The audience just threw actual trash onto the runway in Milan

AVAVAV’s latest show descended into chaos as banana skins, cans of tomatoes, and eggs were launched at the collection

On the final day of Milan Fashion Week’s AW24 edition, AVAVAV’s runway show descended into chaos as audience members began throwing trash – including scrunched-up wrappers, banana skins, crushed cans, and actual eggs – at the models as they walked. The filthy presentation was another comment on the harsh realities of the fashion industry and stemmed from the online hate designer Beate Karlsson has received from trolls since founding her brand in 2019 – an endless scroll of negative Instagram comments directed her way rolled up two screens which flanked the runway.

With Karlsson previously debuting a collection that fell apart as the models walked and just last season dropping a messy unfinished offering, AVAVAV has become known for a wildly creative approach to showcasing every offering. Part runway show, part performance piece, each one has managed to rile up a vast swathe of the internet. “This is not fashion,” countless comments on the screens suggested, while others, which perhaps inspired this season’s idea in its most literal sense, read “Yeah, this is trash”.

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Online after the show, Karlsson’s point was further proven as people on Instagram took to the comment section to write about how the drama detracted from the “boring” clothes and call the designer out for her treatment of the models. Backstage, however, a number of the cast told us they were briefed during the casting on what would happen during the show, and willingly agreed to take part. After all, it’s not just designers who face the wrath of internet trolls. Models are subjected to online vitriol day in and day out, too – so much so, that Paloma Elsesser was hounded offline at the end of 2023.

With planted actors originally throwing the rubbish from the audience, eventually others on the front row got involved too, and by the end of the show, the catwalk was completely covered in refuse, the models’ looks splattered with canned tomatoes, mustard, and a raw egg. Don’t think Karlsson got off freely, either: as she stepped out from backstage to take her bow, a member of her team rushed towards her and smashed a family-sized pie in her face. Post-show, wiping the cream out of her eyes, she told us the presentation was “kind of inspired by medieval times when people would throw rotten tomatoes at performances they didn’t like.”

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Beate KarlssonPhotography Marco M. Mantovani via Getty Images
When it comes to the clothes themselves, Karlsson does not claim to be reinventing the wheel. The collection was made up of her signature slouchy hoodies, logo-branded baby tees, distressed denim, and satirical caps bearing slogans like “filthy rich”, and while dodging airborne eggs coming for your face did mean it was difficult to pay attention to them, past interactions with her clothes have revealed them to be well made, of good quality, and popular among IG baddies and fashion fans with a sense of humor. Rick Owens himself is a big fan of what she’s doing, with the designer donating surplus fabric to Karlssen in 2020, and also buying a pair of her outlandish ‘Monster’ boots.

There have been endless think-pieces about the state of fashion, particularly recently, covering everything from its fast pace and high levels of burnout, to how runway shows have become more about the celebrities that sit front row than the collections themselves, but very few people are coming up with solutions that could solve their complaints. Karlsson might not have the answers, but is at least channeling these frustrations into some of the most creative, thoughtful, and fun shows on the schedule – so let the haters hate.

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