Cassi van den Dungen won't be doing Alex Perry's show because it's not OK!

Less than 24 hours after we reported that Cassi van den Dungen would not be appearing at next week’s Rosemount Australian Fashion Week because she is four months pregnant, there have been a couple of developments. Upon learning the real reason why van den Dungen was mysteriously unavailable for runway bookings this season, frockwriter can reveal that earlier today, Alex Perry attempted to fly her up to walk in his show tomorrow morning. Perry, who cast van den Dungen in his Cuban Princess show at last month’s Melbourne Fashion Festival (above) and spoke to her agent this morning, has been told that van den Dungen is in fact five months along. “She won’t open it, but we’ve used her in shows before and I think she’s a really beautiful girl” said Perry this morning. “She’s five months pregnant. She’s probably not showing much. But even if she is, she’s still beautiful. Miranda walked for Balenciaga and she was fully pregnant”. We won't be seeing van den Dungen tomorrow, however, because Perry's plans have been nixed by OK! magazine, which bought the exclusive rights to the pregnancy story and won't release her from a contract which precludes any public engagements until May 14th. 

It's understandable that OK! wanted to protect its exclusive. However the magazine broke the story on Friday, the news is now in the public domain and OK! still has the only interview. In it, van den Dungen says that she hopes her critics react positively to the news. "I need people's support" she tells OK!. Shame she can't take Perry up on the offer. 

Perry, an Australia’s Next Top Model judge, has not always been so supportive of van den Dungen’s life choices.

As we reported back in 2009, the designer joined fellow ANTM judge Charlotte Dawson on Facebook to slam van den Dungen’s decision to turn down the Priscillas and Elite contracts after coming runnerup the Cycle 5 competition. 

But apparently there are no hard feelings. 

“She’s proved herself as far as I’m concerned" says Perry. "The Paris thing didn’t work out but that could just be an age thing. At 20 or 21 she might be a different girl. At the live [ANTM] finale, I said to her ‘I want you to be the one who wins’. She’s been in a relationship for three years. Who is anyone to judge?”

Cassi van den Dungen won't be doing RAFW because she's four months pregnant

One face that we won't be seeing at next week's Rosemount Australian Fashion Week is 18 year-old Cassi van den Dungen. That's because van den Dungen is four months pregnant and is taking a year off from modelling. Although suspicions first arose that something was up several days ago, yesterday's publication of an interview with van den Dungen and her fiancé Brad Saul in the Australian edition of OK magazine, announcing the pregnancy, appears to have completely flown under the radar - no doubt due to the Royal wedding media frenzy. Van den Dungen managed to keep her pregnancy a secret at last month's Melbourne Fashion Festival, where these photos (above, below) were taken. No mean feat, considering how body-hugging some of the garments were.

Although she is by no means the only model to contemplate motherhood - nor, indeed, the only teen model to do so, with top British and Russians models Jourdan Dunn and Natalia Vodianova both falling pregnant at 19 - van den Dungen has never been far from the headlines since she first popped up on the media radar as a contestant in Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 5 in 2009. This latest chapter in the van den Dungen saga will no doubt prompt further discussion.

Dubbed a 'boganista' because of her blue collar background, van den Dungen was crowned runnerup of that year's competition, then raised eyebrows after turning down lucrative modelling contracts with the Priscillas and Elite New York model agencies.

Last year, she made international news after slamming the French as "frog eaters" and "snail slurpers" on Facebook, following an ill-fated trip to Paris Fashion Week - at which, as frockwriter can now reveal, she had been placed on exclusive option for the Balenciaga runway show.

We wish her all the best and hope to see her back modelling soon.

OK magazine via bianca/TFS

Alex Perry's Cuban revolution - LMFF 2011

Could Alex Perry have started something with his Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection unveiling last night at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival? A consumer event showcasing in-season collections to consumers, LMFF is popular with designers because its runways present what is in store right now - with some retailers reporting 30-50percent spikes in business during the event. But a wholesale collection that is traditionally shown to buyers and press six months ahead of the season? That's usually the territory of Australian Fashion Week. In reality, Perry showed 'first summer' last night - that is, the first half of next summer's offerings. He still plans to show at RAFW in May. Perry will show 'second summer' at that event - and according to his wingman, Josh Flinn, the second collection will be a lot more elaborate. With the fashion cycle continuing to accelerate, retailers offering far more frequent product drops than ever before and the rise and rise of Resort and Pre-Fall collections internationally, perhaps it makes sense for designers to gain additional exposure via consumer events such as this, at the same time providing some real news value for the fashion media. 

And what a show it was. 

En route to the venue - the magnificent Victoria era Royal Exhibition Building - it felt a little like you were making your way to a big Paris show at the Grand Palais.

Entitled Cuban Princess, the well-edited collection took Perry into somewhat unchartered waters - and he told frockwriter backstage that this fact had made him a little nervous. 

"I've never done colour before - or at least not so much of it" noted Perry. 

Eye-popping turquoise, kingfisher blue, buttercup yellow, magenta, chartreuse and tangerine were deployed in an elegant series of minimalist evening gowns, many of them with sporty, racerfront necklines and simple fitted waists, others softly falling from the bust, Empire style, with embroidered straps curling delicately like tendrils over one shoulder. 

The evening glamour sequence complemented the collection's smart daywear of '40s-nosed, crisp white suits, sheath dresses in a pretty black and red floral print and some fresh-as-a-daisy white sundresses crafted from heavily-embellished lace.

A great cast that included the week's top girls, Rachels Rutt and Grasso, Cassi van den Dungen, Simone Kerr, Annika Kaban, Tiah Eckhardt and Vanessa Milde, with some special additions in the form of Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 6 winner Amanda Ware, Eliza Humble and of course, the star of the show, Megan Gale. 

Click (here) to see frockwriter's Posterous portfolio of 50 images shot backstage during the show.  

Deep in Vogue - LMFF 2011

Second up on the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival's main runway schedule was the Vogue Australia showcase, featuring the finalists of LMFF's 2011 Designer Award: Melvin Tanaya's and Lyna Ty's three seasons old menswear brand Song for the Mute, which won the award, plus Arnsdorf, Bassike, Dress Up, Ellery, From Britten, Laurence Pasquier and Lui Hon. Styled by Vogue's Trevor Stones, it was an edgy showcase of exciting, emerging Australian design talent. And it wasn't only the new brands that attracted frockwriter's attention. Rachel Grasso (above) was also a standout. Modelling for four years and repped in Sydney by Priscilla's, the 20 year-old Perth native of Irish/Italian ancestry must have walked in front of our camera on more than one previous occasion. For some reason, we really noticed her this week.

St Gilda - LMFF 2011

 

So the runway shows are off and running at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Headsup to any internationals unfamiliar with the event: it's an in-season runway showcase that is open to consumers. In addition to other events throughout the schedule, the naming rights sponsor operates seven multibrand runway shows down at the main venue in Melbourne's Docklands precinct, each presented in partnership with a different Australian magazine. First up last night, the Grazia show featuring Carla Zampatti, sass &  bide, Rachel Gilbert, Leona Edmiston, Tina Kalivas, Romance Was Born and Nina Maya. The styling theme was high glamour, with a mix of high ponytails, cascades of Rita Hayworth curls and ultra violet smokey eyes sported by a cast that included two Australia's Next Top Model alumni, Cassi van den Dungen and Sophie van den Akker.