As a latex fashion designer, we certainly regard the people behind-the-scenes as one big family, and champion them all. From talented folks who create and cut the colorful latex sheeting we use, the people on the forefront of technology as much helping to bring 3D printing to the fore, to whatever else they might dream of next, to so many artisans who work tirelessly to make the wearer of this or that look their best. This new Vogue article highlights another group of folks, surely never getting their due, although they are pretty much people we see all the time across red carpets…the train handlers.
It’s at the high-fashion see-and-be-scenes where, as the article above states, a celebrity most wants to avoid a ‘train’ reck. And it is at these gatherings, like the celebrated Met Gala just passed, where we saw lots of train handlers carrying the sartorial load, in a very practical sense for many an A-lister (approx. 450 in fact). Although we don’t see all that the handlers handle—escorting attendees from tunnels, limos, to the street at the lip of a red carpet—they keep ever straightening, carrying and all but attending to the train of the star they follow. At the Met Gala as with so many of the entrances to these events, there is usually a crush of people (other stars, publicists and if allowed to get close enough, paparazzi) and the dreaded stairs, so those train handlers are surely handling plenty.
A train, especially some of the ones we saw at the Met Gala this year, could easily end up wrecked and a star on their well-cared-for face or augmented rear!
This year at the Gala we saw Blake Livley attended by four handlers managing her 13-foot train. Madonna sported a record number of seven ladies to help her balance her Saint Laurent Temptation of St. Anthony, Fragment 11 concoction. Add actress/writer/producer Lena Dunham, who wore a red Valentino, sported the longest train in the night, wearing a giant feather boa that began at her bust and fell down her dress into such a massive train she made the list of TMZ’s “ultimate trainsetters” (their site here will spin you through a great run down of what was seen.)
And yes, everyone gets in on the puns at these events, it seems.
So, let’s hear it for those train handlers. We see and appreciate you at Dawnamatrix Designs.
