For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Sarah’s Fiance. She might be the brains behind Zersten, but I’m the brawn (or at least I like to think so). Like most people, Sarah only has 2 arms to work with and 24 hours in the day to work on her many projects. When she needs more, she calls me in.
The mannequin already has an outfit on and she needs another one? It’s me. Mannequin isn’t good enough and she needs a real person? Also me. Website needs fixing? Yep, still me. Deadline tomorrow and she has to work late? I’m there. I can’t sew to save my life though, so I just sit on the bed paying video games providing moral support.
It’s been a crazy past few weeks with her prepping for the show, and I did my best to help out. Spool out the yarn while we watched TV and she crocheted {this top}, visiting multiple Goodwills each weekend in the hope they had some more houndstooth outfits (which I didn’t know was a thing until the show), making dinner, and a hundred other things. Let me qualify that dinner thing real quick – I’m perfectly capable of cooking! I’m just a little slow and not creative – so dinner never happened before 8. But it worked out! The show was almost on us but everything was done.
At the networking event hosted by Concord Fashion Week, we had to network. And by we I mean Sarah, since I’m just the pretty piece on her arm. Networking is hard though, especially since neither of us are particularly social people! But I had a feeling that once we got rolling, we’d be able to rely on the momentum to keep us moving from person-to-person. I took the plunge, made awkward eye contact twice with the interesting model-turned-photographer, Brandon, and we got to talking. From there I talked bow-ties with David while Sarah talked business, and I learned some good outfit and confidence tips from Galen. I’d say it was a success, with numerous business cards exchanged.
It all paid off though, as the day of the show everything went off without a hitch! We got there early, Sarah went to unload and start setting up shop, while I went to park the car and wait around until the show started. The runway show went great, everyone seemed really excited about it, and she got some really nice compliments from everyone!
I would be more than happy to support her through this again (and it’s happening!), but please – don’t make me be the mannequin as much next time. And please clean up the thread – not even the shower is safe!
Gibson Bennett – The Fiance
