Monday, October 6, 2008

A Miu Miu, a Miu Miu - they still all fall down


miu miu SS09/style.com

And there I was, having a SS09 debrief with Oz shoe guru Matt ‘Imelda’ Jordan earlier this afternoon, saying how fascinating it would have been to be a fly on the wall at Prada over the past two weeks. And if, keen to avoid yet more bad press over model stacks in killer heels, Prada might have done an eleventh-hour switch of shoes for the show of its diffusion label Miu Miu. Because dang, how terribly sensible the shoes of last night's Miu Miu show in fact appear to be, by comparison with some of the other footwear monstrosities that we have seen on the past month’s runways. Overlooking the nouveau pauvre-look burlap uppers of course. As it emerges however, what happened to the very last girl modelling the very last look of the very last show of SS09?

According to the testimony of The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman via her virtual Style.com alterego:

“As the last girl was going backstage she yes, fell down onto the catwalk, to many sympathetic gasps. You definitely knew that this was the season of the extreme shoe and I knew at that point that it was time to go home”.

And if that’s not funny enough – in a very macabre way of course – then have a look at Style.com’s just-posted portfolio of runway images from the Miu Miu show.


miu miu's relatively 'sensible' - but apparently still unwearable, SS09 shoes/style.com

If this sequence of images is as per the show, then the very last girl of the Miu Miu show was none other than Russian Yulia Kharlaponova (pictured at the top of this post).

That’s right, the very same girl who famously fell directly in front of the camera pit during last week’s Prada show in Milan – images of whom, AOT on Prada's fish mosaic of a runway floor, wound up splashed over newspapers across the globe.

A lucky escape then for Australia’s Myf Shepherd who was, according to the Style.com images, the fourth last girl in the Miu Miu show.


myf shepherd, miu miu SS09/style.it

8 comments:

Isaac Likes said...

Could it be that this is the season with the most runway falls of all time??

I wonder how much the thin debate, long working hours and little food provided backstage plays into this too... What do you think?

Patty Huntington said...

well i think it's definitely a contender for being the season with the most ridiculous shoes in living memory. fatigue could factor into it, there is no denying that these girls, and particularly those in demand, who are doing a lot of shows, work a gruelling schedule during the shows season. by the same token however, there is also no denying that the shoes reached absurd proportions this season.

last week the australian ran a story quoting one london buyer who attempted to blame the models - the buyer described them as 'untrained'. but that excuse doesn't fly when you consider that angela lindvall, who has been modelling for 12 years, fell twice in the space of 5 minutes during pucci in milan. she told the uk telegraph that she had never previously fallen during a fashion show.

Isaac Likes said...

I loved what Hadley Freeman said: "You definitely knew that this was the season of the extreme shoe and I knew at that point that it was time to go home."

Ridiculous shoes, suffocating corsets, gruelling schedules... the glamour of it all!

Imelda Matt - The Despotic Queen of Shoes said...

In some collections tumbles have been more interesting than clothes!

Isaac Likes said...

Like Annah Stretton here in NZ???

Anonymous said...

I think it isn't about the models because there have always been models who worked 60ish shows a season. The work schedule anad the lack of sleep and food have always been around.

I think it is very much about the designers and the shoes that they are asking the models to wear-and not just the shoes but the corsets!

Anonymous said...

the fashion and general public tend to forget these are like young girls - women who are fragile sometimes and i'm pretty sure it kills everytime they are running to do a show. nice clothes like always but having to put them on and off probably gets a bit tiring. and some of the shoes are just so wack. yeah pretty highly conceptual but an ankle isn't a piece of steel.

patty, btw Alice is on Refinery29's front! (not bad eh).

Tricia said...

ridiculous to blame the "untrained" models considering the shoes! and untrained does not necessarily mean they will fall, but more that their walk will not be refined.

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