Heels so high, sometimes the models fall down

NEW YORK — New York Fashion Week begins Thursday, and amid all those images of sleek models showing off the newest designer creations are sure to be a few pictures of something far less glamorous: Models falling down.

It's not an uncommon sight at the shows, where young women strut the often slippery catwalks to thumping music on impossibly high heels, so high that the occasional tumble is all but inevitable.

Sometimes models can even sense they're risking a fall, and they'll take the heels off, hold them in one hand, and tiptoe the rest of the way down the runway, keeping their heels elevated so the clothes drape the way the designers intended.

But every now and then, a walk down the runway ends in an outright fall, and the models either pick themselves up and continue on their precarious way or slip the shoes off to finish what they started barefoot, hoping nothing more than their pride is hurt.

And what's the response from the high-powered audiences of celebs, buyers and editors who gather at the Lincoln Center tents for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week? No scorn or heartlessness here; instead, the assembled fashionistas typically applaud whenever a model who's stumbled dusts herself off and carries on.