Ragebait runway cameos are fashion’s most embarrassing trend Menswear

Thanks to the attention economy, many people feel compelled to use ragebait to get attention – especially on social media. For fashion brands, runways are the perfect opportunity to employ this tactic – and often, casting controversial people in shows can create a talking point that gains traction on the internet and provokes the audience into engagement. Case in point: this Paris Fashion Week, Braden Peters AKA Clavicular, the racist, misogynistic, and homophobic looksmaxxing influencer, opened 424’s SS27 show. If you’re unfamiliar: Clavicular is guilty of partying with right-wing nationalist Nick Fuentes, abusing steroids, and repeatedly using the n-word.

French fashion commentator Lyas immediately posted from the front row, holding his middle finger up to Clavicular in a video on his Instagram. The caption read, “Misogynist, homophobic and racist clavicular walks @424inc”. Noted fashion journalists flooded the comment section in similar disgust: fashion editor Brenda Weischer wrote “tomatoes tomatoes”; writer and editor Pierre A. M’Pelé said it was “even worse than a front row seat”; influencer Hanan Besovic quipped, “I’ll add mine too,” with his own middle finger emoji. Shortly after, when the brand posted a photo of the look on their Instagram, hundreds of outraged followers swarmed the comments.

Why would a brand send such a controversial figure down the runway? Perhaps 424 creative director Guillermo Andrade was using him ironically, as a way of commenting on the fashion industry’s toxic obsession with appearances – Clavicular, after all, made his name by documenting the extreme measures he took to ‘improve’ his looks. But when he’s presented uncritically as a face on the catwalk, this commentary falls flat.

If not a comment on toxic beauty standards, then what? Arguably, the stunt reveals more about how brands operate under this attention economy. In a society with innumerable stimuli competing for our time and attention, now more than ever, brands have to go to extreme lengths to cut through to potential consumers.

In this context, it’s no surprise that ragebait has emerged as a surefire way for brands to generate some noise. While performance art-style shows designed to stun audiences have a long history on the runway – from Alexander McQueen’s iconic SS99 No. 13 finale, where two robots arms spray-painted a white dress worn by Shalom Harlow, to Martin Margiela’s 1989 Paris show, which saw local children storm the runway – as time goes on, these kinds of ‘shocking’ moments are becoming less profound and simply gimmicky. If we look back at the spring/summer and autumn/winter collections of 2023, for example, every small brand wanted to have its viral moment. Heliot Emil set their final model on fire; another model at (Di)vision stood up from a dinner table to reveal that her dress was sewn to the tablecloth, taking everything on the table with her as she walked; most dramatic of all, AVAVAV staged a show where models deliberately tripped, stumbled, and fell flat on their faces while walking.

Designers are compelled to keep upping the ante. While models taking a tumble was enough to get tongues wagging three years ago, today, it takes a lot more to create a truly thumb-stopping moment. Hence the rise of runway ragebait: Clavicular actually made his catwalk debut last season for the designer Elena Velez, herself a rage-baiting, “post-woke” contrarian. During the AW26 season, Marilyn Manson opened the Enfants Riches Déprimés show, despite numerous sexual assault and domestic violence allegations against him. We’re witnessing uglier and uglier kinds of provocation – such as an influencer with harmful, prejudicial views being sent down the runway at one of the biggest fashion weeks in the world.

While these moments prompt discourse – it’s likely many people who had never even heard of 424 are now aware of the brand thanks to the Clavicular stunt – it’s unfortunate that some brands are more concerned with going viral for tapping controversial models than creating innovative work. I actually really liked the pieces in 424’s collection, but I was too distracted by the outrage to focus on them. After all, even when a ragebait stunt succeeds in getting everyone talking, they are rarely talking about the collection itself – it might not be a win if everyone is talking about your brand for all the wrong reasons.

Still, opting out of the attention economy is easier said than done. Today, success doesn’t find those who simply have talent, but those who beat the algorithm and generate headlines. But there are far more interesting ways of doing this. Kid Super does a great job of it. From open invites to comedy shows, he creates a theatre of the craft, getting more exciting and enticing with every collection. Coperni’s version of the spray paint dress is another great example of a fun stunt in fashion, or Margiela using a movement director to perfect its models’ theatrical walks. There has always been a place for theatricality in fashion, but it doesn’t need to be controversial to be successful. Now, the ball is in the court of designers: show us that passion and that creativity can outlast the transience of a viral moment.