London Fashion Week has officially begun, and its first surprise model, Dame Prue Leith, has walked the runway.
After winning hearts as a judge on the Great British Bake Off, the 84-year-old swapped her cooking expertise for modelling as she strutted down the runway at the Vin + Omi show on Friday night.
Wearing an eye-catching black leather dress with dominatrix-style slits from the base to the breast area, which was tied up with red laces, Prue’s look was completed with long gloves of the same daring material.
For her makeup, the chef, who usually opts for a more subtle and natural look, wore a black smokey eye, bright red lipstick, and dishevelled hair.
Vin and Omi, the designers, described their dramatic collection, which was showcased at Other House South Kensington, as a ‘force of character, determination, or nerve’ and revealed the name of the new range as ‘Moxie’.
Before the collection hit the runway, the designers told fashion lovers, ‘It’s our 20th Anniversary year – MOXIE will show past and future works, new eco developments and collaborations and surprise guest models.’
Taking to her Instagram story, the chef teased her appearance in the show by taking a picture of her black sneakers and writing: ‘There are only 2 people I would change my colourful laces, to black ones’.
She added with a question and answer box: ‘Who do you think they are?’
Shortly after the cryptic post, she added another story, telling her 329,000 followers, ‘I’ll try anything once… or twice’. She then went on to share multiple videos taken by friends of her walking the runway.
Prue’s participation in the fashion show may come as no surprise to fans as she had been known to wear the odd cheeky necklace while on the popular Channel 4 show.
One necklace that caused a stir was one she wore during the The Great Celebrity Bake Off: Stand Up To Cancer in March last year and appeared to replicate a ball gag due to its orange ball and black string design.
It quickly saw fans take to X, where they compared it to the BDSM product. Sam Farmer wrote: ‘Prue’s necklace looks like a ball gag #gbbo’.
While simonplotkin added: ‘Great that Prue feels so accepted on #GBBO that she can wear her ball gag,’
Speaking to Andy Cohen during an appearance on his show, Watch What Happens Live after the episode aired, she spoke about the viral look and said she didn’t realise what it looked like until after fans pointed it out.
Andy asked the TV star, ‘Well, I mean, that does look like a ball gag… Do you know what a ball gag is?’
She joked: ‘Well, I do now, only because of the furore about that necklace.’
Prue continued to say she ‘felt obliged to wear them [necklaces]’ after fans began sharing their speculation about her outfits: ‘I mean, I just think it’s such nonsense… I don’t want to be intimidated by lots of chaps on Twitter who’ve got dirty minds’.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : Everything we know about Bake Off 2024 as return date is confirmed
MORE : Lidl’s £50 croissant item is back and shoppers say they’d ‘give their life’ for it
MORE : Bake Off star rushed to hospital after suffering bone fractures
