Robert N. Reincke

Robert Reincke is faced with who he loves during a dark period in his life in which he worked as an international male fashion model. In the mid-90s Robert has a seemingly ideal life: a secure corporate job, a string of pretty girlfriends, and a condo in a SoCal beach town. Conflict between this outward success and his inner turmoil prompts him, at 29, to run away to Europe where he finally begins to accept that he's gay. Set during a slip from sobriety that eventually becomes an eight-year fall, "Falling Off the Catwalk" recounts a year and a half of spiritual struggle set against a backdrop of global debauchery.

Robert repeatedly discovers and then forgets what the journey is all about. In the process the question of what he is running from becomes just as pronounced as what he thinks he is moving towards. All of this against a backdrop of runway shows for Hugo Boss and Fendi, appearances in GQ and French Cosmopolitan, partying with models in Milan, and clubbing in Paris and Madrid.

Robert overcomes the memory loss associated with addiction and revolutionizes the contemporary memoir by emphasizing primary sources (his extensive journals, correspondences, audio and video tapes) in constructing the narrative. The text is accompanied by Robert’s fashion photographs.