By Tali Sroka
Ssaud Tu is a woman seen, but unknown. Or perhaps more accurately, her work is seen, but her person unknown. Although many of the Sinchi Ring’s shops make what they sell, a greater number still rely on external help and subcontracted labor to create the dresses and suits dreamt up by the esoteric entrepreneurs. That is where Ssaud Tu comes in.
Situated in her own little shop far from the hip parts of the ring, barely known by anyone but the designer clients, Madam Ssaud’s is a cramped shop filled to the nines with fabrics, yarn, and templates. The narrow but tall shop suits well the lanky woman’s physique, while her pale, greyish-white features seem rather out of place within the colorful hodgepodge of vibrant fabrics and sharp design.
Despite this, she is considered one of the best in the business as she has an uncanny ability to dissect the sketches and design documents made by the fashionistas into workable garments and providing templates for their reconstruction. Some say that it has to do with her eyes, being large even in proportion to her rather small head that is only more pronounced due to the slender and tall neck, but others whisper that Ssaud Tu was not a seamstress by training.
In the hushed corners of the dockyard pubs, some seasoned veterans of the shipping lanes might regale a story, a legend, of how Ssaud Tu was once a brilliant scientist, a geneticist, who broke down and rebuilt people like clay dummies. They would say she helped the Empire and even imply she might have been somehow involved in the Clone Wars of old, but none of it can be substantiated. Nevertheless, the fact she shies away from the public and no-one seems to know which race she is supposed to be, has given some credence to the whispers she might be a war criminal in exile.
It would not be the first time the fashion industry has turned a blind eye to such ethical considerations in pursuit of their next designs, however.
Those few that have met her face-to-face say her voice has a sing-song quality to it, only a darker tone hinting at her possibly advanced age. Though most would describe her as modest and supplicant, the more observant would note that such is just a facade for a woman of keen intellect and desire to avoid undue attention.
When she must leave her shop, she does so in a shadow-grey cloak wrapped up to conceal her features as best as possible. Despite her tall stature, she seems to have a knack of remaining undetected and prefers to frequent automated shops rather than risking small talk with an organic shopkeep. This is perhaps also the only time she could be said to prefer droids to organics.
Her shop lacks any form of droid assistance and she has been observed being tenser than usual if a prospective client brings their protocol droid or other such cybernetic assistance along with them. This fear or aggressive disdain towards droids is perhaps her most distinguishing feature, though it might be simply out of lack of competition as so little is known about her origins or true aspirations.
Nevertheless, Ssaud Tu continues to service the Sinchi Ring and bring to life generation after generation of new fashion, creating the templates from which countless dresses and suits can then be cloned by the automated foundries or by legions of lesser artisans.