Ashley Graham has been modeling since she was 12 and had never once fell on the runway — until “literally two days ago.”
Graham, 37, revealed to Kylie Kelce on the Thursday, October 2, episode of her “Not Gonna Lie” podcast that she went “full splat” at a Hugo Boss event in Milan earlier in the week.
“I don’t even think anybody caught it on camera,” she said.
Graham then explained that the stage was setup like a square, on which she hit three sides before encountering an uneven surface on the fourth.
Ashley Graham’s Best Fashion Moments of All Time
“This last bit is like you’re leaving and you’re behind equipment,” she explained. “People can still kind of see you if they care. And right there…I went kerplop.”
Graham added that she handled it like a pro, bouncing back up and assuring her fellow models that she was not hurt.
Kelce, 33, also had Graham’s back.
“I feel like we can apply the thought, like, ‘Pics or it didn’t happen,’” she suggested. “Videos or it didn’t happen. And we’re not challenging the internet. We don’t f***ing see it. It didn’t happen, we don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Every Time Kylie Kelce Had a Winning Clapback to Critics and Online Trolls
“The girls came up to me and said, ‘You sold out the dress,’” Graham added. “‘That’s it. It’s sold out.’ I thought that was great.”
Though Kelce made it a point to mention she’s not “built for [modeling] because I don’t like when people look at me,” she was able to relate to Graham by recalling her wedding to her husband, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.
“I was not nervous about getting married. I was worried about walking down the aisle,” she said. “The fact that you thrive in that and you just f***ing turn it on and go.”
Laughing, Graham replied, “I always think in my head it’s like, ‘Look hot, don’t fall, look hot, don’t fall.’”
The two didn’t only talk about Graham’s runway mishap. In a wide-ranging discussion, Graham also opened up about her own insecurities and why she doesn’t like the “plus-sized model” label.
“I started modeling when I was 12 years old,” she said. “At that time I was 5’9, I was a size 12, and they immediately put me in a category that was plus-sized … it marked me. It told me who I was. And my whole understanding of this world is that if you’re going to let people tell you who your are, then that’s who you will be. But you have to tell people who you are.”
Ashley Graham Struts Her Stuff in Sparkly Naked Dress as She Arrives at Cannes
She continued, “It’s not that I don’t love the community. It’s not that I’m not here riding for the girlies. It’s that I don’t really think that we have to have a label because of the number inside of our pants.”
At the same time, Graham said she feels it’s important to continue her work so that young girls like her feel represented.
“The fact that brands, in some cases, were using a lot of curvy models and now aren’t, it’s an interesting place to be having seen so much work be done and so much of it not sticking for whatever reason,” she said. “I don’t take my job lightly. I look at anybody who has ever given me their story or a hug or a DM as part of my family in a sense of ‘we’re in this together.’”
