Twitter’s fashion contingent was aflutter after several sources confirmed a ‘best of’ British supermodel troupe was making a cameo at the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony (The CC). The supermodels were en route! As soon as those opening bars of George Michael‘s “Freedom” kicked in and the man himself strode across the stage in a horrific leather suit, I just knew Naomi et al would soon join him to recreate the supermodel-dense mood of the fabulous original 1990 video clip.
But then they didn’t.
It was bitterly disappointing as it felt the perfect, contextually relevant moment to bring them out… but nevertheless George sounded great on “Freedom”. Less so for his second song, a nightmarish Italo-disco audio crime, which, I’m guessing, he had to have blown one of the higher ups on the Olympics organising committee to get permission to sing.
George Michael does the Thriller dance in leather top and bottoms:
Photo by Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images
Not long after, came a lengthy homage to David Bowie, where images of Bowie’s most iconic style moments came together in a floating montage.
PLEASE LET DAVID BOWIE EMERGE, me and every other viewer chanted to themselves. Sadly, Bowie was not to appear, but during the strains of his single “Fashion” a series of huge billboards were towed into the stadium featuring the likeness of British supermodels photographed by the brilliant Nick Knight.
Suddenly the billboard screens dropped – and there they were!
Karen Elson dressed in Burberry, Lily Cole in Erdem, Jourdan Dunn in Jonathan Saunders and vertical head dress by Stephen Jones, Lily Donaldson wearing Vivienne Westwood, Stella Tennant in Christopher Kane, Georgia May Jagger in Victoria Beckham, and the major supers, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell both in looks by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. And the lone male David Gandy in a Paul Smith suit.
Then they all walked into the middle of the giant Union Jack-shaped “catwalk” and kind of stood around for a few moments.
Kate looked particularly thrilled to be there, is something I would say if it was opposites day or if ‘thrilled’ actually meant ‘experiencing the effects of four or five quaaludes’.
It was not nearly as good as the Spice Girls bit .
Photos by Jewel Samad, Paul Gilham, Jamie Squire, Rob Carr for Getty Images
