We've had the first Australian fashion blogger make it onto the cover of a fashion magazine (Lady Melbourneon Peppermint). Now, if frockwriter is not mistaken, comes the first Australian fashion blogger tapped to photograph an ad campaign. Joining the ranks of American Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist, who has shot for Burberry and Australia's own SABA and Canada's Tommy Ton (Lane Crawford) is Sydney fashion blogger, photographer and fashion publicist Matt Jordan, aka Imelda: The Despotic Queen of Shoes and The Style Tyrant, who has just snapped the first campaign for Sydney menswear brand Orri Henrisson. Here is a preview. Jordan met Orri Henrisson designer Henry Ng while shooting him for The Style Tyrant, Jordan's year-old mens street style blog. The model is Ashley McConnell, bass player for Queensland pop outfit Operator Please (Perez Hilton's "favourite rocking teens"), styling is by James Dykes and graphics are courtesy new Sydney graphic design shop Lekkur Studio. Very cool little campaign. McConnell is no stranger to the camera. Repped by Chadwicks, his modelling debut was the Autumn/Winter 2009 campaign for Minty Meets Munt (one of Jordan's clients). FYI McConnell's hair isn't lilac, it's platinum blond - that's just the graphic overlay effect.
all images: matt jordan for orri henrisson, supplied exclusively to frockwriter by orre henrisson
The big question - will all this buzz translate into bigger bookings for Pejic?
Beyond the Facebook mention, the chatter did not appear to cut any mustard with models.com, which curiously left Pejic out of both its top walkers and Top 10 Newcomers lists for the SS11 menswear season.
According to his Australian mother agency Chadwicks, Pejic was already booked for one advertising campaign in Milan next week. There is as yet no update on other bookings. But frockwriter predicts we may well see him in some capacity at next week's haute couture shows in Paris. Yes, they are women's shows but men make the occasional appearance.
The New York Times' fashion critic Cathy Horyn, meanwhile, made no mention of Pejic in her review of the week, but she did seem a little perturbed by the feminisation of the collections, which featured skirt-like shorts - and even dresses at Comme des Garçons.
"men are having a hard time, as Hanna Rosin observed in an article in the current issue of The Atlantic, its tag line, “How women are taking control — of everything.” Men are wimping out, in the example of Judd Apatow’s chronic adolescent characters, or being mowed down by Beyoncé and Lady Gaga....You sensed a little of this problem at the shows, and it was not a pretty sight".
At least two other Australian men walked the Spring/Summer 2011 runways. Priscillas has yet to confirm exact show numbers, but they report their very cool-looking Jakub Vasak walked in at least Alexander McQueen, while Broed Dillewaard nabbed Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gazzarrini.
Who was the intriguing, androgynous blonde at Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 2011 menswear show in Paris overnight? Melbourne’s Andrej Pejic, that’s who. Frockwriter knew it would not be long before Pejic appeared on a major runway and there he is in three outfits at JPG. Update: Pejic reports that he will also be doing John Galliano's show today. Since first popping up on our radar at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week last year, as reported by frockwriter, Pejic shot a 14 page editorial for Australia’s RUSSH magazine and headed to London, where the 18 year-old was snapped up by Storm Management. Pejic, whose mother agency in Australia is Chadwicks, is now repped by New Madison in Paris and I Love Models Management in Milan and has shot for Dazed + Confused Japan (see below), London-based magazines Libertine and Wonderland and Martyn Bal. Stand by for what could be his biggest career break to date: editorial (including a cover try) just shot by a major international photographic duo for the September edition of a major international fashion title.
Pejic emerges on the international stage at a moment when androgyny has never been more topical - and not just in fashion.
Gaultier first proposed the idea of western men in skirts in the 1980s - two decades before Marc Jacobs began kitting himself out in his now signature kilt. Beyond Scotland, of course, men in several other cultures wear skirt-like garments.
Sydney-based label Chronicles of Never is one of several labels offering unisex collections.
On a far more serious note, last month at the inaugural TEDx Sydney summit, intersex rights activist Gina Wilson gave a moving presentation about the challenges and discrimination faced by the estimated 1.7percent of the population who are born defying traditional male/female sexual stereotypes.
And Australia's own Hollywood superstar, Nicole Kidman, is set to star in a film about Lili Elbe, née Einar Wegener, one of the first known recipients of male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. Not only is Kidman playing Elbe, she is also producing it. It's an interesting career choice for Kidman, who would undoubtedly be well aware of the longstanding urban myth that claims she was born a hermaphrodite.
We first saw Sarah Lorimer at Leona Edmiston's Spring/Summer 2010/2011 presentation in Sydney on Thursday. Well here she is again in a few more dresses from the collection, as booked by Edmiston for her SS1011 lookbook that will be dispatched next week. The fresh-faced 18 year-old, who is repped by Chadwicks in Sydney, has been modelling fulltime since the beginning of the year. She will be one of the agency's hot new faces at RAFW next month and in July will be heading off to try her luck in Europe. Frockwriter thinks she has a great look: a little Miranda Kerr, alotta Heather Graham.
Glorious day in Sydney and what a way to spend it - or at least an hour or so - down at the Overseas Passenger Terminal on Sydney Harbour. FYI international readers, this is where luxury cruise liners berth while in town. And while once a daggy, quasi-industrial zone, the area has been revamped with a series of chic restaurants and bars. It also happens to be the venue of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, which kicks off in three weeks time, so it felt like we had all arrived a tad early. We were there to toast Leona Edmiston's Spring/Summer 2010/2011 season launch.
Three models, nine looks... Edmiston might not be joining in RAFW's 15th anniversary festivities, but she did do a fantastic job of launching the season at Quay restaurant with a charming capsule collection of fifties sundresses featuring retro prints and glamorous draped jersey eveningwear.
All accessories by Edmiston, with some spectacular millinery by Nerida Winter, makeup by MAC's Nicole Thompson and hair by Michael Brennan.
The three models were Chic Management's Hermione Cahill (top) and Chadwicks' Sarah Lorimer (third photo, L) and Bronx Whitehorn (pic 11 - with the blue and white turban).
I covered it live on Twitter, but here is a selection of other shots I snapped in and around the venue, before having to dash back to work.
Frockwriterpredicted that 2010 could be Andrej Pejic's year. So far the androgynous Melbournite is off to a flying start. We mentioned that he was heading to London Fashion Week, which starts tomorrow. Well according to Chadwicks booker (and Model Mania scribe) Joseph Tenni, Pejic arrived in London last Wednesday, went to see agencies on Friday and at his first appointment, with Storm - the agency that famously discovered Kate Moss - he was signed on the spot. Started doing appointments on Monday, on Wednesday shot with both Dazed & Confused and Libertine Magazine. Meanwhile, here is Pejic, above, on the cover of a supplement inside the new issue of Australia's Culture magazine. And here is LFW's digital schedule, which includes 26 live streamed shows - including Friday night's sass & bide show. Stand by to see Pejic on the runway.
