Accidentally in Love // z.m

One

SHOW HIRE:

DATE: 4th JANUARY 2014

BRAND NAME: DUTCHERY

DESIGNER: SAHARA ZACKERY& INDIA MAUVE

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My heart skipped a beat when I read the email above to confirm our booking for the venue of our first ever fashion show. We never imagined we'd be here, and now India and I are on our way to joining the list of high couture designers. Fancy shit I know. 

January 4th arrived, and so did we, super early might I add, to the venue to prep for the show. The place was stunning. It was outdoors, with the most beautiful roses, tulips, orchids, all lacing the garden surrounding the catwalk. It had lovely lights dazzling the runway and a modern vibe to it all. The murmur of conversation could be heard across the venue as excitement and determination filled the veins of those within. We got to work at 7 am, organizing all the paperwork, models listed, hair and makeup equipment, outfits sorted yadyadyada. Running on double espresso shot coffees, we were buzzed as we prepared for tonight's show. The time flew by much too quickly and we felt it slowly slipping into dangerous territory as we fell behind schedule. At 3 pm the models arrived to begin hair and makeup and at about 3:05 pm India and I received the worst possible news ever. Grace, the head of our management who worked for Givenchy and knows her shit, informed us that we had to present a closing speech to finish the show. She was a really easy going type of manager, but when it came to business she was strict. 

"So, I'm good with just bullshitting our way through?" I suggested to India when we began drafting a speech.

"What? No! We are not ruining our first ever fashion show Saz. It's the big finale speech, we want to go out with a bang!" Saz is what most people call me. 

"Ugh fine, but we're making it short and sweet!" She agreed and after adding a few big words, thanks to thesaurus.com, and inserting an inspirational quote we were finally ready to proceed to hair and makeup ourselves, 45 minutes late. Excellent. 

1 Hour before opening:

"Holy shit this is actually happening!!!"

I texted India even though she was only across the room, sorting out the outfit racks whilst I was finishing up with my hair. I watched her look at her phone and type something back hurriedly before dropping it and proceeding with concentration masking her face.

"I know!"

I received. Good to know she is aware...

30 minutes before opening:

"Oh my god, are we supposed to be mingling with the guests right now!?" India panicked as she paced back and forth, struggling to get her watch on. 

"No we can do that afterwards. They will all want to congratulate us for using such big words in our speech!" I joked, trying to reduce the stress levels in the poor girl. 

5 minutes before opening:

"WHERE IS PABLO? WE NEED MORE HAIRSPRAY, PABLO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, running around backstage looking for the Italian man. By this point everything was hectic, people flying back and forth searching for last minute things and India and I were completely stressed out. And I don't usually get stressed out easily, even during my high school final exams I was as cool as a cucumber so this was some serious shit. "God when I find that man I'm going to shove my 7 inch heels up his a-" 

"We found Pablo!" India called with relief as she dragged him behind her towards the lined up models. Just as I was about to give Pablo a beating we heard Grace's voice echo through the speakers on stage. "Welcome all, to Dutchery's first ever Spring Summer fashion show!" She announced and applause followed. I dropped everything and turned to India who was already looking back and even through the thick clouds of hairspray I could see her wide grin, which I mirrored. This is it. We snapped out of our little trance and continued dealing with the tiny little issues that arose here and there.

Everything ran smoothly except bloody Pablo forgot to change the earrings on the models before the swimwear collection went out, so they all had green sparkly jewels hanging from their ears. Not to mention those who wore red pieces had a Christmas-y aura about them. Not the look we were going for. I will kill Pablo. Anyway, eventually it was time for our big finale, the speech of the century, the piece de resistance. Not really. As the last model stepped out onto the runway, India and I followed. I tried to look prestigious as I walked down the cat walk but I couldn't hold back the smile that erupted on my face after seeing all our guests, and all the models wearing OUR clothing. We witnessed our dreams come true in that moment and it was one of the most euphoric moments of my life. We reached the end and stood before the audience as the roar of applause filled the venue. I was wearing a black Carla Zampatti jumpsuit with cream heels, and India wore a cream C&M dress with black heels. Yes we matched and we looked smokin'. India began, "Wow, what an honour it is to stand before such incredible guests!" As she continued, I took a look around those sitting below us and made a mental note of all the ones I recognised. I was surprised by the turn out, some big people were here. Anna Wintour, Victoria Beckham, Edwina McCann (Australian Vogue editor in chief who once said we were the next 'big thing' in fashion, obviously we love her), Jessica Alba, Alexander Wang, Harry Styles, Alexa Chung. Wait. Hold the fuck up Harry Styles is at our fashion show?? HARRY STYLES IS AT MY- I felt a nudge from India and realised it was my turn to talk. I snapped into business mode and recited the speech we had written earlier today. "Yes and we would like to give a big thanks to our entire team who all worked tirelessly to put this amazing show together, especially you Grace, you may have even worked harder than us!" I turned to her, watching her blush. "Most of all we would like to thank you all for being our guests and giving our label a chance. We hope we exceeded your expectations and if we didn't, there is complementary food by the entrance which sure will!" They laughed at my joke! "Now we will finish with the wise words of Sofia Coppola, 'we are all considered silly and superficial for being interested in fashion, but we think that you can be substantial and still be interested in frivolity,' so here's to a bit of frivolity, and have a great night!" With that, we turned to walk back down the runway as the entire audience applauded. As soon as we reached backstage I grabbed India in for a tight hug and we embraced each other, the both of us with giant, teeth bearing, smiles beaming on our faces. "Ok, time to mingle!" Grace called, dragging us apart and towards the entrance.

It was a cold night but the lanterns scattered around gave the garden a warm feel. Grace introduced us to many people and I was so overwhelmed by them all I had completely forgotten about Harry Styles being there. As we struck conversation with Anna Wintour and a few others from American Vogue, I remembered and got a little distracted. Grace continued with the small talk, unaware that I wasn't even looking in the same direction as my eyes scanned the area for him. I whispered to India, informing her of his presence as I searched, I knew she would be interested, though she wasn't a big fan like I was. "He's by the fountain." She whispered to me, unnoticed by Anna and her gang. I looked in the direction she gestured to and saw him standing there, in deep conversation with a guy I didn't recognize, and completely surrounded by paparazzi. "Good to know the paps are into fashion." I muttered dryly at the sight. "I wanna meet him, do you think he'll come over?" India asked me as we both checked him out from afar. He was wearing a black turtle neck sweater, black skinny jeans and a grey blazer and man was I attracted to his sense of fashion. As well as his bod. And face. And did I mention he was ten times more attractive in real life then through computer screens? Oh right, India asked a question. "I hope so. He wouldn't have stayed back if he wasn't planning on meeting us." I reasoned, trying to convince myself as much as India.

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