had seemed a bit stressed behind the stage, she had assured me that everything was okay. Her face lit up when I introduced her onstage as the designer, and I felt as if that gave her the giant lift of confidence she needed in order to really nail the show. I sat in the front row of the audience right alongside the VIP guests and select members of the press. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. Not only was I thrilled to welcome the success of this line in front of the public’s eye, but I was ecstatic to see Hensley’s creative innovations in full effect. The set design, lighting, makeup and hair, wardrobe designs all came together for this moment and, hopefully, an epic show.
As the music started to play, and the models began walking the runway, I was blown away; so was everyone else. I gauged the crowd's reaction around me, and I could tell by the sounds of astonishment they were making and the looks on their faces that hung above their open jaws; they mesmerized, too. I’d been to more runway shows than I could count, and I had never, ever seen a reaction like this, at least not from the caliber of designers who sat inside this crowd. Every single piece was breathtaking, and I was absolutely certain that this show would not only launch my new line into one of the highest profit margins my company had ever seen, but it would also launch Hensley’s career as a designer.
When I spotted Hensley getting ready to step out onto the runway, the blood coursed through my veins in a way that made my heart pound so furiously that I could feel it in my chest. I couldn’t wait to see her walk this runway in one of her own creations. She stepped onto the stage, and my heartbeat I excitement. She hesitated for a moment, just a split second that barely caught my attention, and I wasn’t sure why. When she took a step forward to walk, the worst imaginable thing happened. As soon as her step completed and her foot touched the ground in front of her, I watched, and all of the audience watched, too. Her beautiful dress, one that she had worked so hard on designing and creating, fell immediately to the ground at her feet. Hensley froze, not able to take a step either forward or backward without tripping over the pile of dress in front of her that wrapped around her feet on the floor. In front of the entire audience of press and professionals who knew her name and knew she was the designer for the show, she stood there, completely naked aside from a tiny and very thin, nude-colored thong.
For a second, I was too shocked to react. How in the world could something like this have happened? But I didn’t have time for that shock. I stood from my chair and jumped onto the stage and ran to Hensley. I pulled my jacket off and wrapped it around her as she stepped over the mound of dress fabric at her feet and let me walk her back behind the partition to the stage. For Hensley’s sake and all of our sakes, I needed to go back out and save the runway show. But the silver glint of a pair of scissors dangling in Kerynne’s hands didn’t miss my eyes as I turned to walk back out onto the stage after having safely delivered Hensley away from the eyes of the audience.
When I walked back out onto the runway, the crowd was mostly silent and aghast. There were a few whispers and several looks of pity that I imagined were for Hensley. I took a quick scan of the audience's faces to remind myself which exact press members were there since I would need to get with each of them separately following the show and ensure that they would delete and not publish any snapshots they might have gotten of Hensley without clothes on. There was only one other model slated to walk after Hensley, and enough of the show had already been gotten through to give everyone there a clear view of the new line. There was no reason I couldn’t stop the show now and still have it hailed as a success.
“What would a runway show be without at least one fashion mishap, right?” I said to the audience with a fake tone of