Runway model Anok Yai turned a beautiful show into a moment in culture. She walked in the Vetements show as the collection’s bride this Paris Fashion Week, only to sprint down the runway back toward the escalators on her way back up. It was chaotic, viral, and unexpected. Turns out, it was unexpected for Anok too.
The model took to social media, explaining she had not planned on being any kind of “runaway bride,” which is how the online fashion community had started dubbing the performance. “Becoming a run away bride was not planned…AT ALL” she wrote on X. She further explained in an Instagram caption. The original plan was for her to walk down the runway in the wedding gown, pose and hold for the cameras, and then for Travis Scott, Gigi Hadid, and Vetements designer Guram Gvasalia to join her at the end of the catwalk. They’d all return backstage together. Of course, that’s not what happened.
“I’d only a few minutes before the lineup to test the weight of the dress & completely forgot to ask for a higher heel to hold the dress higher off the ground,” she explained. “The moment I entered the runway, my heel repeatedly got caught, & by the time I recollected myself it had been too noticeable.”
She wrote that she had to pick up the dress and walk, “all elegance and grace out the window.” She wasn’t feeling great about the walk, so she impulsively decided to get into character, “from elegant bride to defiant bride.”
“I ran backstage in tears looking for Guram so I could explain myself & beg for his forgiveness for ruining the show. Thankfully, he yelled “how did you think of that?!” Anok continued. “Guram, you truly are the artist’s artists.”
Gigi Hadid herself commented on the post, saying “It was MAAAJOR. I thought it was just part of the plan I didn’t know about !!!?! HAA I love u and your mind. You were the most stunning as always sister”
The rest of the Vetements show was genuinely stunning. It was that perfect mix of cheeky and dead serious fashion. DHL and duct take bandage dresses, the slip dress lace skirt, a newspaper printed dress of a fake issue of The Sun that reads, “A New Sun Is Rising Today.” Grungy, optimistic, sexy, and everything in between.
