Why Kathy Hilton Daring Tiffany Haddish to Crash Monse Runway Is the Most Talked About Moment at NYFW

Haddish hit the runway during the Monse show on Sept. 7 on a dare — and the internet had a lot to say about it

Tiffany Haddish made waves when she hit the catwalk at the Monse show on Sept. 7 during New York Fashion Week.

But her runway walk wasn't planned — it was on a dare from Kathy Hilton, who had been sitting front row with her. In the days following, it bubbled up into one of the most talked about — and controversial moments — of the week.

Haddish was sitting front row at the Monse show with Kathy and her two daughters, Nicky Hilton Rothschild and Paris Hilton. During the show — as soon as the models started walking the runway — video that was collaboratively shared on social media by all of them, plus the fashion house, showed the front row discussing whether or not Haddish should get up during a break between models and walk the runway too. Kathy could be seen encouraging her to do it.

And she did.

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In the moment, though, only the people seated directly near Haddish and the Hiltons could hear what was happening — no one else could — so no one really knew why the actress was walking the runway. She made a full loop in the middle of the models before returning to her seat. She was cheered on by those in attendance, even if there was some confusion as to what was happening.

Paris wrote in the Instagram caption, "My mom @KathyHilton dared @TiffanyHaddish to hit the @MonseMaison runway 🤭 But like Tiff always says… “She Ready!” 🤣🥰 #NothingButTrouble #NYFW"

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Shortly after the show, Monse's creative directors, Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, shared a video through the house's Instagram with Haddish herself, addressing the whole runway situation. The video was captioned, "Laura: So Tiffany what happened?" which is exactly how Kim addressed Haddish, allowing the actress to explain what happened during the show.

Haddish said she was cheering on all the models, noting that she realized it was something you're "not" supposed to do, before Kathy told her she should get out on the runway and show off her suit.

Haddish then said that Paris started egging her on as well. "Paris was like, 'Yass, come on, we're sliving' and Nicky was like, 'Come on, this is the perfect time,'" Haddish says in the video.

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The actress goes on to say that the Hiltons "double dog" dared her to do it, so she got up to walk.

Garcia says in the video that he had "no idea" why people were laughing while he and Kim were backstage with the models, though he gave her a high-five for what became a viral moment.

Though they referred to it as a memorable moment and Haddish says she hopes she gets invited back for another show, Kim does say at the end of the video she doesn't know about "next time," which plenty of people in the comments picked up on.

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Collectively, the internet has found this viral moment to largely be disrespectful to the house. Fashion shows take an incredible amount of work and commenters have noted on the videos that for someone to get up and walk the runway during the show is rude.

But many other commenters felt that the Hiltons, wealthy white women, made a spectacle of Haddish, a Black actress, and put her in a potentially embarrassing situation. One of the top comments on Paris' Instagram, with over 13K likes as of this article says, "'Let's make the black girl do something funny,'" while another one, with nearly 10K likes, opined, "Sometimes folks aint laughing with you because they laughing at you. Know your audience."

However, in a statement shared with PEOPLE, Garcia confirmed that for the team at Monse, the whole situation was viewed in good fun.

"At Monse Tiffany Haddish and Kathy Hilton are family, and the best sign of love and support is showing that we all were having fun by joining in on the show," Garcia said. "We are very lucky to have friends like them, and hope they open and close our show next season."

PEOPLE reached out to reps for Haddish and Hilton for further comment and did not hear back.

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