Naomi Campbell was already a fixture on the worldwide runway by the point she walked Vivienne Westwood’s fall 1993 present in Paris. She was 22, sporting a striped corset mini gown, black opera gloves and a pair of platform heels that pushed the boundaries of each engineering and, some would argue, frequent sense: 5-inch soles topped by 9-inch stilettos, a part of Westwood’s now-infamous Tremendous-Elevated Gillie assortment.
Mid-stride, her footing gave method, and she or he crumpled down the the ground together with her ft out in entrance of her. After a heartbeat of surprised silence, Campbell paused, flashed a wry smile and began laughing, smoothed her gown and carried on as if nothing had occurred.
Naomi Campbell strolling the Vivienne Westwood Fall 1993 RTW runway present.
Man Marineau/Conde Nast through Getty Pictures
“I used to be embarrassed as a result of additionally it was not the proper time of the month for a lady to fall,” she informed
“British Vogue” 26 years after the notorious fall. “And I felt like I ought to have practiced extra … there’s a trick to strolling in your footwear. Crucial factor is that I stated to myself, ‘Rise up and preserve going—that’s all it’s a must to do.’”
Naomi Campbell journeys on the runway on the Vivienne Westwood Fall 1993 RTW runway present.
Man Marineau/Conde Nast through Getty Pictures
The autumn shortly turned a fashion-world artifact. Vivienne Westwood, by no means one to downplay spectacle, later referred to as it “stunning,” including, “It was like a gazelle.” Campbell, unfazed, turned the second into greater than only a meme. She used the footage in two totally different industrial campaigns — one for insurance coverage, the opposite for chocolate.
“It was in Paris, and I labored actually exhausting, and something can occur to you,” she informed David Letterman in a 1995 look on his eponymous speak present. After enjoying the clip, Letterman remarked, “What’s horrifying about that’s it seems to be like you may have damaged each of your ankles.” Campbell agreed: “I may have damaged each of my ankles.”
A pair of Vivienne Westwood designed Mock-Crock Elevated Gilllies from 1993 wherein Niomi Campbell famously tripped on the catwalk are displayed previous to ‘Vivienne Westwood Footwear: An Exhibition 1973- 2010’ at Selfridges Extremely Lounge on August 25, 2010 in London, England.
Ian Gavan/Getty Pictures)
Letterman additionally identified what many others observed on the time: “No person moved that will help you.”
“Nobody moved,” she stated. “Nobody moved a muscle of their faces—they have been simply nervous till I began laughing, after which they began laughing, too.” She continued the stroll and completed the present.
The precise pair of footwear she wore that day was later auctioned on the Bowes Museum in 2011. A near-identical pair is a part of the everlasting assortment on the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the place they’re labeled merely as “platform footwear worn by Naomi Campbell.”
The clip nonetheless makes the rounds — particularly on Campbell’s fifty fifth birthday, Might 22 — not as a result of she fell, however due to how she dealt with it. The footwear have been excessive, the second unforgettable, and the restoration solely her personal.
