Tales Soares (who went by the stage name Tales Cotta), a model and vocal LGBTQ rights advocate, collapsed during a fashion show at São Paulo's fashion week on Saturday and was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital.
The Guardian reports: “The newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported that Soares, who was reported to be Brazilian, tripped on his shoelace and fell. According to the paper, people in the crowd initially thought his fall was part of a performance. A photo in the newspaper showed the model lying face down on the catwalk while paramedics attended to him. The paper reported Soares, who was a vocal advocate for gay rights, was 26 years old.”
São Paulo Fashion week suggested in a Facebook post that Soares had suddenly become ill.
GSN spoke to Faelo Ribeiro, a photographer and owner of All Models, the first agency to sign Soares. Ribeiro said that Soares “was gay and an advocate for LGBTI rights.”
Warning: video contains distressing footage.
