SYDNEY — Taylor Hill might have been the biggest celebrity model in town, but one Sydney man wound up becoming a global media sensation at Australian Fashion Week’s resort 2027 collections showcase in Sydney last week.
David Handley is the founder of the annual “Sculpture by the Sea” exhibition in Sydney and Perth, Australia‘s largest annual outdoor sculpture showcase. Last Tuesday, after he accidentally gate-crashed the Commas show at Tamarama Beach, footage went viral of Handley wandering down the beach stairs in front of the models, doing stretches on the sand and taking a morning dip midshow.
According to data supplied to WWD by Launchmetrics, the viral moment generated $929,000 in media impact value over the following 48 hours for Commas, Richard Jarman’s 10-year-old men’s swim and resortwear label — 10 percent of whose product offering is womenswear. The brand sells through 43 doors across Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and the Middle East, including Galeries Lafayette Paris, Harrods, Mytheresa and Harvey Nichols Dubai.
“It literally was like wildfire,” said Jarman of the story, which reached a combined audience of 342 million people across 86 pieces of coverage in outlets including CNN, The New York Times, People, USA Today and MSN, according to Jarman’s own metrics via the CoverageBook platform, with Commas’ social media views lighting up 390 percent since the show.
