Kristen McMenamy has taken responsibility for falling over while walking the runway at Valentino’s haute couture show at Paris Fashion Week.
The veteran model, who went viral this week after a video of her struggling to walk in stilettos on the runway went viral, took to Instagram to shoulder the blame.
It comes after fashion fans criticised Valentino for giving its models shoes that appear too difficult to walk in, following similar trips and falls during its spring/summer 23 show last year.
But McMenamy clarified in an Instagram post that the shoes were not to blame for her tumble, while thanking the house’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli for the opportunity to walk in the show.
She posted a photograph of herself posing backstage and wrote in the caption: “Thank you Pierpaolo Piccioli and House of Valentino! I f***ed up.”
Piccioli reassured McMenamy that there was “no need to blame yourself”, writing in a comment: “My dear friend, falling down is something that happens to people who are aiming to live every single moment with intensity, like you and me.
“No need to blame yourself at all, our friendship won’t be touched by that.”
The 58-year-old model’s celebrity friends also rushed to comfort her, with The Vampire’s Wife designer Susie Cave describing her as “always the greatest” and actor Gwendoline Christie writing: “Kristen, we love you, you magnificent being.”
On Thursday (26 January), clips of McMenamy’s fall circulated widely on social media, showing her teetering in the tall stilettos on the runway.
After falling, she appears visibly fed up by the shoes and takes them off before getting back up and continuing her walk.
She appeared to make fun of the incident in an earlier Instagram post, as she posted another photo from backstage and wrote: “Before the Fall.”
Valentino’s club-inspired haute couture collection saw plenty of Eighties-inspired patterns, sparkly sequin suits and mini dresses, and his signature neon pink shade sent down the runway.
