Shortly after the Jil Sander show began at Milan Fashion Week, Twitter was abuzz with the news that one of the models was strutting down the runway ... in tears. Now, the design house is denying the (blatantly obvious) fact.

The model in question was Lithuanian beauty Auguste Abeliunate. Today, the Wall Street Journal blog Heard on the Runway decided to do some digging and try to find out exactly why, on both of her turns down the runway, Abeliunate's eyes were streaming tears. The answer, from Jil Sander's PR rep, was: they weren't.

"No model was crying on the runway!" Pierre Rougier, the line's publicist, e-mailed in response, saying he had "no idea what you are talking about, sorry."

When the WSJ's Rachel Dodes responded to that terse note by sending him the very clear pictures of Abeliunate in tears, he still attempted a denial. "I did not see it, can't see it in the video and no one has asked about it to anyone in the press offices." Somehow, we have a tough time believing that's the case, as the story quickly became the buzz of the blogosphere.

Our guess as to the most likely cause of Abeliunate's tears is simple: allergies. As any backstage veterans know, after a fashion week spent slathered with stage makeup, models can develop some pretty terrible reactions to even the most mild makeup.

Unless Jil Sander is trying to cover up some systemic model mistreatment on their part, we have to ask, what's the big deal? We found the tears kind of beautiful in an unsettling, weird way.