Bridgette Gardner

Bridgette Gardner, a character in the Hot Couture book, is the Chief Creative Officer of Hazel Boutique, the company where you work. She is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Bridgette has green eyes, strawberry blonde hair, and fair skin. She wears a green dress with keyhole front.

Personality
Bridgette appears brash and hard to please. Luz mentions that she's mean to everyone and is as pleasant as an alligator with gas pains. Luz believes Bridgette thinks everyone needs to suffer to pay their dues as much as she did.

Background
Bridgette comes from a corporate law background. She started with Hazel Boutique as part of its in-house legal team and worked hard to prove herself, get promoted into a different department, and climb her way up to Chief Creative Officer.

Hot Couture

 * Chapter 1: Model Behavior
 * Chapter 2: Life of the Party
 * Chapter 3: Making a Splash
 * Chapter 4: In Hot Water
 * Chapter 5: Flashing Lights
 * Chapter 7: Ramping Up
 * Chapter 8: Benvenuto a Milano
 * Chapter 9: Sabotage
 * Chapter 10: The Devil Wears HB
 * Chapter 11: Crossroads
 * Chapter 12: All Sewn Up
 * Chapter 13: Bring Down the House
 * Chapter 15: City of Lights
 * Chapter 16: A Star Is Born

Hazel Nguyen
Bridgette is Hazel's right hand at Hazel Boutique. All job applicants have to go through Bridgette to get to Hazel. According to Luz Estrada, it's no secret at the company that Bridgette wants to play a larger role on the design side, especially given that her title of 'Chief Creative Officer' makes her the top member of the teams for marketing, branding, and strategy. However, Hazel does not believe Bridgette's strengths lies in design creativity and prefers her to handle the business aspects of the company. Hazel feels Bridgette's aesthetic is cold and industrial, very monochromatic, and rarely inspired.

In Chapter 13, Hazel fires Bridgette for assaulting her and for insubordination. Hazel doesn't agree with Bridgette's methods in using the company to threaten and blacklist those who would be willing to work with you, her competition, and for firing their top model and the face of Hazel Boutique, Cleo Burbank.

Your Character
In Chapter 1, you arrive at Hazel Boutique to interview for an internship as a fashion designer. However, Bridgette does not believe you are qualified and says she is going to have words with whoever wasted her time with your interview. Before she kicks you out, Marco Di Vincenzo interrupts and asks you to be the model for his photoshoot. She objects, citing that he could hire one of the professional models, but he says due to the deadline she moved up, he doesn't have the time to look for someone else who has your looks.

Despite being hired, Bridgette continues to act rude and condescending towards you, calling you 'Hazel's pet'. According to Travis McKenzie, Bridgette feels threatened by you because of your talent and your sudden closeness to Hazel, which undermines her chances at becoming a designer herself.

In Chapter 9, you find out that she claims your designs as her own during the Milan Fashion Week. When Hazel does nothing about it, you either quit Hazel Boutique or Hazel fires you for your own good. Bridgette is glad, but still goes out of her way to ruin your reputation and your chances at becoming successful in your own right. After Hazel fires her in Chapter 13, she goes to work for Tatin to your dismay but she only interacts with you briefly during Paris Fashion Week. You can choose to tell her and Otto both that they can't stop you or that they're no longer worth your energy. Bridgette complains that Hazel and you were eager to stifle her success which surprises you if you were kind to her throughout the book. In this case, you point out that you don't know what you have done to her to justify this and that you have never even said a harsh word to her. She simply answers that you didn't have to; she learned that she had to make her own way so she did. When Otto joins to say that you only won the first skirmish of the war, Bridgette confirms that he is right, this is a war. You note her giving you a "reptilian smile" as she says that the best designer may win. You feel uneasy when you take your leave. However, that is the last you see of them by the end of the book.

Cleo Burbank
Bridgette is shown constantly being rude to Cleo and emotionally manipulating her into doing whatever Bridgette wants. It is later revealed that Cleo put up with this kind of behavior because Cleo had a crush on her. When Cleo stands up for herself, Bridgette doesn't care and fires the younger girl. Their negative relationship remains until the end of the book. In the final chapter, Cleo once again stands up against Bridgette and tells her to stay away from her friends and that if she hurts any of them, Bridgette will have to answer to her.

Trivia

 * Her character model resembles Felicity Holloway from the Desire & Decorum series.