Lady Vivian Duskbourne's 7 commission cards with every tag target and budget, the Exotic Moth velvet-and-tassel rule, and her one missable achievement.
Dressmaker Vivian: Her 7 Commissions, Exotic Moth And The Tag Targets
Lady Vivian Duskbourne is the ninth client through your door and the most velvet-committed character in Dressmaker. Seven major story cards run from Nocturnal Glamour at 700 gold to Dark Emissary at 1,250, and every one of them except two asks for at least half the dress in Velvet. She also owns the single highest Glamour requirement in the whole game, Glamour 80, and the one achievement in the game that a dialogue answer can cost you: Sucker for Punishment, which needs you to answer her with leech. Exotic Moth is the card everyone searches for, and the reason is the Velvet 50 rule, which measures fabric area rather than fabric pieces.
- Seven major cards, Quality 77 to 80, and Velvet at 50% or more on Nocturnal Glamour and Exotic Moth
- Gothic 75 appears on six of her cards, Glamour 80 on five, Risque 80 on four, Elaborate 50 on three
- Exotic Moth is the only card that measures Velvet by area and counts placed accessories by type: Tassel 5
- Good Girl Gone Vlad fires when you hand in Dark Emissary, her last card, pass or fail
- Sucker for Punishment is the only missable achievement in Dressmaker, and it is 2.4% of players
Who Vivian is and when she arrives
Vivian walks in with "Fresh blood in Twillford," mentions that "The last dressmaker left town almost ten years ago," and is unimpressed by your cat: "How disappointing. The feline does not return my tender feelings." She names herself last: "I am the Lady Vivian Duskbourne." Nothing in the introduction says what she is. The achievement name does the work instead.
| Attribute | Value | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Lady Vivian Duskbourne | Community indexes; the Steam achievement prints Vivian only |
| Role | Night-walking noblewoman of Twillford, suspected vampire | Community-observed; the Vlad pun in the achievement name is the tell |
| Client number | Ninth, after Dorothy and before Adora | Community-observed |
| Major story cards | 7 | Confirmed across community indexes |
| Quality thresholds | 77 to 80 across her cards | Confirmed |
| Recorded measurements | Bust 95.7, waist 71.4, hips 101.8 | Community-observed |
| Story achievement | Good Girl Gone Vlad, 2.7% of players as of October 4, 2026 | Official Steam achievements page |
| Hidden achievement | Sucker for Punishment, 2.4% as of October 4, 2026 | Official Steam achievements page, condition from community indexes |
Official source: Dressmaker on Steam and the Steam achievements list, which prints Complete all of Vivian's major commissions alongside the other nine clients.
Everything below the name is community-recorded. Wikipedia's entry on the game and the Free Lives presskit both confirm the developer, publisher and release date while naming no client at all, so the official floor under Vivian's page is exactly one achievement string and nothing else.
Her measurements matter more than most. At 95.7 / 71.4 / 101.8 she is one of the slimmer clients in the shop, so her panels need less cloth than the budget suggests. She is also the client where the measurement penalty bites hardest, because six of her seven cards ask for Quality 80 and the quality guide explains why a dress pinned at exactly 80 usually means her recorded numbers are wrong.
Her seven commissions, card by card
No card shows a price before you accept it, so this table is the closest thing to a quote sheet. Requirements and budgets come from community commission indexes, which are not an official export.
| Commission | Budget | What the card asks for | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nocturnal Glamour | 700 | Quality 77, Risque 20, Gothic 40, Glamour 30, Velvet 50% | Lowest Quality bar she has, and the biggest first payment |
| Art Appreciator | 500 | Quality 80, Risque 50, Glamour 80, Gothic 40, Elaborate 50, Sequin 50 | Glamour 80 is the highest in the game |
| Exotic Moth | 400 | Quality 80, Elegant 50, Glamour 50, Velvet 50, Tassel 5 | Velvet is measured by area, not by piece |
| Comfortable Coffin | 300 | Quality 80, Risque 60, Gothic 75, Cool 50, Use only Silk | Cheapest card, strictest material lock |
| Dark Emissary | 1250 | Quality 80, Elaborate 50, Gothic 75, Black 25%, Yellow 25%, 10cm trim, Jewel 3 | Her last card, and it carries both her top budget and her top tag count |
| Midnight Warrior | 750 | Quality 80, Elaborate 25, Gothic 60, Glamour 40, Jewel 10 | Ten jewels, the accessory count floor in the game |
| Unstained Beauty | 400 | Quality 80, Risque 80, Gothic 60, Glamour 50, Use only Red | All-red lock on a card that also wants Risque 80 |
Dark Emissary is the card that fires her achievement. Hand it in, pass or fail, and Good Girl Gone Vlad unlocks. It is also the card that sets off Crowning Glory, because Adora's coronation commission follows it, and those two achievements together are the last stretch of her route.
Exotic Moth: why the Velvet line refuses to move
Exotic Moth is five lines with three different kinds of check, and only three of them are style scores.
| Line | Minimum | How the game counts it |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | 80 | Finished-dress score |
| Elegant | 50 | Finished-dress score |
| Glamour | 50 | Finished-dress score |
| Velvet | 50% | Velvet panel area divided by total pattern-panel area |
| Tassel | 5 | Placed accessories whose type is Tassel |
The Velvet line is the one that eats players. It divides the area of the velvet pieces you cut by the total area of all the dress's pattern panels. It does not divide the number of velvet pieces by the number of pieces, and it does not weight a velvet skirt against a velvet collar the way the style tags do. A small velvet collar adds velvet without getting anywhere near half the dress, and hidden skirt panels still count toward the total, so a partial skirt drags the fraction down.
The fraction is area, not pieces, and hidden panels are counted on both sides of the division. Once every panel is cut from velvet the fraction is 100%; the moment you mix in a non-velvet panel you have to check the arithmetic instead of trusting the tag. Community testing, not an official figure, so treat the 50% as the card's stated floor and the area method as the observed behaviour.
The Tassel line is a count of placed accessories, not of metres of trim. Buying tassels is not enough and a plain strand of trim does not add one. Blue Bulb Tassel, Green Simple Tassel and Orange Bulb Tassel are all available at shop rank 0 at 2 gold each, so five of them costs 10 gold against a 400 budget. Read the accessory's type field, not its name or its look.
The easy half of this card is the fabric. Amber Velvet, Amethyst Purple Velvet and Blossoming Blanc Embellished Velvet all carry Elegant 50 and Glamour 50 at shop rank 0, which means a dress cut entirely from one of them clears the two style lines before any pattern bonus or penalty is applied. They cost 80 gold a metre, so a full-length velvet gown eats most of a 400 budget before trims, which is where the brooch trick in the money guide pays off.
Exotic Moth fails on area, so the cheapest route is a monochrome velvet base and every remaining gold spent on tassels and a tag accessory. Cutting a contrast panel to save money is what turns a Velvet 70 into a Velvet 40.
The three cards that can fail you
Vivian has no ceiling cards, so all her traps are about reading a rule too literally.
Comfortable Coffin locks the fibre. Use only Silk is a material ban, not a colour ban, so a black silk and a red silk both pass while a black velvet fails on a card she also wanted to be gothic. It is the cheapest card she owns at 300 and it opens Daring Heist later in her route.
Unstained Beauty locks the colour. Use only Red plus Risque 80 means the whole palette has to be red while one style tag has to climb high. Reds are not the obvious source of Risque, so expect to reach for the accessory shelf rather than the bolt.
Midnight Warrior is an accessory count. Jewel at least 10 is the largest accessory floor anywhere in Dressmaker, and accessories score nothing on their own. Players note this as one of the least satisfying cards to pass, because the dress looks bare and the requirement is met.
Her tag profile is unusual in that Elegant appears exactly once. Every other Vivian card runs on Gothic, Glamour and Risque, so a black velvet-and-red-silk pair of dresses covers six of her seven cards. Dressmaker Priya has the mirror-image problem, where an all-black build is mandatory and colour is the trap.
The leech answer: the only achievement you can lose
Sucker for Punishment is the single missable achievement in Dressmaker. When Vivian talks about animals, one of the answers is leech, and picking it unlocks the achievement. Players report it does not change her attitude toward you, which makes it a free unlock if you read the options before you click.
Two things make it missable. Her first visit is not that conversation: the questions there are about your cat and who you are, and none of the answers mentions a leech. The animal talk can arrive as late as her third commission, the one Berty the pigeon delivers. And the game autosaves, including mid-conversation, so quitting does not take an answer back. Whether the talk can come round a second time is not known.
Because the animal conversation can slip to her third commission and the save is live, the safe habit is to read all four answers on every Vivian dialogue and pick leech when it appears. Players who replay for the achievement cannot rely on a reload, and there is no save-slot rollback in the game at all.
The rest of her achievement picture is in the all 32 achievements breakdown, which separates the one you can miss from the thirty-one you cannot.
Vivian and the rest of the cast
Her route crosses two other clients' stories. Art Appreciator takes her to Priya's exhibition opening, and Dark Emissary dresses her as Adora's dark envoy, which lands directly on Adora's coronation commission Crowning Glory, the largest budget in the game. She also carries a thread about Mina, the dressmaker who ran the shop before you, and says of her: "Mmm. I suspect you will be even more to my taste than dear departed Mina." The whole roster and its order of arrival is on the characters guide.
FAQ
How many commissions does Vivian have in Dressmaker?
Seven major story cards, from Nocturnal Glamour at 700 gold to Dark Emissary at 1,250. Pigeon letters from Berty add extra work on top, and the eight pigeon letters across the cast are what the Birds of a Feather, Frock Together achievement counts.
What does Exotic Moth actually ask for?
Quality 80, Elegant 50, Glamour 50, Velvet at 50% of the dress's fabric area and five placed Tassel accessories, on a 400 budget. The Velvet figure is an area fraction, not a count of velvet pieces, which is why a single velvet collar does not move it.
Why does my Exotic Moth velvet score stay low?
Because Velvet is measured as velvet panel area over total pattern-panel area, and hidden skirt panels count in the total. Cut every panel from velvet and the fraction is 100%; mix in another fabric and you have to do the arithmetic. Community-observed, so verify on your own dress rather than trusting the tag preview.
How do I not miss Sucker for Punishment?
Pick the leech answer when Vivian talks about animals. Her first conversation is not that one, and the animal talk can come as late as her third commission, so read the options on every Vivian dialogue from her first card. The game autosaves, so there is no reload.
Is there a romance route with Vivian?
No. No romance option has turned up with any of the ten clients. The tension between Vivian and the rest of Twillford is written, and the wedding achievement covers three story outcomes, not a selectable route.
Related Guides
- Dressmaker characters and clients is the hub: all ten customers, their order of arrival, and which commission to take when you are broke.
- Dressmaker achievements: all 32 separates the one missable achievement from the thirty-one that fire on delivery, and lists what each of hers is worth.
- Dressmaker quality and scoring guide explains the 20% measurement penalty that decides whether a Vivian card reaches Quality 80.
- Dressmaker money and selling covers the brooch trick that makes an expensive velvet base pay for itself.