Marie Benoliel Instagram On right: footage of Benoliel stepping onto the catwalk at the Chanel Fashion Show.
Marie Benoliel, aka Marie S’Infiltre, is a French comedian and YouTube star who crashed the Chanel catwalk this week, leading to a run-in with model Gigi Hadid.
Benoliel is known for her various “infiltrations,” in which she inserts herself into a cultural event like the Chanel Fashion Show or Burning Man as a form of satire.
Hadid didn’t comment on the event. However, Benoliel did acknowledge it repeatedly on her own Instagram, writing in one post (in French, though this is translated to English), “Gigi darling, are you recovering from our fight in the backstage? You tore my hair and I gave you a knockout. We’re like that with Gigi you can not understand .. there we sip a Moscow Mule talking about our love stories ?”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Benoliel Crashed the Chanel Runway & Was Diverted by Model Gigi Hadid
During Paris Fashion Week, Benoliel crashed the famous Chanel fashion show, walking down the catwalk in a tweed outfit. Many people at the show captured the event in videos and photos, showing the security guards struggling to figure out which of the “models” was in fact not a model.
Eventually, supermodel Gigi Hadid, who was watching the show but not walking at the time, saved the day. As Benoliel peeled off from the catwalk to escape, Hadid stepped in her way, keeping her from exiting until security guards arrived.
On her Instagram, Benoliel maintained that she crashed the catwalk to do the “impossible.” She wrote, “.. So today I wanted to aim for the impossible: the CHANEL show, [in] Tribute to Karl Lagerfeld!”
2. Benoliel Is a Famous French YouTube Star
Benoliel is known as Marie S’Infiltre, and she’s become famous for her comedy on YouTube and Instagram, and for mocking the upper class in France. She has just under 200,000 followers on Instagram.
Very little of Benoliel’s Instagram appears to show her personal life. Instead, she shows all of her various “infiltrations.” She seems to have crashed several fashion shows prior to the Chanel Fashion Show, if her Instagram is any indication.
At one fashion show, she bragged that she “infiltrated” the event in only five minutes.
3. Benoliel Is Also Known for Her Show, The Inoui Show
In addition to her realtime comedy, Benoliel has also been working on a show called Le Show Inouï, which loosely translates into “The Inoui Show” in English.
The show description for this event, which ran live at the Studio des Champs-Elysees every day from Thursday to Sunday, reads,
In one hour, Marie gives you all her usurping secrets … to apply right out of the Show Inouï to shine in society!
Her only-in-scene retraces the path of a gifted scholar: from her difficult childhood in the crooked streets of the 16th arrondissement cradled by socialism, to Sciences (Pi) po, her experience as a secret agent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ..to his epiphany of Cours Florent, temple of illusion and the gland!
4. Benoliel Incurred Controversy When She “Infiltrated” a Gay Pride Festival
Not all of Benoliel’s “infiltrations” have been received as warmly or humorously as when she walked the Chanel runway. She once “infiltrated” a gay pride festival. She said her intent was to characterize those who were against the parade, but her infiltration itself was seen as an insult to some.
You can see the video above. In the description of the video, Benoliel described the Pride Festival as a “good-natured pagan festival where you can touch small butts with impunity.” But many criticized her on social media.
Others noticed that those in the video seemed to be having fun with Benoliel’s presence. Still, her involvement generated such a controversy that she acknowledged it on her Facebook page, writing in part, “Dear LGBTQI + community that I love so much, for your tolerance and your open-mindedness, I hear your grievances, but I had to test you on your self-deprecation, your sense of humor … You would not support your own satire?”
She argued, “The video is both a crude caricature of homophobic behavior (and yes my friends tarlouzes) and deals with humor with the exuberance inherent in the Pride, its freedom and its eccentricity.” You can read her statement here in full.
5. Benoliel Has ‘Infiltrated’ Other Famous Events, Including an Orgy at Burning Man
Benoliel has also infiltrated popular events like Burning Man. She actually was a part of a documentary at Burning Man (within which she allegedly engaged in an orgy), but that documentary was eventually censored due to the content.
After hearing that her documentary had been censored, she took to Facebook and wrote,
Threatened with a great lawsuit by some people who do not seem to have everything understood, the video on the issues that bother will fall!
Guillotined by the first degree and well thought ….That good feelings can be dangerous for society …
I will fight the censors and the defenders of the unique thought until the end! BIM take this
To delete this video is to delete an artistic work. It’s KILLING ARRRRRRRT
Benoliel has not been charged with any crimes or arrested for any of her infiltrations.