The Most Surprising Models of Fashion Week Spring 2023

Before she broke out with the hit Netflix show Squid Game, HoYeon modeled for many a major fashion label—including Louis Vuitton. The actor and brand ambassador returned to her roots by opening its spring 2023 show in a monochrome ensemble six years after creative director Nicolas Ghesquière first enlisted her for the runway.

It took a second for show goers to recognize Miranda July at Miuccia Prada’s latest show for Miu Miu. For what appears to be her second-ever turn on the catwalk (following her appearance at Gucci’s 2021 Love Parade), the multi-hyphenate straightened her typically curly mop of hair.

Mrs. Prada got up to some more stunt casting by enlisting the singer-songwriter Ethel Cain.

Last but certainly not least, FKA Twigs closed out the show in the mini-est of miniskirts. The musician-slash-dancer’s only other runway appearance to date seems to be a surprise performance at the fall 2023 Valentino menswear show.

Anyone who’s seen Pose knows that Mj Rodriguez has what it takes to hit the catwalk and then some. It’s no surprise, then, that Thom Browne put the actor front and center on his spring 2023 runway, sending her out in three different looks.

The third was by far the most major. With the help of four fellow models, Rodriguez zoomed down the runway in a mock pink convertible.

Browne also enlisted none other than Gwendoline Christie to let the audience know that they were about to witness his take on Cinderella. “In Thom Browne’s world, all boys, all girls, everyone fits in the shoe,” the 6’3” actor said as she joined Rodriguez for the grand finale.

Christie isn’t the only Game of Thrones star who’s hit the runway this Paris Fashion Week. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau made his second L’Oréal appearance to date, looking casual in a zippered grey boiler suit.

Gemma Chan joined the actor, returning to her modeling roots by making her first runway appearance at one of the beauty brand’s Le Défiles.

The love story of Kanye West and Demna continues. The rapper kicked off the designer’s latest for Balenciaga show by stomping down a catwalk covered in mud.

It’s been eight long years since we last saw Kelly Mittendorf make a fashion week appearance. The Arizona-born model jumped back into the game by also walking Balenciaga, making for her first trip to Paris in a decade.

Olivier Rousteing must have been over the moon when Cher confirmed that she was down to close his spring 2023 Balmain show. Attendees certainly were upon seeing her, as were onlookers all across the world. The 76-year-old icon emerged in a skin-tight spandex body suit to help Rousteing take his bow after present more than 100 looks.

Post-catwalk, Cher naturally took to Twitter to celebrate. “JUST HAD BEST TIME, ON STAGE…FELT GREAT,” she wrote in part.

What’s one more wedding dress when you’ve already worn seven? Less than a year after she went all out at her three-day wedding to Carter Reum, Paris Hilton stepped out in no. 8 to close out Versace’s Milan Fashion Week showing. Her latest bore a bit of resemblance to her most iconic look: the glitzy Julien Macdonald chain-mail dress she wore to her 21st birthday party.

If Future needed advice for how to keep calm on the catwalk, he didn’t have to look far. The rapper hit the runway of Boss’s 2023 Milan showing alongside Naomi Campbell.

Philipp Plein loves a spectacle, and his latest Milan show was just that—with a little assist from Paris Jackson, who kicked things off in head-to-toe metallics.

Peter Do partnered with SM Entertainment to showcase his spring 2023 designs (and first-ever menswear) on some of the biggest names in K-pop. The first to step onto the runway was Jeno of NCT, whom Do praised as the embodiment of “the Peter Do man” in the press notes.

Eunseok of SM Rookies soon followed in one of the collection’s several black-and-white looks.

His bare-chested bandmate Shohei came along for the ride.

An appearance from Peter Ash Lee of Burdock Media, an arts-and-culture platform that spotlights AAPI artists, writers, and creators, made for a non-K-Pop related surprise.

Cecile Richards has laid relatively low since stepping down from her role as president of Planned Parenthood. She stepped back into the spotlight at Gabriela Hearst wearing black from head to toe.

Hearst seems to have had politics on the mind when designing her latest collection, which was inspired by the Ancient Greek poet Sappho. She also enlisted the 20-year-old Mexican climate activist Xiye Bastida, who no doubt approved of Hearst’s use of upcycled and deadstock materials.

The model and women’s health advocate Lauren Wasser returned to the runway, joining the rest in wearing black and gold.

The first edition of Vogue World was all about celebrities. In fact, the magazine review of the show barely mentions the close. Around six months after she joined the supers at Off-White’s tribute to the late Virgil Abloh, Serena Williams led a parade of models that included Mikhail Baryshnikov and Erykah Badu.

As well as newlyweds Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, who had a date night for the books.

Just like the rest of us, Coach’s Stuart Vevers has fallen in love with Lil Nas X. After dressing him for his tour and appointing him brand ambassador, the designer sent him down the runway in a black leather ensemble juxtaposed with pink jelly sandals.

There was so much focus on Travis Barker closing Tommy Hilfiger’s New York comeback with musical performance that you may have missed Donna Jordan, former Warhol superstar and “Antonio [Lopez] Girl,” also making a comeback.

The fashion and fine art photographer Tyler Mitchell stepped out from behind the camera and onto the runway of Marni’s first New York show.

No one expected Kate Beckinsale to be the last of Naeem Khan’s otherwise ordinary cast of models to hit the runway. The actor helped Khan close out the show covered in metallics from head to toe, and while she’s certainly modeled in the past, the show marked the first time she’s ever done so on the catwalk.

While Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington have been no strangers to modeling since they became known as part of “The Trinity” in the ’90s, the trio’s other member, Linda Evangelista, has scarcely been seen in recent years. Last September, the 57-year-old supermodel explained why: She had undergone a cosmetic procedure that left her, in her words, “brutally disfigured.” Slowly but surely, she’s been returning to the public eye. Her appearance at the very end of Fendi and Marc Jacobs’s celebration of the Baguette bag made for her first runway show in 15 years.

Jemima Kirke made what appears to have been her runway debut at Collina Strada’s showing in a sprawling, picturesque garden in Brooklyn. Like the rest of the models, the actor-slash-artist embraced the collection’s butterfly theme by wiggling her fingers as she circled the wooden walkway.

A year or so after first delving into modeling by booking Loewe and Calvin Klein campaigns and making a cameo in Bottega Veneta’s pre-fall 2021 look book, the musician Arca made sure Proenza Schouler’s show started off with a bang—by being the first to showcase Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s latest.