Uncomfortable shoes and impossible runways
Every time I exceptionally decide to show off my only pair of heels and, at the end of the evening, get rid of them to end that unbearable but sometimes necessary torture, I feel like that model who at the Fendi show during the recently concluded Milan Fashion Week, in order to avoid a disastrous fall, promptly took off her maxi-slingback sandals to continue barefoot the remaining part of the catwalk. The difference between her and me? I don't do it under the watchful and accusatory gaze of Anna Wintour.
The Fashion Month that just greeted us would be enough to create a noteworthy compilation of models who tried to maintain their center of gravity while wearing shoes that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. Valentino-gate is the most egregious example of this, and it saw the fashion house engulfed in a wave of criticism after a video that went viral, in which a model is seen struggling with the precarious balance of her swinging ankles during a fashion show held in Paris. Bringing the "shoe situation" that occurred at Valentino's to the center of media attention was writer Molly Elizabeth
Agnew in a video on Tik Tok, in which she questions why so many models are often forced to face these unpleasant, and at times embarrassing, situations. The ensuing controversy has seen public opinion split between those who have pointed the finger at Piccioli's choice to eliminate supermodels in order to enlist many models with little or no experience (chapeau for the risk taken, less so for the result achieved), and those who believe that inexperience is just a scapegoat and that the real problem lies in the creative quirks of the designers, who seem to disregard the fact that it will then be flesh-and-blood people who will wear them. In response, a spokesperson for the fashion house let it be known that the brand offered its models alternative shoe options, but some of them independently decided to forgo them. At the end of the day, however, unfortunately for Piccioli, the conversation surrounding the Unboxing collection is not so much about the clothes as it is about the ensuing controversy (Hot Pink exclusion included!).
AVAVAV, on the contrary, has decided that prevention is better than cure, and has played it forward and with wise irony on what has now become a custom on catwalks around the world securing,
moreover, unparalleled media coverage. That is why, during his last show in Milan, his models fell on purpose after taking only a few steps, to the amazement of the spectators, which then turned into an awareness of the deception they were witnessing.
It can be imagined how reticent the ever-so-combed fashion system is to forgive such mistakes during fashion shows, which, meticulously prepared for months, must necessarily be perfect in every detail to ensure their success. So, falling during a fashion show can stain a model's record forever, compromising his or her career. That is, unless you are Naomi Campbell, of course. Indeed, no one has dared to give up on the British supermodel despite her fall, which has remained in the memorials and become iconic, during the Vivienne Westwood fashion show back in 1993, due to a pair of vertiginous shoes paired with rubber socks that made that fate inevitable.
And Naomi was certainly not the only victim of the shoe-sock combo: in 2009 not one but three models kissed the dust of the catwalk during the Prada show. Immediate was the mea culpa of Miuccia, who attributed the cause of what happened to a pair of socks made the models wear with sandals, which in fact did not allow them to walk steadily.
And speaking of creative quirks and lack of empathy of creative directors, how can we forget Alexander McQueen's Armadillos? If at the time Lady Gaga adored them so much that she used them in the video for Bad Romance and made them her fetish object, these unmistakably shaped shoes with a heel that approached thirty centimeters attracted no small amount of hostility, especially from the models who were supposed to wear them during shows. At the time, three supermodels, australian Abbey Lee Kweshaw and russians Natasha Poly and Sasha Pivovarova, refused to model for the brand for about a year, deeming them too high and risky.
While catwalk falls have the same annoying impact as a smudge on a blank sheet of paper, they bring some humanity to such glossy settings as a fashion show, showing us that we are looking at people and not impassive automatons. And this is good for someone to remember from time to time.
