Falling over is always embarrassing. But falling over in front of the world’s fashion photographers? Worst nightmare, right?

Carine Roitfeld, the inimitable former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, recalls an incident where the highly regarded style icon (and now editor-in-chief of CR Fashion Book) was quite possibly the opposite of Parisian chic.

Carine told The Business of Fashion, a tumble on some stairs after a Marc Jacobs show saw her landing in a most unglamourous way.

“Some years ago, I went out of a Marc Jacobs show at night, and there were a lot of stairs,” she says in the video. “I missed one stair and [fell] down, and it was really embarrassing.”

But, rather than taking the opportunity to snap this awkward moment, the photographers all put their cameras down.

“All the photographers in front of me, they put down their cameras, and they didn’t take one picture.”

As a very-well considered figure within the industry, Carine told the Business of Fashion the photographers’ actions proved their respect of her.

“For me it was a proof of love – a proof of respect for me – because they didn’t take advantage by taking a picture that would have looked maybe stupid or ridiculous. It was an embarrassing moment but funny, it turned into a very emotional moment, and I will never forget it.”

Often photographed in her signature style of fitted black tailoring, always worn with smudged eyeliner and perfectly ‘undone’ hair, Roitfeld pulls off laid-back Parisienne elegance like no other – and we’re sure she even managed to make her tumble look chic.