King Flinn

The live finale of Australia's Next Top Model is tomorrow night at the Sydney Opera House, a time that's sure to prompt a little soul-searching amongst ANTM-ites. Questions such as "Will the series be renewed for 2012?" and "Will I, won't I, have my contract renewed"? Although no Foxtel announcement is as yet forthcoming, given that ANTM is the highest-rating Australian production on pay tv, the chances of a Cycle 8 are good. Josh Flinn, the show's model mentor for the past two seasons already has, we hear, a few other tv irons in the fire. So stand by to see if he becomes ANTM's next breakout star. In the interim, here is Flinn like you have never seen him before. Produced and art directed by Mother & Father PR as a frockwriter exclusive, the story was lensed by Sonny Vandevelde, styled by James Dykes, with hair by Natalie-Anne Ayoub and makeup by Rebecca Hatherly for Napoleon. Entitled 'The thin white duke', it was inspired not by David Bowie, but in fact Edward VIII, British monarch from January-December 1936, who became the Duke of Windsor following his abdication.

Given that the Duke of Windsor died of throat cancer, the cigarettes are more than appropriate. They're no props, however. But Flinn is not the show's only smoker. Judge Alex Perry, who recently described the fashion industry as "a glass of champagne and a cigarette", once had a 20 fag-a-day habit. Perry is currently trying to give up, which is probably a good thing given how many impressionable teenage girls watch the show.  

Her name is Lola. She was a showgirl

Kia Ora from sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy Auckland, where frockwriter is, once again, the guest of the organisers of New Zealand Fashion Week. Due to other commitments, we only touched down yesterday so missed some early shows. Beyond the event's spectacular new digs at the newly-unveiled Viaduct Events Centre, what has struck us so far is the fact that while it's not at all unusual to see Oz models on NZ runways, on this occasion, they seem a little more prominent than usual. To wit, Krystal Glynn, the face of Zambesi's Spring/Summer 2011/2012 campaign and also the covergirl of New Zealand Fashion Week's official 2011 handbook (bottom). Glynn is already en route to New York so won't be attending. Another Aussie will be opening tonight's Zambesi show - Lola Van Vorst. The name sounds familiar? A contestant on Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 5, Van Vorst has barely done any modelling in the interim, moving instead behind the camera as a photographer. But she suddenly finds herself much in demand in front of the lens. 

Signed, coincidentally, to Glynn's boutique Sydney management, The Agency, Van Vorst recently underwent a little image revamp, bleaching her hair and eyebrows.  In fact the statuesque former brunette is almost unrecognisable in her new high fashion incarnation. 

Backstage at last night's Stolen Girlfriends Club show (above), Van Vorst told frockwriter that she has never previously set foot on any Australian or New Zealand Fashion Week runways.

She is, nevertheless, up for 10 shows in Auckland this week, opening two other shows yesterday. Stand by to see where her career heads next.

Speaking of the Next Top Model franchise, the live finale of the second cycle of New Zealand's Next Top Model is due to be filmed at World's show tomorrow night.  

Amanda Ware gets her bouffant on for Nicola Finetti Pre Fall 2011/2012

Since being crowned runnerup to Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 6 in September - and then moments later, in dramatic fashion, named as the competition's real winner - Amanda Ware has yet to make her entree onto the international fashion market. That could change after next week, should Ware hit the runways of New York Fashion Week's Fall/Winter 2011/2012 season, which kicks off on February 10. In New York right now for castings, Ware has a better than even chance of getting noticed. Not just thanks to the ANTM win, but also inadvertently thanks to ANTM host Sarah O'Hare, news of whose live tv gaffe in announcing the wrong winner spread swiftly around the world, giving the show far more attention than it usually garners. Good timing then for Australian fashion designer Nicola Finetti in nabbing the still under-the-radar Ware for his Pre Fall 2011/2012 campaign and lookbook. Here is an exclusive preview of both below.

all images: supplied by nicola finetti
animation: frockwriter

Power couple

Congrats are due to Sydneysiders Trent Power and Jessica French, who just became engaged while on holiday in Bali. Power is of course more than well acquainted with the concept of putting a ring on it. As any high profilers who have attended Australian gala functions can attest, the Bulgari Australia publicist is the go-to guy for Bulgari sparklers. Power popped the question, where else, but the Bulgari Bali resort. And the ring? You guessed it, Bulgari. A, by all accounts, spectacular Bulgari Trombino ring of yellow gold, with pavé diamonds and a large oval cut emerald - as outlined by Power in some detail in an email blast to his mates this morning. It’s one of Bulgari's most iconic ring designs which dates back to the 1930s and if it’s anything like this example sold at Christie’s (below), all we can say is……….Kate Middleton may not be the only blinged-up new fiancée. French, a former model, who was runner-up in Cycle Two of Australia’s Next Top Model, is studying a Bachelor of Psychology at the University of NSW. Power proposed on bended knee at sunset last night on a rose petal-strewn clifftop, following a private degustation dinner. The ring was delivered to French by two young Balinese dancing girls. Frockwriter wishes the happy couple all the best. 

christies

Adelaide's top fashion banana talks shop at Unley

Frockwriter is here in Adelaide as the guest of the city’s Fashion Festival. It runs over nine days but sadly we can’t be here for the duration. We are, however, tag-teaming with our buddy, photographer Sonny Vandevelde, who will be here for the last few days. So check Sonny's blog later in the week for his expert backstage take on the last few shows, including the closing night's Chambord  Designer Fashion Showcase. In the meantime, frockwriter has been busy at the first shows. First up, Friday night’s Fashion on Unley event at Unley Town Hall with VIP guest Josh Flinn. Before he was the model mentor for Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 6 Flinn was, among other things fashion-related, a Banana in Pyjamas (still is in fact) and before that, an Adelaide fashion hopeful. Good to see home town heroes coming back to support their cities' fashion events. After a short Q&A with Flinn on stage, the host then threw to the parade: a showcase of the various designer labels sold at boutiques in Unley, including George Gross, Harry Who, Alexis George and Carla Zampatti. All the models were from local agency Pride. Here are a few shots. But head to frockwriter’s Posterous (here) for a complete backstage gallery. And either my Twitter or frockwriter’s Facebook page for coverage of the event in real-time. 

 

Cassi van den Dungen and Olivia Thornton haunt Ellery's Spring/Summer 2010/2011 'Horreurscope' campaign

All’s been quiet on the Cassi van den Dungen front for months. At least on the publicity side, which is probably the way van den Dungen’s managament likes it, given how many dramas there have been since she was crowned runnerup of Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 in July 2009. Of course there was this Daily Telegraph story on August 6th – which frockwriter has on good authority came about after the paper was knocked back for an interview with the 18 year-old and then just simply did what’s known in the tabloid world as a “doorstop”: turned up regardless at her front door, camera in tow. On the work front, however, van den Dungen has been head down, booked almost every day of the week according to her mother agency Work Agency (which is now van den Dungen’s only Australian representation, having recently left Camerons in Melbourne). 

We mentioned her Style Stalker and Myer gigs, others include campaigns for Leonard St,  Mink jewellery and, notably, a mini profile in issue 36 of RUSSH magazine, which described her as “candid, blithe, impossibly gorgeous... confident, easy to work with and fun”. Not a bad rap from a magazine that is dripping in cool and which happens to have a lot of creative credibility overseas.

Another great new get: Kim Ellery’s Spring/Summer 2010/2011 Horreurscope campaign shot by Holly Blake and co-starring Viviens' Olivia Thornton (who looks like she could be Catherine McNeil’s little sister in these images). A couple of images have been up on the Ellery website for the past week, but here is a selection of as yet unseen shots from the same series.

all images: holly blake for ellery, supplied exclusively to frockwriter by ellery

Short black: Bambi Northwood-Blyth also snags Chanel - Spring/Summer 2011

The Australia's Next Top Model judges seemed to enjoy giving flak to some of the shorter contestants on this year's show. In the end, the taller model - Amanda Ware - won Cycle 6. But a lack of runway regulation height (5'6"-5'7") hasn't stymied Bambi Northwood-Blyth's chances of an international runway career. Her Paris Fashion Week started with Thursday's Balenciaga show, moving onto to Loewe and yesterday's back-to-back Ungaro and Giambattista Valli shows. Well she has just added to that impressive Paris show list with no less than Chanel, joining three other Australian models on the French luxury brand's Spring/Summer 2011 runway: Chanel face Abbey Lee Kershaw, Julia Nobis and Lauren Brown. Judging by this video below (thanks to TFS for sourcing), Northwood-Blyth has been working on her walk, which raised a few eyebrows after New York Fashion Week. She's up at around 1.07. It seems the sky may well now be the limit for her.

"We had this great idea that we wouldn’t use a card" - Sarah Murdoch on the ANTM fiasco

screen cap/ACA

Belated congratulations to Amanda Ware, the – eventual - winner of Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 6. On July 16, after the series launch, frockwriter did say that our money was on Ware. Of this year’s field, she looked to have the most international potential - one of the reasons, presumably, that the show’s producers reportedly wanted her to win the series so badly. Or at least that’s what Edwina McCann, the editor of ANTM partner Harpers Bazaar Australia claimed on Nine Network's Today show this morning. McCann - who, once upon a time, was Murdoch's personal stylist - said the show's producers left the voting lines open in the hope that Ware might “get over the line”. Of course the main ANTM topic of conversation today was not Ware’s win per se – but rather the debacle of last night’s finale, at the climax of which anchor Sarah Murdoch declared Kelsey Martinovich the winner. Only to announce moments later, ashen-faced, that a terrible mistake had been made and that Ware was in fact the winner. But not before the pyrotechnics had fired and Martinovich had delivered her victory speech. Total ballsup in other words. What really went down is anybody’s guess, with numerous theories and explanations offered. Murdoch finally broke her silence on Nine's prime time current affairs show A Current Affair earlier this evening, interviewed - very sympathetically - by her former Today show colleague, Karl Stefanovic.

screen cap/ACA

In the interview Murdoch, who is also one of the ANTM producers, revealed that a new system had been implemented for this year's finale. She told Stefanovic:

"The last thing that had been communicated to me through my earpiece was Kelsey 1, Amanda 2... And we had this great idea that we wouldn’t use a card, that we would have it all communicated to me through an earpiece, so that I too in that moment would find out who the winner was. And I thought it will be great. So having heard the last thing was Kelsey 1, Amanda 2, I went into the read... the winner of Australia’s Next Top Model is....nothing. Nothing. So all I knew was the last thing was Kelsey 1, Amanda 2....The point was, it was going to be communicated through my ear and it didn’t come at that moment. So I went with what I had been told... just before that segment. It is a genuine miscommunication. As far as I knew it was the right call". 

Murdoch's revelation raises a number of questions. 

First and foremost, why rely solely on audio communications for the most crucial piece of information for the broadcast? Outside broadcast setup, fluid situation, large studio audience, noise, potential tech problems... Why not have a backup plan in place in case the sound went down? In the end, Murdoch told ACA, a card was held up by a production assistant with Ware's name on it - although this version of events does appear to conflict with the actual footage, which shows Murdoch clearly holding the earpiece and concentrating, as if she is listening to audio instructions.

When she heard "nothing" down the bird, why simply wing it with an assumption based on old information? 

Why not double check on air to be on the safe side? Awkward, granted, but surely better than the alternative: getting it wrong and looking like a twat.  

And finally, why was there not a clear winner after the voting had closed? Either Ware or Martinovich was in front, even if it was down to one vote - or else it was a draw. And this also begs the question: did the producers deliberately leave the lines open after the original planned cutoff time - as McCann imputed  - in the hope that the result they didn't want, ie Martinovich winning, might change? In a live tv situation, in which you are racing the clock in real time, an announcement based on split-second decision-making seems a very risky idea. (Be.Interactive, which managed the voting, insists voting closed at the correct time and the correct information was supplied).  

screen cap/ACA

The ACA story also conflicts with the version Murdoch delivered on air last night in the heat of the moment: that the information “was read to me wrong”. Murdoch is now claiming that the information wasn't read to her at all. 

Also confusing are Foxtel’s multiple statements today. 

Communications director Jamie Campbell initially tried to blame Murdoch [“in the heat of the moment in live TV... Kelsey’s name was read out and it was just the wrong name”]. Later this afternoon the company issued a statement exonerating Murdoch and backing up her claim that it was a miscommunication. 

UPDATE: 1/10/10 Foxtel and Granada now claim that upon a thorough investigation of the incident, it was "human error" on the part of an unnamed show producer - and nothing to do with Murdoch - that caused the problem.

Some have of course asked if the entire fiasco wasn’t a publicity stunt – denied of course by those on the payroll. And Murdoch herself in the ACA interview. 

"You wouldn't wish this on your worst enemy" she told Stefanovic.  

It’s hard to imagine Foxtel, which is 25percent owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, being seen to slam his daughter-in-law - if indeed Murdoch had a "blonde moment" as one wag noted today.

The story has now generated global exposure for both Ware and Martinovich. Foxtel has generously offered to give the latter $25,000 and an all expenses paid trip to New York as compensation for the humiliation of being crowned the ANTM 2010 winner on national television, only to have that crown snatched away from her moments later. Harpers Bazaar has also opted to print both Ware's and Martinovich's covers of its upcoming ANTM issue. Some are seeing this as a win-win situation for both.

"What do you want to be?" Stefanovic asked Martinovich on ACA.

"Australia's Next Top Model" she replied. "But that didn't happen, did it?" 

amanda ware in brisbane, 10th august 2010

Australia's Next Top Model might want to rethink the live finale concept, given that it does not have the best track record in this arena. 

Murdoch replaced model-turned-swimwear designer Jodhi Meares (who was also once married to an Australian media mogul - James Packer). Meares left the show in disgrace in 2009 after pulling out of the live broadcast of the Cycle 4 finale less than 48 hours before the show, citing stage fright.

Murdoch has also had to do quite a lot of explaining in her two years on the show. 

According to Edwina McCann three votes separated Ware from Martinovich last night.

Last year's favourite, Cassi van den Dungen, was also ahead of winner Tahnee Atkinson by a mere one industry/show judge vote (four votes to three) before the final ad break. After finally declaring her the winner Murdoch told Atkinson, “The public got you over the line Tahnee”.

Van den Dungen, like Ware, was the model with the greater international potential. As clearly illustrated by the fact that immediately upon finishing the series - and in spite of her tantrums during the filming of the show - she was offered a contract with the Elite agency in New York. After turning that down, van den Dungen suddenly morphed into the Antichrist in the eyes of ANTM judges Charlotte Dawson and Alex Perry, who royally slagged her off on Facebook.

Murdoch and others had made a point of commenting on the body image issue throughout Cycle 5, with judge Charlotte Dawson telling The Daily Telegraph, that it would be “sending a nice message” if a “size 10 with ample bosom and a sexy bottom” won the competition.

According to Murdoch's Twitter feed after the show, the smaller, curvier Atkinson received 82.5percent of the public vote. However in an opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph, she claimed Atkinson received 87percent of the vote and added, "in the end I just couldn't trust that Cassi would best represent the show and what I stand for".

   

Valley girls

Had a bit of a manic Tuesday. Flew to Brisbane to moderate and talk at a fashion seminar convened by the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE. The panel included sass & bide’s operations manager Stephen Carter, who regaled the room with details of the brand’s manufacturing logistics, quality control, what designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke look for in hiring and the revelation that the latter prefer to move on to new designs, rather than repeat best-sellers in-season. Also on the panel: Brisbane-based Subfusco designer Joshua Scacheri, Ethical Clothing Australia’s Emer Diviney and Molly Williams, agent Jess Meester, Hot Tuna founder Jo Meldrum and Bright Bots designer Jodi Baker. Dashed from TAFE straight to Scacheri’s boutique in hip Brisbane fashion hood Fortitude Valley, where who should be waiting but surviving Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 6 contestants Kathryn Lyons and Amanda Ware, together with ANTM model mentor Josh Flinn.

Grabbed these shots and the following quick video iv with the girls.

Apologies for the poor quality. I flicked on the camera light, which appears to have distorted not only the picture, but also the sound quality. It is, however, quite clear if you listen to the iv with headphones. 

So what was the ANTM connection?

All were en route to the group Schwarzkopf show later that evening, as part of the Brisbane Fashion Festival. Scacheri's Subfusco collection was included in the show.

Flinn and Scacheri share the same publicist (Mother and Father PR), which dispatched Flinn to the show - with Flinn dragging along his two Brisbane-based ANTM charges as a favour.

But their ANTM chops did not apparently cut much mustard with the Brisbane Fashion Festival organisers.

After being denied front row seats alongside Flinn, Ware and Lyons wound up going home instead, still dressed in Scacheri's clothes.   

(L to R) kathryn lyons, josh flinn, amanda ware and joshua scacheri

Australia's Next Top Model channels Stirling Cooper

So the first episode of Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 6 has bitten the dust. What did you think? At last week's launch party, Alex Perry told frockwriter that the shooting style was going to be a little more "reportage" style than in previous years and you could see what he meant. It seemed a little grittier, almost a hand-held effect in parts. Influenced, we reckon, by the first blockbuster season of US reality series Jersey Shore. Interesting challenge to make the girls walk a runway show on their first day at the office. With zero experience, they did pretty well from what we could see. Inspired by another cult US series, Mad Men, the Jez Smith photoshoot produced some quite beautiful images. Here is a selection of frockwriter's faves. Sadly, three of our picks were eliminated in the first episode: Alison (top), Valeria (second) and Sally (fourth). New model mentor Josh Flinn made a great entrance. For anyone unfamiliar with Flinn's CV, FYI he used to work for IMG Fashion Asia Pacific and his night job is playing B2, in the Bananas in Pyjamas travelling roadshows. Here is an interview I did with him back in 2006 at RAFW.

all images: jez smith via antm