Arts

Fashion shows are very loud places, and socially perilous. You must look as if you are contemplating philosophical quandaries as stick-thin models sweep past you in belted trench coats. Watch out for your neighbor’s spiked heel. Do not compliment the person-next-to-you’s coat. It’s a blouson, doofus.

If you are in the front row, and next to Anna Wintour, behave.

And so, today, much hilarity and sarcasm is bubbling around 19-month-old North West Kardashian’s tantrum next to Wintour at her father Kanye West’s fashion show, where he was revealing his Yeezy Boost shoe line with Adidas for New York Fashion Week.

“North West Throws Tantrum at Fashion Show, Anna Wintour Moves Away!” screams US Weekly.

But does the Vogue editor really look that pissed off that North West Kardashian is crying?

Nori wasn’t feeling the front row @kanyewest x @adidas: pic.twitter.com/5StvabAX5h

— Complex Style (@ComplexStyle) February 12, 2015

For this, truly, has been the biggest event of NYFW so far: a very famous baby’s mini-meltdown under a lot of hot lights and kerfuffle. Wintour is surely doing what many of us would do with a bawling child that is not our own next to us, and that is, recoil slightly, inch away. I’m not sure this signals distaste at baby or mother, it’s just a bit of an uncomfortable moment. She’s hardly Cruella De Vill-ing to the max here.

There are a hundred cameras opposite Wintour. She has put Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of her magazine. There is no reason that she would gracelessly humiliate them for the paps’ benefit as their child has a little tantrum. Indeed, another shot has her almost smiling at the little one. And Kris Jenner took a photo of the scene, lauding Wintour—in this shot, looking magnificently disinterested in everything—for being so “patient.”

Were North West’s tears her reaction to West’s collection of gray suede high tops? Give her a spot on E’s Fashion Police right now. The most fascinating thing in the pictures is less her tantrum, but the drink Beyoncé has managed to commandeer in a fancy glass. (That’s front-row stardom.)

As soon as North West’s tantrum grew in intensity, Kim Kardashian took the infant out, depositing her with an unseen helper, before returning to watch and applaud her husband’s show. In terms of fashion ‘moments,’ this one actually seems to have been embarrassment-free, and featured exemplary, considerate behavior from nearly all concerned.

Nearly all, because the New York Daily News reported that Elle magazine’s Anne Slowey muttered of North’s crying: “Couldn’t they leave it backstage? … Typical. Typical celebrity crap. Like I really even care.”

Phew, with Wintour playing nice, it’s good to know that there was at least one Devil Wears Prada villainess on the scene.

Indeed, if you really wanted to snark, then consider that while Beyoncé and Jay Z were there on the front row, and Rihanna, Diddy, Khloe Kardashian too—wow, not a front row for the faint-of-heart—Justin Bieber was relegated to row 2. Ouch.