Erm – what? We've just heard that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is going to model in an upcoming London Fashion Week Show. This couldn’t sound more normal, so we don’t know why you’re laughing.
Assange has been wanted for extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges and has been seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy for the last two years (at an alleged cost of £6 million in police bills). But nonetheless, Assange will apparently star in Dame Vivienne Westwood’s son’s fashion week presentation alongside six models. And he won’t even have to leave his bolthole, as the catwalk is coming to the embassy. Apparently, the show will be inspired by Clint Eastwood’s costume in his spaghetti westerns, and will be accompanied by music from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.
And it looks like the show is likely to attract just as many stars as a more typical Fashion Week presentation, because apparently George Clooney and his lawyer fiancée, Amal Alamuddin — who has acted as part of Assange’s defence team — have been invited to attend.
Ben Westwood, 51, explained the decision, saying: ‘I want to highlight Julian Assange’s plight. What happened to him is totally unfair.
‘I’ve designed something for him along those lines and will be getting him to wear it. I’ve got another garment with a Julian Assange print.
‘Julian’s been in the embassy for two years and it’s important that he doesn’t slip into obscurity.’
The presentation will be a fringe show at London Fashion Week, meaning that, funnily enough, it’s not part of the official schedule. Assange isn't known for his fashion sense – in fact, author Andrew O’Hagan, who collaborated with Assange on his abortive 2011 biography, has noted how Assange would wear suit trousers over a pair of Tesco tracksuit bottoms. However, he's clearly got the support of the whole Westwood clan. Vivienne Westwood once closed her show with a T-Shirt which read ‘I am Julian Assange.’
We can't wait to see how this turns out – something tells us it will be somewhere between* The* Devil Wears Prada and Zoolander. Watch this space...
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.