While it’s been a decade and a half since we last saw professional male model Derek Zoolander, apparently rumors of his retirement from the fashion industry have been greatly exaggerated. Zoolander and his good friend Hansel recently had a fairly unusual modelling gig, but needless to say their fans loved it. Rather than simply walking down a runway, they stood in the windows at the Valentino store in Rome, and throngs of fans flocked to them. They certainly adore male models in Rome.
With a couple weeks to go before the release of Zoolander 2 or 2lander if you prefer, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson took to playing the part of store mannequins by striking various poses in in the Valentino store's windows. The evidence ended up on the film’s official Instagram page. Rome is a major hub of the fashion industry, and one of the film’s primary shooting locations, so it makes sense they would continue to promote the film there. If you think they just stood there motionless the whole time you can forget about it. They have so many great poses to show off, they had to go through them all.
We have no idea what it costs to hire Zoolander and Hansel to pose in your shop window, but we have to assume it’s not cheap. Also, if you want to hire Zoolander, does he charge by the pose?
This is actually what a male model coffee break looks like. As movie promotion stunts go, this one has to be one of our favorites ever. These guys seem to be having so much fun doing this it’s shocking it took them this long to get a sequel going. The bad news is that this modeling gig was so successful it may actually lead to Zoolander and Hansel going back into retirement. At least based on this post.
If the movie is half as funny as the promotional campaign has been, we can’t wait to see Zoolander 2 when it hits theaters Feb 12. Actually, what am I saying, we can't wait to see it anyway.
