prome magazine: Jessica Clarke, Calvin Klein's new exclusive

calvin klein SS11 backstage/sonny vandevelde

In December 2008, after modelling for just one month, New Zealand schoolgirl Jessica Clarke so charmed New York-based ck Calvin Klein creative director Kevin Carrigan in a home movie shot by her mother agency, that he flew her to Sydney and cast her in the brand’s big bucks party on Cockatoo Island that month. Minutes ago, in what is very big news for New Zealand, the 17 year-old scored an enormous coup: a New York Fashion Week exclusive with the same company’s marquee womenswear brand, Calvin Klein Collection. Heading into the season, Clarke was tipped by top US casting director Ashley Brokaw as a face to watch. But Calvin Klein is one of the most prestigious shows on the circuit and Clarke's coup will undoubtedly provide a brilliant springboard for her international career, just as it did for Sydney’s Julia Nobis last season.

calvin klein

Clarke was one of six new girls who scored New York Fashion Week exclusives with Calvin Klein this season, alongside Daphne Groeneveld (who opened), Chavelli Inghels, Hanna Samokhina, Iris Egbers and Theres Alexandersson.

No Australians, not even Abbey Lee Kershaw, who is in the Fall ck Calvin Klein campaign.

And no sign of any mature age models either, with current Calvin Klein advertising face, 26 year-old Lara Stone, apparently the oldest model in the show.

This is a far cry from the brand’s Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show in February, which included several 30+ and 40+ models, including grey-haired Kristen McMenamy.

At the time, Calvin Klein Collection womenswear creative director Francisco Costa (below, flanked by his Spring 2011 models) was widely quoted talking up the need for a greater age diversity in runway casting. In March, Costa told Australian tv current affairs show Today Tonight that while 16 year-olds are "new and fresh", older women “represent some kind of truth”.

Just not this season apparently.