See Homer and Marge Simpson walk the runway as Paris Fashion Week models
Luxury brand Balenciaga taps the residents of Springfield to show off its spring/summer collection for next year.
- Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
Work it, Homer.
Homer Simpson, runway model? You probably don't think of the shlubby Springfield dad as a fashion icon, but Balenciaga, au contraire, believes he belongs at Paris Fashion Week.
The Spanish luxury fashion house tapped The Simpsons patriarch to help debut its spring/summer 2022 collection with a creative 10-minute animated movie featuring characters from the long-running show walking the catwalk in the City of Light. (In Bart's case, "rolling" the catwalk is more like it -- he makes his way down the runway on a skateboard, in jeans and thigh-high boots.)
The presentation is part of Paris Fashion Week 2021, which is largely back in person after a COVID-related break last year that saw designers mostly staging digital presentations and many home-bound fashion fans having trouble imagining life out of sweatpants. Balenciaga held an in-person show this year with a movie premiere theme involving a red carpet. The Simpsons video brings the brand's looks to a wider audience, though as Homer laments in the video, the prices on some items are hardly accessible to all.
Homer, looking sleek in sunglasses and a red puffer jacket with a huge collar, clearly enjoys the attention of elite fashion photographers, while Lisa, in a simple red dress and pearls, is a far more reluctant model ("Walk a runway? It's so superficial," she says).
Marge Simpson does Paris Fashion Week.
The coup de catwalk, however, comes when Marge floats down the runway in a floor-length gold gown that really makes her big blue hair pop. A celebrity-packed audience that includes Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Justin Bieber and Vogue Editor in Chief Dame Anna Wintour gives her a standing ovation as La Vie en Rose plays.
Smithers; Moe; and Marge's twin sisters Selma and Patty Bouvier also strut the catwalk in Balenciaga's new line, as does Chief Wiggum, wearing heels and a coat with shoulder pads that aren't typical of Springfield's current police squad. The Simpsons celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019, so its characters are used to seeing fashion trends come and go.