Models are human too :: NY Fashion Week

Embellished it-bags, huge sunglasses, perfectly-shaggy i-just-woke-up-like-this hair, uniforms of black, black and more black, celebrities, posses, editors, models, and flashbulbs capturing it all: Fashion week is a giant spectacle. Hundreds of people spend months in preparation for a few minutes of magic on the runway. Every outfit, runway song, seat in the crowd, and swag bag is planned down to the last non-earring (http://www.fashionologie.com/tag/AbraxasRex), but no matter how amazing a designer is, they cannot remove the human error of their models. Well, unless they send robots down the runway (which Kanye  would probably like) but in this economic climate robots are really not the most viable option for the suffering industry. After the particularly ridiculous model-antics of this Fall 09 season, though, one might seriously consider the option.

Two or three models fell at Herve Leger, while many more slipped, blaming the “slippery wooden floors” for their spills, but one might argue that the stilts they were walking on contributed to the struggle.
(http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/02/behold_the_models_falling_at_h.html)

The models at Bryan Reyes found the Manolo Blanhik shoes the designer collaborated on to be so uncomfortable that by the end of the show, all of the models did their final walk barefoot! (http://www.fashionologie.com/2835429)

Perhaps the strangest incident of this season, though, was when model Auguste Tomasuite inexplicably sobbed her way down the runway at Jil Sander. Apparently the structured dresses were just that beautiful.  (http://www.fashionologie.com/2867915)

Luckily, fashion is capable of poking a little fun at itself, and L'Officiel has styled an editorial fashioned after the infamous falls at Prada in their Spring/Summer 09 show. (http://fashioncopious.typepad.com/fashioncopious/2009/03/too-funny-lol-balancing-act-based-on-a-real-tumble.html) It’s cheekily titled “Balancing Act” and appears in their March issue.

Although it detracts from the aura of impermeable perfection that surrounds the fashion royalty during NY fashion week, it would be sad to get rid of models when their hilarious yet cringe-worthy mistakes make all of us normal human beings secretly giddy inside.

Julia Heidelman

BARE Reporter