When Kaia Gerber Was Preparing for Her First Runway Show, Mom Cindy Crawford Made Her Watch Videos of Models Falling Down

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 9 April 2024

As Kaia Gerber prepared to join the family business—you know, becoming a supermodel and all—one of the most legendary supermodels of all time, Cindy Crawford (who Gerber knows simply as “Mom”) went the tough love route in preparing her daughter for a career in the industry.

Gerber told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that Crawford used to show her videos of models falling as Gerber prepared to walk in her first runway show. “I didn’t even know you could fall this many different ways,” Gerber told the talk show host.

Gerber—who said her mom is “full of great advice”—told Fallon “I remember right before I was going to do my first-ever fashion show, she sat me down and had my whole family gather around and played me compilation videos of models falling,” she said. “I think to be like, ‘This is the worst case scenario.’”

Gerber made her runway debut at just 16 years old, walking in Raf Simons’ Calvin Klein show during New York Fashion Week in September 2017. “Knock on wood, I haven’t ever fallen,” Gerber said. “Maybe she scared me enough that I didn’t fall.”

To juxtapose, Crawford was 24 years old when she took the runway for the first time, walking for Donna Karan’s spring 1991 collection.

Cindy Crawford and Kaia Gerber — Mom and daughter look nearly identical.

Gerber—who is currently not just modeling but also acting, and right now is starring in Palm Royale on Apple TV+ opposite Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, and Carol Burnett—told WSJ. Magazine that she has “reached a point of acceptance” about the ongoing “nepo baby” conversation. (Gerber’s dad is Casamigos founder Rande Gerber.)

“I personally am very aware of all the wonderful things it has done for me, and I would never, ever say anything negative about it, because that is my truth about it,” Gerber said. “I can actually ask my parents [for] advice on career things, on business things. That’s very rare, to have parents who are in the same industry or career as you, whose advice you can actually trust.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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