The (Inexact) Science of a Great Male-Model Runway Walk

By Amy Odell

“Male models, like all the ones we saw at Milan and Paris Men’s Fashion Weeks that wrapped over the weekend, often receive runway training from their agents, casting directors, and show producers. “A lot of the guys have really bad posture as it is,” explains casting director Douglas Perrett from COACD. “Why is that? Because they’re teenagers.” And crafting the right runway persona may have been more important for the male runway models this season than ever before, as a slew of slots in the coveted Prada show went to actors, not models. Apparently the Prada casting is already so cutthroat that models don’t know if they get to walk the show until moments before it actually happens. “There was controversy this season because it was actors taking models’ jobs,” says Pernett, who thought the final show, with appearances by Adrien Brody and Emile Hirsch, “just looked really messy…”