5 designers who walked the runway Matthew Williams is neither the first nor will be the last

Yeezy's latest show held on Monday night in Paris was a controversial affair-between t-shirts glorifying white supremacy, 3D printed boots, dissing toward Bernard Arnault and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, and half the fashion world suspended between anger and embarrassment, other things happened, too, like a fashion show. During this fashion show, wearing looks co-designed by Shayne Oliver were celebrities such as Naomi Campbell, Michele Lamy, and Matthew Williams. It was Matthew Williams, by participating in the show, who joined the small roster of designers who walked the runway - a fairly short list of names in fashion history. In an industry dominated by rivalries, territoriality, mutual grudges, and irreconcilable friendships, the fact that a designer promotes the work of competitors always causes some stir. 

Therefore, we decided to list the five most famous episodes of designers becoming models, either for others or for themselves.

1. Martin Margiela for Jean-Paul Gaultier FW86

The year was 1986, the Soviet Union was disintegrating, and Gorbachev's policies, perestroika and glasnost', dominated public discourse. Deciding to immerse himself in the issue, Jean Paul Gaultier created a collection inspired by the Constructivist artistic current, which originated in Russia before the Soviets took over, in which he incorporated artistic techniques, color reference and Cyrillic letters into his clothes. Part of the models in the collection were the brand's own staff members, and among them, unsuspectedly, was Martin Margiela. It was videomaker Loic Prigent who unearthed the secret last year when, while interviewing Gaultier, he discovered that one of the models on the runway was indeed Margiela. Why had no one noticed? Margiela did not like to be photographed and therefore his face was hardly recognizable. Until now at least.

2. Vivienne Westwood for Yohji Yamamoto FW98

For Marni's FW22 show last year, Francesco Risso wanted to tell an idea of community and its members: «All living under one roof, the Marni roof, sharing the same wardrobe but each one wearing it their own way», reads the brand's message. And if the entire brand community was ideally placed on the same plane, the brand's creative director also placed himself in its middle. A gesture that was interpreted as a renunciation by the designer of the aura of divine superiority that fashion narratives often attribute to these figures.