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Fall 2009 New York Fashion Week: Runway show moments

By Adam Tschorn Ashley Dupre’s Yigal maneuver Dupre, the aspiring singer who was at the center of the Eliot Spitzer call-girl scandal, turned up unexpectedly in the front row of designer Yigal Azrouël’s runway show, which set flashbulbs popping, tongues wagging and, ultimately, heads rolling. Azrouël, who had not invited Dupre, promptly canned PR firm People’s Revolution, which had given her the spot. Tabloids rumbled that People’s owner Kelly Cutrone, fresh off a stint on “The Hills,” with a recently inked deal to develop her own reality show, had somehow orchestrated it all — for the sake of publicity. (Cutrone, in the colorful language of sailors and longshoremen, denied the charge.) The funny thing is, the brouhaha has given the designer more name recognition than an uneventful runway show ever could have.

By Adam Tschorn

Ashley Dupre’s Yigal maneuver

Dupre, the aspiring singer who was at the center of the Eliot Spitzer call-girl scandal, turned up unexpectedly in the front row of designer Yigal Azrouël’s runway show, which set flashbulbs popping, tongues wagging and, ultimately, heads rolling. Azrouël, who had not invited Dupre, promptly canned PR firm People’s Revolution, which had given her the spot.

Tabloids rumbled that People’s owner Kelly Cutrone, fresh off a stint on “The Hills,” with a recently inked deal to develop her own reality show, had somehow orchestrated it all — for the sake of publicity. (Cutrone, in the colorful language of sailors and longshoremen, denied the charge.)

The funny thing is, the brouhaha has given the designer more name recognition than an uneventful runway show ever could have.  (Jason Szenes / EPA)

Marc Jacobs waves to the audience after the presentation of his fall collection in New York.

Early-bird Marc Jacobs tweaks the tardy

At Fashion Week anywhere in the world, a show starting “on time” means the plastic is pulled off the runway anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes after what’s printed on the invitation. The perennially unpunctual Marc Jacobs proved himself the master of time, space and dimension this season by unexpectedly starting his show two minutes early, with a handful of seats still empty.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A model falls as she walks the runway at the Herve Leger fall 2009 fashion show.

Model mishaps

This season seemed to bring an inordinate number of mishaps and near misses to the catwalk clique. In addition to jettisoned shoes and missed cues, there were some nearly vaudeville-worthy performances.

One was at Trovata, where, on a candle-lit runway the size of an average living room, two male models managed to get utterly lost and nearly collided in the center of the room, causing one to arch an eyebrow in a rare display of emotion.

And the Herve Leger by Max Azria show hosted a two-model pileup when a pair of long and talls managed to topple off their snakeskin stilettos on the wooden runway.  (Scott Gries / Getty Images for IMG)

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