PRINCESS KEEPS
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Bridget. It screams nepo baby - and she is. The daughter of Margot van der Underwood, a former famous figure skating princess, later head of a luxury fashion label. And her father, Charles Underwood, a politically connected venture capitalist and old-money heir. From birth, she was given a life with private tutors, elite coaches and designer everything. Though, privilege came with a price: immense pressure to perform, to be “worthy” of the legacy she was born into. Figure skating wasn’t just a hobby. It was her destiny. Walking in her mothers foodsteps. Always being treated like her greatest project.
Starting figure skating at 5, flown all around the world for training. Critics claimed she only made it on top because of her name, even though she was good. Not just good - breathtaking. Always dreaming of being like her mother.
In college, 19 years old, she made the U.S Olympics team. On track to surpass her mothers career. She was meant for greatness, having a bright future ahead of her. Proving everyone wrong, she wasn’t just great because she was an Underwood. She had talent. That's when she peaked; having great friends, a sweet boyfriend, and about to win the Olympics. But shortly before the big games, she was wearing a high-profile, customized costume created by her mother’s fashion label, that was set to launch globally, when a flaw in the design of the skate boots caused her to slip during a jump. She broke her ankle on the landing, live on television, in front of judges, fans, and her sponsors. That’s what started the scandal; a whistleblower exposed that the fashion label had knowingly used cheaper materials, falsifying safety testing results, and rushing prototypes for high-profile exposure despite warnings from internal designers or fabric scientists. Losing all her sponsors, not just due to her injury, but also because of her link to fraud. The public turning against her, and she got cancelled from the Olympics. Making her whole career no longer having a meaning. She had lost everything she had ever trained for, all because she was sacrificed for her mothers brand's expansion.
Escaping the medias, as her mother was publicly put in jail.
Going under the radar, starting a self-healing process including lots of therapy and traveling. An identity crisis, who is she without the ice? Without her dream? Without her mother? A journey on finding a new dream - and a new identity. Traveling the world, doing things she never had the chance to do before, seeing things she had only seen on TV. It was all a part of her self-healing and identity crisis. Stupid things, stupid nights, even stupider one night stands. Dangerous men. Giving her the one thing that could cure her; could take away her pain. Alcohol. Drugs. A beautiful mess.
Too scared to go back on the ice, too traumatized to face the reality. Yet, it happened. 2 years of therapy and mid-depression, Bridget found herself back in the spotlight, but not back on the ice. Not wanting to return, as she got contacted by a streaming platform, wanting to make a documentary about the Underwood scandal. Refusing, at first. Then figuring out they interviewed everyone else involved: her ex, her coach, the whistle-blower. Standing in a life-crisis as she is forced to return to the public to take control of her own story during her mess of being an addict. The movie became a big success.
Suddenly she was relevant again. Interviews, red carpets, podcasts. Feeling trapped, feeling forced to face something she wasn’t ready to face. Too traumatized, too broken. Still mourning the loss of her past and her dream. She hasn’t been on the ice since the incident. The documentary didn’t heal her, it just reminded her.
Modelling for her brother's label. Living in New York, attending galas and fundraisers, facing the world that broke her. The press loves photographing her: always wearing couture, drunk at art events, beautiful but lonely. Always looking perfect, but something is always off; her smudged lipstick at 2 am and the sunglasses that never come off indoors.
Deeply lonely, still allergic to intimacy. When men fall for her, she gets mean. When they stop, she gets desperate. Drinking, not every day, but enough to make her hands shake every morning. Always telling herself it’s under control.
A ghost in couture, haunting the life she lost.
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Aesthetics
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