Yesterday’s 7 For All Mankind show during New York Fashion Week was a wild, Y2K fever dream. Recently appointed creative director Nicola Brognano was thinking of 2000s It-girls like Mary-Kate Olsen and Sienna Miller when designing his fall 2026 collection for the iconic American denim brand—so it was only natural that babydoll dresses, huge bags, and even skinny jeans made a cameo on his runway. The noughties-est detail of all, however? Having models like Summer Dirx bring back the 2000s-style stomp.
Back in the Y2K era, top models like Vlada Roslyakova, Gisele Bündchen, and Snejana Onopka were all known for their big, stompy runway walk. (Bündchen even earned a nickname for hers, dubbed the “horse walk.”) These days, models are often instructed to move so as not to distract from the clothes, but in the 2000s, their struts had personality. They were unapologetic, campy, and confident.
Dirx wanted to capture exactly that energy in the show, and social media has taken notice. “We don’t see this often,” one TikTok user noted approvingly, while another wrote, “This is so satisfying—we should bring the 2000s back.”
Vogue called up Dirx to chat about her now-viral walk. Here’s what the model had to say.
Vogue: Do you know that you’re going viral for your walk right now? How does it feel?
Summer Dirx: Yeah, I definitely have seen it! Every time I open my phone, there I am. I feel good about it. 7 For All Mankind has always been a really incredible and iconic brand. In the 2000s, Victoria’s Secret models and It-girls used to wear them. Now that I’m a Victoria’s Secret model, it really aligned with what I’m trying to do right now. I just wanted to take my walk there, the same way those girls did.
Was the Y2K stomp something the brand asked for, or did you just come up with it yourself?
No one really told me to walk like that. I’ve worked with Nicola before: I opened his last show for Blumarine. He puts a lot of trust in me to really do my big one. Nicola messaged me [after the show], and he thanked me, and said it was exactly what he wanted to see.
So what went into coming up with that walk?
At the fitting, they were playing “Womanizer” [by Britney Spears], and the Spotify playlist was called “2000s hot girl.” When I saw the character and look that they had chosen for me—it was different from the other looks—I had a certain sense of how I should walk. This girl goes to a party. Then she’s going to the next party, and she’s going to end up somewhere on the street somehow—and she doesn’t take her shoes off, ever. There’s probably a lot of people saying that my walk was too much, or too messy. But I really do think that the character they wanted me to play was too much and too messy.
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