green things.   
-Now for our fashion magazine, we must photograph them all so that readers can see them. Let me show you how to take pictures... 
- I can. I already took pictures with my uncle at the zoo. He gave me a camera for my birthday. Do you want me to bring it?   
- Oh cool! Of course, bring it here!   
Trying to concentrate, Milani stuck out her tongue, which looked very funny. Vera couldn't help smiling as she looked at her and took some pictures of the funny photographer.   
The girl tried very hard and reacted to the work responsibly. Soon all the green things were photographed. Milani also dressed herself in green and Vera took a picture of her.
-I think we deserve a walk,” Vera suggested, - Let's get some fresh air.   
Holding hands and taking cameras with them, they went down the stairs to the courtyard. Stopping at a wild rose bush, Vera exclaimed: 
 
- Oh, what a beautiful green color these leaves have! I have to photograph them. Then she said, “That green one is exactly like your blouse.” Stand next to it, I'll take a picture of you.   
Milani really enjoyed posing. And she also joined the game: “Let’s find a green one for your skirt,” she suggested, and they began to search.   
When they were little tired, but very pleased and cheerful, they returned home, Milani announced from the threshold:   
– Mom, today we had Green Day!   
“A wonderful idea, darling,” Vera said 
They went to Milina's room, where there was a lot of different paper, pencils and colourful  markers.   
"Darling, can you write?" Vera asked.   
- Not yet. I'm studying, and know almost all the letters.   
- So that's great. Let's study together. Write the letter G.   
With Vera's help, Milani wrote "Green Day" and painted a sheet of paper with images of all the objects that they photographed during the day: tree leaves, Vera's skirt, and many others.   
They hung the finished project on the wall.   
- That's good, - Vera was delighted. Let's start our next day with red. I have a new red blouse.
 
COLORED DAYS

On their next meeting, Milani was waiting for Vera on the doorstep. In her hands were multi-coloured tulips.   
– On the weekend my grandmother came to us from the country side , look what she brought! Beautiful, right? And they are all different! Mom and I decided that we want to give you a bouquet. We were waiting for you!   
From the kitchen came the cheerful, slightly muffled voice of her mother.   
- Vera a, this is really for you.   
- Thank you very much! They are very beautiful! But this is the most important tulip, it is red ... Do you remember that today is our Red Day? Red like this tulip. Let me undress and we'll go to your room. Now let's get all your things in the right color.   
- Red color. OK.   
Looking at the flower, Milani collected many right clothes. Looking around at such a treasure, Vera began to tell the girl that, it turns out, human eyes can distinguish many shades of colors. And she suggested that she choose from all the lying clothes the darkest and lightest red tones. It was not so easy, but Milani worked with passion. She clearly enjoyed learning new things. Of course, Vera helped as much as she could. Putting two things side by side, she asked: 
 
-Which one do you think is darker?   
At first, she chose things with the strongest contrast and gradually made the task more difficult. Vera saw that praise was important for Milani, otherwise her face would become sad, so Vera was very careful with her tasks in order to see the girl's joyful and contented smile more often.   
Dark-light was studied and photographed. Milani dressed in red clothes, and they happily went outside to continue the Red Day in the fresh air. There, Milani learned to find red things: a red car, a red bench, a red traffic light and its meaning.   
“I like green more, because you can go,” Milani shared.   
- You’re clever. You know the safety rules,- Vera encouraged her   
Passing by a newsstand, Vera stopped for a minute and bought three red balloons for Milani. They immediately inflated them and, since the weather was windy, they attached them to Milani's wrist. Arriving at the square, Vera arranged a whole photo session for the girl, telling how real photo models behave in front of the camera. Darling tried very hard to be natural and not look at the camera as much as she played with the balloons. The wind helped her play with balloons and beautifully fluttered the girl's long curls. They got some interesting pictures. When Milani looked through all the photographs taken, she was very pleased with herself. She had never seen herself in such an unusual way.   
When they returned home, the girl ran up to her mother and enthusiastically began talking about where their walk:   
“Mommy, today was a RED day. It was so interesting. Now I'm like a real fashion model. Look at the photos Vera took!   
-Yes, we did a great job today. Come on,  let's take a break and then do some painting paint.   
And they began to draw Red Day. Vera brought stickers, and Milani made the name of the page out of them: “Second Day - Red.”   
Before Vera left, they discussed what the next day would be like. The “yellow” option confused the girl. It turned out that Milani does not like yellow. She clearly preferred bright colors. She had very few yellow clothes. Seeing her preoccupied face, Vera suggested:   
“Let’s do a Blue and Yellow Day, shall we?”   
Milani did not really understand what it was, but it was clearly something new, and Milani met everything new with enthusiasm.   
“Agreed,” she concluded happily.   
The next day, Vera came dressed in a blue dress with a yellow scarf. It was the only combination of yellow and blue that she could find in her wardrobe, because it was necessary to follow the already established rules. 
 
Sweetie was waiting for her. All the yellow and blue things were prepared.   
-What a beautiful blue color your dress has, Vera,-Milani’s mother met her. - I love blue.   
She also got into the game.   
-Yes, this is one of my favorite dresses. Very useful for Blue Day, which we will have today.   
-Yellow-Blue,” Milani corrected her. - Let's go soon. I'll show you something.   
Vera went into her room. Milani showed her the camera, where her few yellow things had already been photographed.   
- Wow! Well done!, you are darling! And I also have a surprise for you, which I'll show you later. We have a lot of work to do today. For business! Get out your blue outfits.   
When Milani got the necessary things, Vera asked her to divide them into light and dark ones. She thought for a moment, and then joyfully exclaimed:   
“I remember what we did on Red Day!” - and quickly everything was correctly laid out.   
“She has a good memory,” Vera noted to herself.   
The walk and photos that day were also a success. They were lucky to find many beautiful yellow dandelions with long stems. Vera wove a beautiful wreath out of them, which was in perfect harmony with Milina's yellow T-shirt, and Milani again posed for their future fashion magazine. Then together they collected a large bouquet of dandelions for Milina's mother, which smelled so tempting that Milani got a completely yellow nose from pollen.   
When they returned home, mother took a group picture of them - Milani in a wreath and Vera with a bouquet of dandelions in her hands.   

COLORS^PRIMARY and SECONDARY

Seeing that Milani enthusiastically meets any innovation and even makes surprises herself, Vera decided to take advantage of this wonderful trait of hers and not restrain herself when she wanted to acquaint Milani with completely new concepts. 
 
When they were settled in Milani's room, Vera announced:   
- And now my surprise for you, darling!   
Vera took out thick colored but transparent  pieces of film, which she had specially bought at the stationery store.   
“Darling, I want to show you something. We already know many colors with you. Let's repeat. Yellow like... 
 
- Sun!   
- Blue like...   
- Sky!   
Green like...   
- Leaves!  And grass!
Red like...   
- Flower!   
- Great. Take these films, find yellow and blue. Well done, now look, I'm putting them together. You need to look through the films in the light, look here, at the window. What color do you see?   
“Oh, now it’s completely green.   
- Yes, sure. You're great at learning colors, honey. Now I will tell you something new about colors. Get out clean paper and markers.
Vera drew three circles and asked Milani to color them . - Color one red, the other yellow, and the third blue ... Great!, quickly done. How many flowers did you get?   
- Three.   
- So, we need to remember these three colors, because they are the most important.   
Milani looked at Vera in anticipation.   
- Because all other colors are obtained from these three and called composite, because they consist of two, or more colors. Now you took yellow and blue and got green. Now take yellow and red. What did you get?   
- Orange!   
- Right. It's called orange. We haven't had Orange or other days yet. Now let's make a picture of today and I'll go home. I'll leave the tapes for you. You can play with them.   
The picture of the Yellow-Blue Day turned out to be very pretty. The yellow sun was in perfect harmony with the blue sky, and the green leaves and grass refreshed the view and set it in a positive way.   
Vera also introduced Milani to beautiful typefaces on stencils, and the hard worker Milani, conscientiously painting over each letter, drew a very beautiful name: “Yellow-Blue Day”.   
On that day, Vera was not allowed to go home so easily – Milani  mother invited her to the table to drink tea and eat a fragrant apricot pie. Seeing him, Milani and Vera, without saying a word, looked at each other and said: “He is Orange! Orange Day today!” and laughed together - what a coincidence! And Milani ran after the camera. 
 
WRITER is BORN

When the photographs of the Colored  Days were ready, Vera showed Milani how to attach them to the sheets. They decorated the pages of the future photobook, put them in transparent files to save, and then strung them on the pins of the binder folder.   
The "Seven Colored Days" were dedicated to different colors, and each of them captured one happy day of a certain color. The green day was devoted to leaves and grass, red to flowers, yellow to the sun, blue to the sky, brown to the earth, white to the paper from which the book was made, and black was dedicated to the neighbour’s dog, with whom Milani loved to play.   
On its last page it was written “Made by Milani and Vera”, their Yellow photo was placed there: Vera with a bouquet of yellow dandelions, Milani with a wreath on her head.   
Multi-colored days helped Milani remember the colors, and she almost stopped confusing them. Vera was impatient to show the book to her former employees in the library. Their reaction was very positive 
- Vera, you have now begun a new life. It's even more interesting than your old library one! Now you are an author!   
- Well, the main author is not me, it is, of course, Milani!,- Vera corrected them tactfully.   
The staff suggested that Vera make a real book out of this homemade book, which they would put in the library.   
- Can you?, Vera rejoiced. - But…   
"Don't worry," her closest friend reassured her. - I take it upon myself. 
Vera ordered two books online , then gave Milani a surprise, by telling her, in the presence of her family, she was now an author and gave her first book to her. She said every completed book should benefit other people and live its own life. The library was the best place for that. . 
 
She brought Milani to her library, where the staff thanked the girl for such a wonderful gift. As a keepsake, they gave her the fairy tale "Cinderella" and made her promise to come visit them for new books, and would also be happy with her new books. 
 
So, in her ten years old and having  six months acquaintance with Vera, Milani  suddenly officially became an author. 

FASHION MAGAZINE: BASIC RULES
 
The success of their book about flowers gave Vera and Milani an incentive to take on the design of the Fashion Magazine with even greater enthusiasm. They decided to dedicate it to the rules for choosing clothes. 
 
The idea of keeping up with fashion attracted the girl very much, and she continued to adhere to the rule "wear no more than three colors at a time." 
 
This has become the rule of thumb: 
 
RULE # 1: "No more than three colors at the same time." 
 
Collecting combinations of three colors became their fun. Vera even made a special base frame, where three photographs were placed, from which Milani made up all sorts of combinations, and they discussed them. Vera could see that over time, Milani began to develop a good taste in clothes. Milani put on the best combinations, and Vera photographed her for Fashion Magazine. 
 
The next rule that Vera taught Milani was also very interesting, which was "You can't wear two different prints together." Under the print meant any pattern on the material, including accessories. 
 
RULE #2: Don't wear plaid and stripes (and other patterns) together.
 
Milani played with this rule, choosing something with a pattern and choosing complementary colors from those that were used in the pattern. Posing for Fashion Magazine was a great pleasure for her. 
 
Vera also suggested dividing clothes and shoes according to their purpose: elegant, casual and home, in order to select sets not only by color, but also by purpose.

RULE #3: "Wear things that belong to only one group for the purpose." 
 
The work was in full swing. They selected the three most successful combinations and put them in a book. Milani felt a taste for design and enjoyed decorating each page. Vera began to wonder if she should try to introduce Milani to the color wheel and theory. 
 
The second photo book promised to be very useful, Milani's mother was very happy. 
 
The height of surprise for everyone was the praise of the always skeptical elderly neighbor, who usually, sat on her bench, generously scattering sharp comments about her neighbors. Mrs Scott suddenly said: 
 
- Look who's coming! It's Milani! Do you know, Milani, that yesterday Mia's mother used you as an example for Mia? She said that Milani should now be the one to learn from for choosing clothes beautifully. 
 
Surprised, Milani's mother could not get enough of it and, as a token of encouragement, announced that next week they would go to buy new clothes. 
 
- Hooray, Vera! - jumped happy Milani,- We will be taking new photos!