Fashion month is full of surprises. Throughout the shows in New York and Europe, it’s a big game of the five w’s (where, when, who, what, why!) as attendees are kept guessing about what or where a designer will show—and who will walk their catwalks. A prime example of such a shock-and-awe model moment was in 2017, when Versace shut down Milan Fashion Week with an epic supermodel reunion. Flash-forward to today at Burberry, and designer Riccardo Tisci served up an unexpected moment of his own at London Fashion Week: He enlisted model Agyness Deyn to walk his catwalk.
During the early ’00s, there wasn’t a runway, campaign, or magazine that Deyn wasn’t eyed for. After bursting onto the scene in 2005, she became the undeniable It model of the moment; designers and fashion fans alike were instantly drawn to her peroxide pixie cut and punky sense of style, which was much imitated but never replicated. More recently, however, Deyn has hung up her modeling hat and shifted gears to acting; she’s starred in films such as Sunset Song, Her Smell, and Patient Zero, as well as the 2018 TV series Hard Sun.
Strutting the Burberry runway today alongside the big names of the moment (Kendall, Irina, Gigi, Bella—gang’s all here), Deyn reminded the fashion world of her iconic status. She walked the show wearing a Tisci signature: an embroidered trench coat, with a masculine button-up and trousers worn underneath. (The bleached-blonde hair that is her signature was still there too.)
The moment is one of Deyn’s bigger show cameos in a while. In 2015, however, she did make an appearance at Saint Laurent’s Spring 2016 runway show—the perfect casting for Hedi Slimane’s grungy, rock-and-roll aesthetic at the time. This Burberry one? A tad more out of the blue but in the best way possible.