Abbey Lee Kershaw helps glamorize model suicides for a South Korean fashion brand

lewitt.kr

Frockwriter can't help thinking this is the kind of PR that David Jones doesn’t need but hey, don’t shoot us. Abbey Lee Kershaw, one of the retailer's high profile ringins who is due to fill in for newlywed Miranda Kerr at Tuesday’s fashion showcase, has arrived in town looking like a rock star, with a genuine rockstar in tow - her boyfriend, Our Mountain frontman Matthew Hutchinson. Coinciding with Kershaw’s arrival comes news of a short film made by American photographer Ryan McGinley for a South Korean fashion brand. The film depicts Kershaw fleeing some unidentified adversary by climbing to the top of a building and jumping off – several times, to show the fall in slomo in various outfits. Frockwriter is waiting to hear back from Kershaw’s agents and McGinley. In the interim, it’s worth noting that South Korea has the highest female suicide rate in the OECD. The country’s most high profile modelling export, Daul Kim, committed suicide eight months ago (although not by jumping), part of an alarming new trend of model suicides – most of them by jumping. (UPDATE 02/08: Twenty-four hours later, the only party we had managed to reach was Chic Management in Sydney, which reported it has "no information". UPDATE 04/08: Abbey Lee Kershaw reveals the inspiration for the video was Alice in Wonderland).

In the absence of any further information, this is what we found out about the video.

It was uploaded three days ago by a South Korean YouTube member called WM0114. The only information provided is the Lewitt brand name at the end of the video.

A quick net search produced the lewitt.kr South Korean domain name and the still of Kershaw, above, from the same campaign.

The domain was registered by Michaa, apparently another Korean fashion brand. The latter's current face is high profile Canadian model Coco Rocha, so obviously the company has a big budget.

Lewitt, one might assume, is a Michaa sub brand. 

The jumper is a common enough cinematic theme. 

Central to the storyline of Christopher Nolan's new blockbuster Inception, for example, is a scene in which Marion Cotillard's character throws herself off a building - in a bid to wake herself up from a dream. Ellen Page's character does the same thing in another scene. One of them isn't dreaming however and winds up dead.

South Korea has a rich history of horror - like neighbour Japan, home to The Ring, The Grudge and the Dark Water film franchises.  
 
In December, while interviewing Kershaw for Today Tonight, we did attempt to ask her about Daul Kim and the model suicide trend, but she immediately passed on the question, saying she didn't want to talk about the subject. 

No idea whether or not Kim was a personal friend of Kershaw's. But if so, or if she knew any of the other (numerous) models to have recently jumped to their deaths, such as Ruslana Korshunova or Tom Nicon, it's kind of hard to imagine her going anywhere near this video. 

The McGinley/Lewitt film follows the recent release of City Limits, a short - and highly stylised and satirical - spoof starring Australian model Tanja Gacic, that was directed by Kris Moyes for Sydney fashion brand Romance Was Born. 

Here is McGinley's film and a few screen caps.

***Any readers in need of support and information about suicide prevention should contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, SANE Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263) or youthbeyondblue.com***