The fashion world appears to be confronting a deeper crisis of relevance.
One recent example came during Paris Fashion Week, when actress Natasha Lyonne took part in the Vivienne Westwood show.
Her appearance quickly went viral, though not for the reasons the show organizers would have hoped.
Lyonne appeared unsteady and distracted as she struggled to maintain a straight path. Her neck movements looked abrupt, while the handbag hanging from her wrist swung loosely, seemingly unnoticed.
The actress, 47, wore chunky high heels fastened with thin straps up to her knees and an open brocade jacket with little visible clothing beneath it—an outfit that drew attention as much for its provocative styling as for her uncertain walk.
For critics, the moment reflected what they see as the fashion industry’s growing disconnect from the wider public.
The cause of Lyonne’s behavior in Paris remains unknown. However, the actress has spoken openly about her past struggles with drug addiction.
A former child star, she was homeless by the age of 25 after actor Michael Rapaport evicted her from one of his rental properties. The apartment was reportedly left damaged and filthy.
The fashion world appears to be confronting a deeper crisis of relevance. Actress Natasha Lyonne’s appearance at the Vivienne Westwood show in Paris became a major talking point.
Lyonne appeared unsteady and distracted as she struggled to walk in a straight line. Her neck movements looked abrupt, and the handbag on her wrist swung loosely.
In 2005, the year of that eviction, Lyonne was admitted to the intensive care unit at Manhattan’s Beth Israel hospital with a collapsed lung, hepatitis C and a heart infection. Reports at the time attributed the conditions to intravenous drug use.
She later underwent open-heart surgery.
By 2019, Lyonne was enjoying an unlikely career resurgence through Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. That year, she told the Guardian, “There’s a fighter in me that wants to survive.”
Earlier this year, however, Lyonne revealed that she had relapsed.
In a largely cryptic series of posts on X that was later deleted, she wrote in January: “Took my relapse public more to come… Recovery is a lifelong process. Anyone out there struggling, remember you’re not alone. Grateful for love & smart feet. Gonna do it for baby Bambo… Wallpaper your mind with love. Rest is all noise & baloney.”
Four months later, on April 7, Lyonne was reportedly removed from a Delta overnight flight traveling from Los Angeles to New York after refusing to follow basic instructions from the crew. She had attended the Season 3 premiere of HBO’s Euphoria, a series known for its focus on drug use.
The aircraft was taxiing for takeoff when it turned back to the gate so Lyonne could be taken off the plane.
According to reports, when an airline employee asked whether she needed medical assistance, Lyonne replied, “Where are we?”
Several days later, friends told the New York Post that they were deeply concerned about her wellbeing.
“She’s obviously going through something very challenging right now,” one friend said. “It’s just so sad because Natasha has been fine for years.”
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When asked about the incident on April 16 by a journalist, she didn’t apologize. ‘Oh, you mean my performance art piece? It’s been a doozy,’ she said. ‘And the good news is, I have managed to catch three flights since that last one.’
She later claimed that she had taken a prescription sleep medication on the flight, and that was what made her seem out of it.
All of which makes her disturbing appearance at the Westwood show on Saturday so concerning — not that the industry would dare acknowledge that something seems very amiss.
Nope! Instead, everything’s fine. Better than fine! Lyonne, they say, was a triumph.
WWD: ‘Natasha Lyonne Models Glittering Gladiator-Style Platform Heels on Vivienne Westwood Spring 2027 Runway.’
InStyle: ‘Natasha Lyonne Goes Topless, Wears Nothing Under Whimsical Animal Print Jacket with Polarizing Heels.’
Elle magazine: ‘Oh hello, #NatashaLyonne! The actress struts down the runway.’
Should we be surprised?
The fashion world has long been a dark place. The 1990s were defined by ‘heroin chic’ — which the industry claimed was a mere aesthetic, not based on drug use in the industry at all. Certainly not anything that models, photographers or designers were doing.
Meanwhile, as I wrote in my book Champagne Supernovas — which covers that era of fashion — Marc Jacobs was getting thrown off planes while in the throes of his own heroin addiction.
The late Alexander McQueen abused cocaine so he could keep producing throughout inhuman schedules.
Supermodel Kate Moss went to rehab after photos of her cutting up cocaine landed on the front pages of British tabloids.
After fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti died in 1997 with heroin in his system, President Bill Clinton called a press conference and ordered the fashion industry to stop glamorizing hard drugs.
And it did, for a time. In came Gisele Bundchen and a return to healthy, glowing, athletic-looking models.
But the pendulum has swung back again.
Not even the recent death of Presley Gerber, it seems, has given this industry pause. Gerber was only 27 when he died of an apparent overdose, and he spoke openly of having been a happy kid before, as he repeatedly said, he was ‘thrown into’ modeling at age 15.
Suddenly, he was in New York City or Europe — a young boy with no idea what he was really doing, who was being told to take his shirt off and who sounded like he never really wanted to be there.
‘It’s sink or swim,’ Gerber said three years ago. ‘I had to grow up quickly.’
His untimely death could be read as an indictment of an industry that cares not, still.
