‘Died for 10 minutes’: Dan Single opens up about near-fatal fall in 2017

Australian fashion designer Dan Single has opened up about the four-storey fall from a Paris hotel balcony that nearly killed him in 2017.

Sydney fashion designer Dan Single has opened up about his near-fatal fall from a four-storey hotel in Paris in 2017, saying that he “died for 10 minutes”.

Mr Single, who co-founded multimillion-dollar Aussie label Ksubi in 1999, landed feet-first when he slipped and plummeted 35 metres from the balcony of Hotel Grand D’Amour, where he was working with then-wife, supermodel Bambi Northwood-Blyth.

He suffered a broken pelvis and hips, shattered legs, internal trauma and a blow to the head, and was in an induced coma for eight days afterwards and told he might never walk again.

Eight years on, Mr Single told the story of the accident at Australian Fashion Week on Tuesday, where he launched his new book, The Diary of a Naughtie Kid.

“It made me stop, slow down and think about what I want in my life,” Mr Single, who shares a son with ex-partner and fellow designer Pip Edwards, told The Daily Telegraph.

“I had a chance to start fresh and I have used that second chance to be of service and help to inspire.”

Australian fashion designer Dan Single. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr Single said he “made this book for my son, Justice, who is way too big now, and for the next generation to show them you don’t need permission or training to create”.

“I like to think of myself and my crew as a bunch of beautiful weirdos and this book is for them,” he continued.

“It is not a life story, it is not even close … this captures a brief moment in time, the noughties. A moment in time when everything felt new, like there were no rules.”

Mr Single with ex-partner Pip Edwards in 2008.

Ms Edwards with her and Mr Single's son, Justice. Picture: Instagram/@pipedwards

On the first anniversary of his accident in 2018, Mr Single shared images on Instagram of himself in hospital, injecting himself with painkillers, and an X-ray of his shattered pelvis.

“A year ago today I was dead. I had just fallen off a four-storey balcony in Paris. Landed on the road, broke lots of bones in my body, hit my head, DIED,” he captioned the post.

“(I) came back to life, was in a coma for eight days.

“I had 10 operations to put this body back together again. Spent the next three months on my back in a hospital in Paris. I was told I might never walk again.

“I returned home in a wheelchair. Two months later I was slowly getting about on crutches. I knew that if I put my mind to it, and worked really hard I could recover again and walk again. I’m still doing it, recovering.”

Mr Single and ex-wife, supermodel Bambi Northwood-Blyth. Picture: Instagram

In the same post, he also revealed he and Ms Northwood-Blyth had split after almost four years of marriage.

“When I fell, my hips and pelvis broke in half and with that our co-dependent relationship broke too,” he wrote.

“We were no longer joined at the hip. Two people cannot live as one, it’s not healthy. You can try but you’re really living half a life. We both have our journeys to go on now, ones that we couldn’t have gone on together. We are respectful and happy for what each other has got going on, no bad vibes.

“I will love her to the moon and back for eternity … I learnt a lot from her and am so grateful to have shared many adventures with this beautiful girl.”

Originally published as ‘Died for 10 minutes’: Dan Single opens up about near-fatal fall in 2017