{"id":425310,"date":"2026-05-13T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425310\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:42:08","slug":"sydney-beachgoer-crashes-australian-fashion-week-runway-mid-swim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425310\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney beachgoer crashes Australian Fashion Week runway mid swim"},"content":{"rendered":"
A day after footage of the moment spread widely online, Handley broke his silence on Wednesday by speaking to the Today show. He also re-enacted the now viral moment on the staircase, recounting the moment he realised he had inadvertently joined a fashion show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got to the top of the stairs yesterday, I saw the model, and I thought, \u2018Well, surely someone\u2019s going to be controlling the stairs\u2019. If the show\u2019s begun, they must be coming down here together,\u201d he told Today. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when I got to about here, I suddenly went, \u2018I\u2019m the lead model\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Handley is a well-known entrepreneur and founder of Sculpture by the Sea, Australia\u2019s largest annual outdoor sculpture exhibition that has run since 1997.<\/p>\n
Users online were fans of his casual attitude in the midst of the catwalk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something my dad would 1000% do and he would be oblivious the whole time too,\u201d one user commented on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean it\u2019s a public beach. What do you expect,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
David Handley walks in front of a model during the COMMAS show on his way down to Tamarama Beach. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The catwalk incident came after a chaotic start to Fashion Week\u2019s beachfront programming. The night before, torrential rain had derailed Carla Zampatti\u2019s outdoor show, leaving glamorously dressed guests and influencers scrambling for cover mid-runway, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people laughed and used a Carla Zampatti flyer to protect themselves, umbrellas were flying up, and everyone was desperately trying to shield their outfits,\u201d an audience member told the newspaper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after footage of the moment spread widely online, Handley broke his silence on Wednesday by speaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,1135,7972,218119,29422,156,1438,80879,111,139,69,1447,1305,1346,218120,110848,1734,686],"class_list":["post-425310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after","tag-australian","tag-beach","tag-beachgoer","tag-crashes","tag-entertainment","tag-fashion","tag-mid","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-runway","tag-show","tag-stole","tag-strolled","tag-swim","tag-sydney","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}