HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
NOVEMBER 2013
27
culture
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THEMONTHAHEAD
JESSICAMINHANH
doesn’t do fashion
shows in tents. Since breaking out of
modeling to start JModel Managment,
her own fashion event production
company, in 2011, she has set up runways
on London’s Tower Bridge, on a 575-foot-
highwalkway between two towers in
Kuala Lumpur and on a glass-sided boat
floating down the Seine. Her latest over-
the-top endeavor is a fashion showon the
transparent Skywalk suspended 4,000
feet above the floor of the Grand Canyon.
Because there is generally li le time
for practice walks in such extreme
locations, Anh shows the collec-
tions—which she personally selects
from designers all over the world—on
a selection of between 13 and 20 models
who adapt quickly to new and some-
times threatening environs. “We did
have a fewmodels feeling dizzy,” Anh
says of her previous highwire catwalks,
“but they managed to feel be er very
quickly, so it didn’t really show onstage.”
—JD
NOV. 1
HIGH STYLE
Above, the
Skywalk at the
Grand Canyon;
right, Jessica
Minh Anh
The
Height of
Fashion
On the J Autumn catwalk 4,000
feet above the floor of the Grand
Canyon, models have evenmore
incentive not to trip
The Upside of Unspeakable Ideas
Courting controversy at the Sydney Opera House
Over the course of a few days this month (Nov.
2–4), an estimated 20,000-plus people will pour
into the Sydney Opera House to hear a series of
talks with titles like “In Defense of Flogging,” “A
Killer Can Be a Good Neighbor” and “The End of
Men”—just a few of the topics up for discussion
at the fifth annual Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
The aim of the event, says organizer Ann
Mossop, is to “shock people out of their
comfortable beliefs” via “ideas that go against
mainstream opinion.” Among the contrarian
thinkers this year are “The Wire” creator David
Simon (“Some People Are More Equal Than
Others”) and syndicated sex columnist Dan
Savage, who’ll be probing the subject of infidelity.
Mossop’s favorites are the panel discussions,
which she describes as “intellectual hand-to-
hand combat.” She recalls “a terrific one” a couple
of years back in which she had to insert herself
between two irate speakers. As for complaints
from audience members, these are rare. As
Mossop puts it: “It’s not like people come here
expecting to hear about flower arranging.”
—
CHRISWRIGHT
