First look: Jacquetta Wheeler for Jigsaw Australia Spring 2011

Anthony Cuthbertson is a busy guy. Not only is the Brit import the new creative director of Australian sportswear brand David Lawrence, as it emerges he is also the creative director of Jigsaw Australia (which, like David Lawrence, is owned by the Sydney-based M Webster Holdings). The British high street brand celebrates its 20th anniversary downunder with the upcoming ‘Cool Britannia’-inspired Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection of smart coats and sweet dresses, which launches in store at the end of this month and includes a capsule collection of swimwear, dresses, tops and skirts in Liberty of London’s iconic micro florals. To mark the occasion, Cuthbertson cast English rose Jacquetta Wheeler as the face of Jigsaw’s Max Doyle-lensed Spring 2011 campaign. Spotted by Mario Testino at age 16 in 1998 and named “model of the millennium” by The Face magazine in 1999, Wheeler's 13-year career has embraced advertising campaigns for the biggest names in the fashion business, including Gucci, Calvin Klein, Givenchy, Prada, Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Roberto Cavalli. 

Previous Jigsaw Australia faces have included Jandra Dziaugyte, Alice Rausch and, last season, Australia’s upwardly mobile Rosemary Smith - who walked in the Chanel haute couture show in Paris on Tuesday, her third Chanel runway show since March after the French luxury brand's Ready-to-Wear and Resort shows.

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by jigsaw australia

creative director: anthony cuthbertson
art director: kasia wydrowski 

photographer: max doyle 

retoucher: samantha hawkins
 

Wild orchid - Emma Balfour tones it up for David Lawrence Spring/Summer 2011/2012

David Lawrence evidently has a thing for women of a certain age. The 33 year-old Australian sportswear brand has chosen iconic fortysomething Australian model Emma Balfour as its campaign face for the second consecutive season. Herewith an exclusive preview of the Spring/Summer 2011/2012 advertising campaign shot by Australian fashion photographer Georges Antoni at one of the penthouses of Sydney bar/restaurant complex The Ivy. This is the second brand campaign orchestrated by new David Lawrence creative director Anthony Cuthbertson and his first full collection for the brand, which is owned by M Webster Holdings and has 101 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Cuthbertson brings considerable design experience to the job. The UK-born graduate of Leicester's De Montfort University and London’s Royal College of Art has spent a decade working as either creative director or designer at such well-known brands as Max Mara and Sportsmax, Moncler, Daks (creative director 2000-2006), Workers for Freedom, Burlington, Rene Lezard and Amanda Wakeley.

“The campaign itself and the collection both have a lot of jewel colours and I wanted to bring in a feeling of holiday in the evenings, taking these jewel colours but seeing them in the night” Cuthbertson told frockwriter. “Continuing where we were for Autumn/Winter, where there was still a lot of movement through the shots, we shot through orchid flowers and the mood was very much like she was in a hotel lobby and on her way out”.

As it emerges, it's not the first time that Cuthbertson and Balfour have worked together.

“When Emma launched her career, she modeled for me in London for my own label at London Fashion Week, about 15 years ago. From there I remembered her and when I started thinking about who should be the face of this great Australian brand, Emma Balfour was the person I decided on because I really wanted to use a real Australian women. So many people look at young girls but really, to be closer to our customer, we have to use a woman”.

all images: georges antoni. supplied exclusively to frockwriter by david lawrence