The Cutting Edge

015

Twice a year, Dongdaemun's Design Plaza would transform into one of the world's most renowned fashion runways, where world class designers would showcase their new collections and the nation's most beautiful people would gather. Such was the glitz and glamour that was Seoul's Fashion Week.

Standing in front of the huge white tent that was towering above her, Hyejin sucked in her breath, willing her heart to be still. She stood out like a sore thumb in her hand-me-down black jacket and home-made woollen hat, with all these well-heeled individuals milling around her looking like a million bucks, but she hardly even noticed.

I can't believe I'm actually here!

Fashion Week was something that the girls in school used to squeal about as they drooled over all the clothes that they wanted but could never have, and discussed the outfits of all the different celebrities that attended the shows. Never in her entire life had she imagined that she would one day be able to stand right here, in front of the main tent, about to attend the first fashion show she had ever been to. It didn't even matter that she would only be backstage, because that was already closer than she had ever dared to hope.

With trepidation, she made her way towards the back of the main tent, searching for a way to enter.

"Stop." A burly security guard stopped her at the back entrance. "ID please."

Hyejin fumbled into her bag and fished out the ID pass that Hyunwon had tossed to her earlier before he left the training room, and the guard stepped aside to let her in.

The minute she stepped into the tent, Hyejin felt as if she had just stepped through the looking glass. There was so much going on all around her that it made her feel dizzy; people were rushing to and fro, shouting instructions and talking into walkie talkies. It was as if all hell had broken loose. The smell of hair spray in the air was almost suffocating.

"Hyejin! Over here!"

Squinting as she tried to identify the owner of the voice, Hyejin heaved a sigh of relief when Yeseul's familiar face came into sight. Her friend was standing at one corner of the backstage area along with the rest of the trainees, some of whom (namely, Hannah) looked less than pleased to see her. She squeezed her way through the crowd to make her way over to them, trying not to get in anyone's way.

"There's so much going on here. What's happening?" she asked Yeseul excitedly.

Looking around, she could see some models getting fitted into their runway clothes while others were getting their hair and make-up done. Racks and racks of different outfits lined the sides of the tent in every imaginable colour, and as Hyejin ran her fingers down a dress that was hanging off the rack nearest to her, she started getting goose bumps.

This was Alexander McQueen, one of the most famous fashion houses in the entire world. Kate Middleton's wedding dress came out of this exact same label for goodness sakes!

"Where is my curling iron!" she heard a familiar voice shout out rather irately. Turning towards that direction, she saw Hyunwon looking around with a frown as he stood beside a model who was almost a whole head taller than him in her five inch heels. Within seconds, an assistant had placed a curling iron in his hand, and he immediately went back to work with curling the model's long, black hair.

"The salon is responsible for all the hairstyling for the show," Yeseul explained. "Apparently Hyunwon was the one who designed all the looks for tonight. Earlier on Roxy showed us some of the design images on her iPad and they're absolutely gorgeous! The theme for the Alexander McQueen show is 'Sea Breeze', so Hyunwon used waves as the inspiration for his designs. See all the models over there? They've all got the upper sections of their hair crimped while the lower sections are left in loose waves."