A male fashion model appeared to trip on the runway during a fashion show, became sick, and was rushed to the hospital.
Brazilian model Tales Soares, also known as Tales Cotta, was walking the runway during Sao Paulo Fashion Week. He was showcasing designs from fashion brand Ocksa on April 27, the New York Post reported.
The audience members at first didn’t know if they were watching part of a stunt, but then Soares started to foam at the mouth. Paramedics immediately brought him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Video footage obtained by The Independent showed models walking with long strings hanging down along their ankles and feet. The models wore thick-soled sandals that looked like they were made for hiking. The strings dragged on the floor and swung around as the models walked, creating a potential trip hazard. However, it’s not known if this contributed to the fall.
Media photos showed Soares face down on the floor after he fell.
Soares was 26 years old, BBC reported. He has over 18,400 Instagram followers and had posted a couple of fashion photos of himself the same day he died. His last Instagram post now has over 20,000 likes and almost 5,000 comments.
The modeling agency that represented Soares, Base Mgt Agency, posted a tribute on Instagram announcing the death and expressed that Soares ate a healthy vegetarian diet, did not abuse illegal substances, and never complained of any ailments. The agency said they are awaiting the outcome of a medical report to determine why Soares suddenly died.
The Instagram account of São Paulo Fashion Week also posted an official communication on Soares’s death.
The show continued after Soares’s death. Models paid tribute to Soares by holding placards on the runway.
Brazilian news outlets speculated about what caused the death. One media alleged that vegetarian food was not available that night, and so Soares did not eat. The event’s organizer denied this, according to The Telegraph.
Others thought Soares may have tripped because of his ornate footwear.
Sao Paulo Fashion Week
The first full day of Sao Paulo Fashion Week began on April 23. It is the 47th edition of the festival, The Rio Times reported.
Five new brands joined the events this year: Haight, Neriage, Flavia Aranha, Another Place, and Ocksa. There are 36 fashion brands at the festival in total.
Some established brands chose to not join Fashion Week and instead held events individually outside the main festivities. This created some controversy.
“Can everyone put on a show when he or she wants to? This is very bad for Brazilian fashion, it does not happen anywhere else in the world, everything is becoming too vague,” said Brazilian designer Reinaldo Lourenço, as quoted by newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, via The Rio Times.
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The organizers of the show still see it as a good way for smaller fashion brands to get noticed.
“Great names and brands are built, not born. It is to allow these potentialities to develop that SPFW exists,” said Paulo Borges the creative director of Sao Paulo Fashion Week, via The Rio Times.
