
As hoped, SS22 was also the most racially diverse season, with 48 per cent of appearances being by models of colour.

Though that may not sound like a lot, it’s quadruple the number from AW21, which had only 19 curve models on its runways. The most recent SS22 season was the second highest on record for diversity, with curve models accounting for 1.81 per cent of all castings. Clara Louise, a London native, booked an advertising campaign alongside Harry Styles this time last year and prior to that, Ellie Goldstein was the first model with Down’s Syndrome to score a high fashion campaign, posing for Gucci’s makeup line. That being said, it’s not the first time that Gucci has cast a curve model. While labels like Versace, Jacquemus, and Fendi have broadened their casting call, recruiting the likes of Precious Lee, Jill Kortleve, Paloma Elsesser, and Alva Claire to its catwalks, many of the blockbuster fashion houses are still reticent to showcase anyone above a sample size. “If I make Anna happy with Leon? Perfect.Among the crush of celebrity cameos, however, were individuals, including Dazed 100er Tess McMillan, who made history as the first curve models to have ever walked a Gucci runway. “This is not the first time” he and Dame have created a walk together, after all, but “maybe because this time, it was a bit like, Wow.” He sounded overjoyed to see it take off: “I love that people are laughing because you know, we are doing all of this for fun,” he said. Nonetheless, he was surprised by the reaction The Walk received. His experience with the McQueen show stuck in his mind, and he began to build a career advising designers and models on their walks. “I was like, ‘What am I doing? I’m just.walking!’” She enlisted him to teach the other models to walk, and after a few more years of dance, including working for Aaron Sillis, who has choreographed for pop stars like Rihanna and Katy Perry, he was eventually enlisted to choreograph an FKA Twigs shoot for Wonderland Magazine. When he was cast in an Alexander McQueen show, designer Sarah Burton pulled him aside to express her gratitude for his incredible walk. being original.” He told Dame to “show people the freedom we can create as young people,” and to “give the best energy and just show that you can be yourself, and you can be whatever you want to be right now.”īoguslawski is trained as a dancer and choreographer, and got his start dancing in London, where he also did some modeling. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.īoguslawski has worked with Dame, a Margiela regular, for several seasons now, so this walk was built on “what we created before.” He added that, “For a lot of fashion shows, wouldn’t be right, because this beautiful, simple model walk. He just likes people who look interesting in general, and have something to say.”

“The main idea is that he just likes characters. “John just wants people to be themselves,” Boguslawski said in a phone call from Paris Thursday morning. Maison Margiela artistic director John Galliano has worked for the past year with Pat Boguslawski, a movement director and former runway model, to choreographs the models’ walks. His moody glare only added to the appealing strangeness, and video clips made the moment an instantaneous meme. Model Leon Dame, wearing a belted leather jacket with sailor’s striped flap collar, tighty-whities, and knee-high high-heel boots, took a chaotic, energized strut down the runway, and then preened for the cameras in the pit like the camped-up little brother of a legendary ’90s supermodel.

That thing arrived on Wednesday, in the form of the finale walk at Maison Margiela. Every season, something so wild happens at Paris Fashion Week that it ricochets well beyond the industry’s Instagram-friendly world of exclusivity.
