Paris Fashion Week: Why did Gigi Hadid accost a French YouTube star on the runway at Chanel’s show, in front of Sting and Cardi B?

Oct 2 , 2019

Gigi Hadid – who put the ‘super’ in supermodel – was forced to accost a catwalk-crasher at the Chanel Ready To Wear spring/summer 2020 show, during Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Invision/AP

Chanel designer Virginie Viard’s otherwise-muted first ready-to-wear solo show since Karl Lagerfeld’s death was interrupted by a runway invader – and supermodel Hadid was left to confront the carpet-crashing prankster

In her first solo ready-to-wear show since Karl Lagerfeld’s death, Chanel designer Virginie Viard had a lot to prove.

And by recreating a sprawling Parisian roofscape inside the Grand Palais, for a front row including Sting and Cardi B, Viard showed she intended to take on Lagerfeld’s mantel of showmanship. But in an unfortunate twist, a runway crasher — a French comedian who shot out from the seated area to walk theatrically with the models — ended up stealing the show in a publicity stunt.

Here are some highlights of Paris Fashion Week’s final day of spring/summer presentations, on October 1.

The catwalk-crasher moved so quickly that Chanel’s bewildered security team didn’t have time to catch up ... Gigi Hadid saved the day by apprehending the hat-wearing lady at the end of the podium

Chanel’s catwalk on a hot tin roof

Chanel used its formidable show coffers to recreate a cityscape of Haussmannian roofs, replete with lead tiling, windows with shutters, railings and chimneys.

Virginie Viard’s first ready-to-wear solo show, the Chanel Ready To Wear spring/summer 2020 collection, unveiled during Paris Fashion Week, was a muted affair. Photo: AP

With a cracked window pane, weathered rainfall markings and a decidedly grey — not blue — spring sky, it’s clear that the set this season favoured realism over romance. Wet guests coming in from the drizzling Paris weather just added to the ambience.

Yet the show — and it 83 wearable designs featuring truncated tweeds and A-line miniskirts — seemed to lack in romance.

Model Kaia Gerber wears a creation as part of the Chanel Ready To Wear spring/summer 2020 collection, unveiled at Paris Fashion Week. Photo: AP

Many looks evoked the city’s famed understated style: a pair of high-waist cropped jeans was set off with a simple white-striped knit jacket, on which a large rose broach subtly matched the model’s red lips. Silver shorts were as fantastical as this grounded collection got.

Tweed mini-dresses were, as ever, executed beautifully, coming this season with slightly dropped pockets in a gamine style. Stripes and cheques appeared across layered skirts and down Chanel’s dresses in a gentle visual synthesis.