Two minutes of runway models falling down

[Video Link] (Via Biotv)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: models

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

hexmonkey

Wow that looks painful.
Mike Johnson

I especially like the one where they dress a woman in some restrictive impractical clothing, then strap some poorly designed, ill-fitting shoes to her feet, then make her walk down a slippery runway while doing an unnatural sashay with her hips, and she falls. Highlarious stuff, yep. I guess it’s true women are more than just a fashion accessory — they’re good for pratfalls too. Lookout, Mr. Bean.
Jeremy Hill

God, watching the ankles wobble like that… as someone who has rolled his ankles far more than I would have liked, it’s horrifying to watch.
- bobkat
  
  My wife broke her ankle two weeks ago from rolling it over badly. Not even wearing heels! So this video is not enjoyable to me in any way.
http://twitter.com/pishabh pishabh

Oddly sensual IMHO
http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman

I think this is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. Funny for the first 30 seconds but after that it palls a bit.
- GawainLavers
  
  Oh come on…the pendulum?
  - Culturedropout
    
    Yeah – the pendulum brought back nightmares of half the old-school video games I ever played. “Oh boy, a jumping puzzle! I love jumping puzzles!”
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=579328135 Michael Crowl
    
    FROGGER FAIL
Marky

I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often, with all the models using that weird, “crossover stomp” gait. Is this supposed to be attractive? To me, it’s just creepy.
- http://twitter.com/Kateads Katelyn Eads
  
  I think it’s more that they’re underfed and attempting to balance on 5-inch heels in ridiculous outfits, but are still supposed to make their hips sashay as they walk. It probably helps them keep their balance a bit. I do walk in ridiculous heels sometimes, and there is something to it. I think it has to do with how much easier tit is to roll your ankle to the outside than to the inside, when you do the crossover stomp, it feels like your weight stays to the inside of your foot more.
  - TWX
    
    ”I think it has to do with how much easier tit is to roll…”
    
    Intentional?
http://profiles.google.com/loosexleaves Ashley Coats

Hmm a couple were funny. Like the woman falling in the pool or through the middle of the paper covered runway.

Most just made me cringe as their ankles did horrible things. Ouch!
xzzy

Analysis of the oscillations in those girls’ ankles suggests to me the engineers did not properly account for crosswinds, which resulted in catastrophic aeroelastic flutter.

Suggested fixes: shorten the high heels and/or give them a wider base.

Also affix grip tape to soles of shoes to reduce chances of two smooth surfaces slipping against each other.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  Velcro. Stanley Kubrick was right.
Allan Self

Is this to be an empathy test?
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  I want to see a negative before I give you a positive. Try her.
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

We laugh at the models, but it’s really a testament that the designers have shit for brains (or are rotten douchebags, which is also likely).
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679549499 Michael Birch

We was nice in theory.. but then I watched it :( It would suck to walk off the end of the stage.
CLamb

Now I finally understand why its important for them to maintain a low weight.
Vinnie Iuppa

I am glad that they avoided the seemingly obligatory Yakety Sax music on the video (though now that I’ve thought about it I can’t get it out of my head).

That said, it sure does seem more painful than funny.
giantasterisk

Here’s an idea: Why not just put the models in harnesses and dangle them up and down the runway?

Hell, the combination of anorexic-looking young girls, extreme hair and make-up, aggressively strange clothing and impossible high heels has always made me think that I’m looking at an avant garde performance art piece, not a sampling of this season’s loveliest new styles.
GrumpySteen

As videos go, that one is pretty trippy.
nixiebunny

I’d think that a model would be required to demonstrate the ability to walk in 6″ heels without wobbling a bit before ever being allowed on the runway.

Or do the designers give them shoes that are too big, and tell them to make do? That wouldn’t be nice.
- CLamb
  
  I would also think that the runway makers would build runways capable of supporting models and having a surface with enough friction to allow the models shoes to have traction.
  - http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
    
    Sometimes when I buy new dress shoes, they’re so frigging slippery that I just skate across the carpet. I actually go out on the sidewalk and scuff them up a bit to get them working right.
    - http://twitter.com/selfish selfish
      
      I use one of those tiny cheese graters, because I’m a bad person
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
  
  The models do go-sees (auditions) in their own shoes, high, but well fitting.
  Even the walk throughs are done in their own shoes.It’s not until the show do they get to see the monstrosities they’re going to strap onto their feet, and yes, often the wrong size.
  - TWX
    
    I wonder why that is- you’d think they’d include models’ shoe sizes in their modelling portfolios, and that it wouldn’t be that hard to order shoes in the correct size. I don’t think that the clothing designer is also designing shoes most of the time, and even if they are, wouldn’t it be a bad example to the fashion purchasers if the shoes cause the model to break an ankle?
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      The model is supposed to fit the product, not the other way around.
      - Michael Rosefield
        
        I think someone needs to tell them that’s not how feet work.
- http://twitter.com/VisceralVixen Visceral Vixen
  
  Happens to even the most seasoned of dancers and showgirls – and they’re meant to be uber coordinated.
  
  My heels are totally screwed from rolling my ankles so many times when I was a dancer. The most challenging part isn’t so much the pain, but making a graceful recovery and acting like nothing ever happened. Kind of like cats do when they fall off something or make a failed jump.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6LOJDBXCDHL5MVQQRLOCCJ35AY alexb

My kids were reduced to shrieking hysterical laughter by this. So the question we all have, is “Why is woman wearing a giant hat straight out of the Cat in the Hat @1:45?”
I love the way she seems to sag in shame after falling off the stage though.
- Culturedropout
  
  I loved that. “I’ll just sit here in this f***ing stupid hat costume and maybe no one will realize what happened…”
Bahumat

I went from schadenfreude to sympathy and angry on their behalf in like .5 seconds. =
Andy Reilly

Maybe it’s early or something, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Yes, it’s terrible what (mostly) men in the world of fashion do to women, but I don’t think anybody is holding a gun to these ladies’ heads. It’s all rather silly to me.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
  
  As I said below, a lot of these “ladies” are barely 14 or 15.
  
  They may not have a gun to their heads no, but they are legally children and they are being injured at work, you think they’d get workers comp?
  - Andy Reilly
    
    Well then, just one more reason to loath the fashion industry. Of which women are the biggest consumer.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
      
      How about we don’t blame either gender and blame the dominate culture instead? Much easer to affect change that way.
      - millie fink
        
        Sounds good. But then, the dominant culture is still a partiarchy, no?
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski
        
        How about a measured response to young ladies taking a little tumble? Looked like injuries would be minor, if any. Yes, they get worker’s comp., if they are injured while working.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Worker’s comp is for employees. These are independent contractors.
sigdrifa

I usually don’t laugh at people having accidents, but in this case I couldn’t resist. If their dream job is to do something as stupid as walking on a smooth surface on heels that size — what was that, 6″? — then sorry, they don’t deserve any better.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
  
  A lot of these girls are 15, 16, have no idea of their rights, have insane contracts that they don’t understand, are far from home and often don’t speak the language of the city they are in, and are put in physical danger of severe injury.
  
  But sure, they deserve it.
  - sigdrifa
    
    I hate to tell you, but none of these girls look like 15 or 16 to me. It’s still a career decision. If that’s what they want to do with their lives, then no, I don’t feel sorry.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
      
      So because they look like adults we should treat them like adults?
      That’s backwards logic, and the legal system disagrees with you.
      I’m seriously glad I didn’t have to choose my profession at 14, not only because I doubt that I’d have made a good choice or been able to critically think about the decision I was making but also so I wouldn’t have to deal with people that would laugh at me later for picking such a crazy profession and seemingly take glee in my misfortune.
    - TheHowl
      
      I’d rather risk an ankle doing my job than have an endless internet commentariat insulting me by insisting that I’m a victim, I’m unaware of the risks and rewards of my voluntary transactions, and generally negating my agency as a thinking human being by pretending I’m a brainless moppet.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Say….are you one of those mean girls that people are always talking about?
      - sigdrifa
        
        Mean? No. Just slightly indifferent on the matter.
  - http://twitter.com/VisceralVixen Visceral Vixen
    
    I hear what you’re saying but I believe there are way more insidious dangers to a young girl in the fashion industry than taking a spill in heels.
    
    Case in point: Terry Richardson. Being drugged and taken advantage of by some creep with a camera is in my book somehow more serious than falling over on a runway. The fashion world is rife with predatory assholes and creepy hangers-on. A girl has to have her head screwed on pretty well in order to succeed without being chewed up and spat out by the more unsavoury aspects of the industry.
http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

I was kind of happy with the one or two where some guy in the audience helped her up. But if it’s that rare for people to help a pretty woman, though, the rest of us are screwed.

Also, WTF with that cat in the hat thing?
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  I just felt bad for whoever was inside. Some designer made this to show off… what? And then stuffed a model inside with ridiculous shoes on. And then made her prance around on a catwalk. In front of a huge audience. It’s just a parody of itself and a tragedy.
  - TheHowl
    
    Stuffed a model inside? Made her prance?
    
    You would think these women were 6 year-old chimney sweeps, instead of human beings performing their chosen profession, with all of the risks and recompense involved.
    
    (One of those risks is apparently that of falling down in public, but let’s not pretend they are soldiers or wildland firecrews or coal miners.)
    - TWX
      
      That’s the thing- there’s not a lot of compensation. Granted, they’re being paid because of their *looks* primarily, and based on how they strut secondly, but there are more girls than there are jobs, so there’s no incentive to pay better. Many barely afford to live in shared living arrangements with other models in these expensive-to-live-in cities that fashion revolves around.
      
      On the one hand I do have sympathy, but on the other hand, I made my way in life on my technical skills and what I could make, repair, assemble, design, and troubleshoot.
      
      I think we need laws that govern the ages and safety conditions of runway models. We have laws that govern a lot of other industries, and based on that video I can already see a lot of ankle problems directly attributable to the working conditions. Since costumes often fail, require models to be legal adults (no minors accidentally exposing themselves) and that their shoes be safe to wear.
- zombiebob
  
  I think a good deal of the lack of helping had to do with how bad the situation was, and the fact that the runways were for the most part high above the seating area, and also in some cases, as long as the tumble or wobble isn’t too bad, allowing someone to help themselves allows them to keep their dignity, afterall these falls weren’t on the street but were in front of a lot of people, and the tumbling was done by individuals who were at that moment suppossed to represent status beauty power and sexiness etc.
nysssa

Models should get hazard pay for shoes higher than 4″
schadenfreudisch

i was hoping to laugh at some pretty girls who wasted their education. but instead i just felt bad for them.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Nell-Anvoid/100002383626402 Nell Anvoid

“Is this to be an empathy test?”
————————————————-

If so…I have failed…miserably. Ms. Cat Hat got what she deserved!!!
- UFIA
  
  Ms. Cat in the Hat didn’t pick that outfit herself.
  She got what the guy deserved that put her in it.
pjk

“oh-HO! Now we see the violence inherent in the system! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!”
ZikZak

Any disruption of the insane spectacle we call a fashion show is guaranteed to be hilarious. But I’d rather see the video where the model accidentally kicks a spectating designer in the face, lodges her spike heels in his head, and then walks back up the catwalk barefoot.
rewhu

Serendipitous moment: Pandora started playing “She is Beautiful” by Andrew W.K. just before the video loaded. No “Yakety Sax” necessary. That video is painful-looking and terribly sad, but the song made it funnier than I would’ve expected.
http://twitter.com/twistmeyer Mike Meyer

What’s next, a hilarious compilation of Crossing Guard Failures?
Henry Pootel

Some of those stumbles could be looped with “Everyday I’m Shufflin’” nicely
smallteam

The struck-by-pendulum model was a nice switchup from all the ankle-bending
UFIA

Having been a runway model, I simultaneously laughed and felt bad for those girls.
Their pain is still hilarious.
- TWX
  
  I just hope that your screen name doesn’t reflect something that happened to you in a mishap on the runway…
mcheshire

This video should really be accompanied by “The Benny Hill Show” theme.
rrh

“Why do we even have the swinging pendulums? What purpose do these serve?”
- AnthonyC
  
  ”Why is there a chasm in my room? Was it really necessary? What purpose does it serve? Nothing useful has ever come of it.”
  http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/nardo-design-empire.php
http://www.facebook.com/people/Spitty-Sumo/100002601661770 Spitty Sumo

so why are “we” laughing at a bunch of workplace accidents?
sigdrifa

The best scene, though, was the girl who fell in the water — and the guy who came behind her. Didn’t even miss a beat in his own walk in spite of what happened, let alone make an effort to go see if she was ok, like one of the other girls did.
Chentzilla

Somehow related: http://youtu.be/q2z2lTUR5Ao
(Advocacy Group Decries PETA’s Inhumane Treatment Of Women by The Onion.)
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

Comedy is you falling down a well. Tragedy is me getting a hangnail.

-Paraphrased from Mel Brooks.
TheMudshark

1:36:
“I know! Let´s design the runway like a Super Mario Bros. stage, with giant swinging clock pendulums that the models have to dodge, lest they be sweeped off the runway.” *snort
- CaptainPedge
  
  Its a clip from one of those top model shows
- Culturedropout
  
  No doubt. It’s like American Gladiator in high heels.
Green Ghost

While I feel a little sorry for the ladies, they did get themselves involved in a completely silly and useless industry. I don’t recall ever seeing any of these runway fashions anywhere in the real world. The industry is a snake eating it’s own tail. No connection with the reality 99% of us experience. Can you imagine the scene if one of these ladies wearing one of those crazy, winged “get-ups” were found walking down “Main Street, USA”?
- TWX
  
  I’ve seen plenty of other absolutely crazy things being worn by women in public, so yes, I can imagine that actually.
- penguinchris
  
  Did you see “The Devil Wears Prada”? Overall the film is anti-fashion-industry, but it does explain a few things that seem strange to outsiders. In particular, I found the explanation for the outrageous runway outfits interesting – all that stuff that you never see in real life informs what you see in real life in more ways than you’d think.
  
  Color choices are the obvious thing, but shapes and silhouettes, patterns, and all kinds of details do end up in “regular” clothing. It trickles down – high-end designer labels take their cues from the runway stuff first, then a few months later high-end regular labels take things from the designer labels, then a few months later middle-range brands take things from the high-end brands, and so on.
  
  Even the Main Street, USA department store brands thus ultimately take their cues from stuff that originated on the runways, albeit quite far removed. The example used in the film was the specific shade of color of a cheap sweater the main character was wearing, which apparently was big on the runway a year or more earlier.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Cerulean.
Comedian

Oh my God, they’re fashion roadkill!
Marky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THtviaK7dKo
Shibi_SF

I like flat-soled shoes… for every reason you can think of and also for the two minutes of painful video that I just watched.

(Also, I did fall down a hill in San Francisco, the very last time I wore shoes with heels. I rolled down the hill a bit and barely managed to get my skirt back down from around my waist before the trash man drove around the corner and into the sad mess that was me. You can laugh at this — I did! And I still do, but it hurt and I now… I like flats a whole lot more.)
http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie

So now we know why they never smile —they are so focused
i3c

I’m going to have to start calling you Mark Shadenfreuder.
Culturedropout

Excuse me while I go watch “Kinky Boots” again… XD
Lyle Hopwood

Made me cringe. As a 5′ 4″ woman, I could slip and only bruise a hip – but these giant willowy things could really hurt themselves. Having said that, I lol’d at the hat pratfall.
mrtut

What if the runway was rigged to move at exactly the same speed as the model, but in opposite direction?
donovan acree

A couple of these ladies managed to fall with some grace. Impressive.
http://www.facebook.com/aaron.lampell Aaron Lampell

Couldn’t even finish watching. Just seeing them trying to stay up with their ankles oscillating from side to side made me cringe; Falling looked like a blessing, because it was the end of THAT torture! Models get wrong-sized shoes all the time, at least on photo shoots, but probably at the shows too.
http://twitter.com/MrAaronSwainEsq Aaron Swain

The video is a wee bit funny, but mostly it (surprisingly) gave me new found respect for modelling as a profession and new found disdain for bad designers.