There’s a famous scene in Bruno where Sacha Baron Cohen interviews a catwalk model backstage at a fashion show. “It’s the hardest job in the world isn’t it?” he asks her mockingly. “You’ve got to remember, like, to put your right leg forward, and then your left leg forward, and then which one now? And then sometimes you even have to turn,” he says. The poor unsuspecting model agrees. “It’s very hard.”
My mind went back to that scene when I saw videos of celebrities walking the Miu Miu show at Paris Fashion Week. There was consummate cool girl Alexa Chung, blinking like a deer in headlights as she tottered down the runway. Rapper Little Simz followed, looking like she was walking to the firing squad, and then actress Hilary Swank, who swung her arms mechanically and wore a strange smirk. I noticed the way the actual models never blinked and turned like they meant it with a proper pivot rather than a half baked arc. I realised that the model in Bruno was right: strutting down the catwalk is hard, and should be left to the professionals.
The modelling industry has always been unfair... now clout, celebrity status and parental lineage are adding another barrier to entry
When celebrities make a runway cameo, they steal all the limelight. Kylie Jenner dominated the headlines when she closed the Coperni show at Disneyland last night, and Vogue’s social media channels are plastered with videos of A-listers doing their mid rate walks. Meanwhile, the bona fide models barely get a look in. It’s all part of the multi-hyphenate age we live in, but with it comes mediocrity. Alexa Chung, Little Simz and Kylie Jenner are at the top of their respective games. What ever happened to staying in your lane? Big names will come with big price tags, too, and I wonder how much the other models’ paychecks suffer.
It’s not just the celebrities, it’s their families. Famous children are still a fixture on the runway, with new ones cropping up all the time. Nicole Kidman’s daughter Sunday Rose Urban opened the Miu Miu show, while Christy Turlington’s daughter Grace Burns walked for Ralph Lauren in New York. Meanwhile, the Hadid/Moss/Jenner juniors are still the bread and butter of fashion week.
The modelling industry has always been unfair, favouring thin, white women over everyone else. Now clout, celebrity status and parental lineage are adding another barrier to entry. Fashion month is by all accounts gruelling and it must be galling for models who are exhausted, covered in blisters, and have been practising their walk for months to see a celeb (or celeb child) shuffle down the runway and receive all the plaudits.
