If you're going to have a fashion crisis, it might as well be at a Balenciaga show. So learned Mark Bryan after nabbing an invite to Balenciaga's spring/summer 2022 show in Paris-a reward for a year of breaking the Internet by rocking up to his engineering job in a skirt and stilettos.
For his first big fashion show appearance, he chose a dramatic black ankle-length quilted puffer jacket with an off-the-shoulder neckline from Berlin menswear brand GmbH's fall 2021 collection. He paired it with a pair of black Jimmy Choo boots with 95mm-high heels. A kind of hybrid between a ball gown and a designer sleeping bag, the voluminous, zippered coat had been dispatched down GmbH's runway with a bare décolletage. But Bryan added a black shirt and tie-a decision he would come to rue at the star-studded after-party. He started perspiring profusely and fled outside to the sidewalk to cool off. I sat down, and next thing I know, I'm waking up face down on the concrete with people standing around me, he recalls over Skype. I had passed out.” He was whisked by ambulance to a Paris hospital to overnight it under observation, and tests showed nothing more serious than a case of dehydration and poor fashion judgement. It was a pretty different experience, he says.
The whole past year and a bit, in fact, has been a pretty different experience for the 62-year-old Texan-born robotics engineer, who now lives in Crailsheim, Germany. Just as the grandfather of four was looking towards retirement, a completely new career path as a social media influencer opened up before him.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of Harper's BAZAAR Singapore.
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This story is from the May 2022 edition of Harper's BAZAAR Singapore.
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