US-Palestinian model Gigi Hadid presents a creation by Chanel during the Women’s Spring-Summer 2020 Ready-to-Wear collection fashion show at the Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday. — AFP
Supermodel Gigi Hadid confronted a gatecrasher at Chanel’s Paris fashion week show on Tuesday after the prankster walked unchecked onto the catwalk with the models for the big finale. The French comedian ran from her seat and joined the models as they did their last walk along a spectacular set recreating the rooftops of Paris inside the Grand Palais.
With security guards left floundering, Hadid confronted the gatecrasher as she tried to further upstage the models, with the two facing off on the set. The daring infiltrator, Marie Benoliel, a comic and YouTuber known as Marie S’Infiltre (Marie Sneaks In), was dressed from head to toe in a black and white Chanel-like houndstooth tweed suit and hat.
She had gatecrashed Etam’s lingerie show earlier in Paris fashion week wearing silver underwear and a sleeping mask. After her Chanel stunt she took to Instagram to declare, “Marie S’Infiltre strikes again!” Guards only realised that she had joined the models when it was too late to intervene.
“I couldn’t stop laughing because the unfortunate security guards couldn’t spot her in the line-up,” said New York Times fashion writer Elizabeth Paton, who had been on the front row. By then Benoliel was giving it her all, waddling down the catwalk with her hands on her hips like a supermodel.
Moments later as she left the line of models to pose further up on the rooftop, Hadid marched over to determinedly block her way before the visibly miffed model escorted the comedian offstage. Chanel told AFP that the woman had taken them by complete surprise but that “this is not the first time that she has done this.”
“We are not going to make a drama out of it,” a Chanel spokeswoman added. “We would have preferred if it hadn’t happened.”
They said Benoliel was “escorted to the exit by our security personnel afterwards.”