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
 

Abbey Lee Kershaw falls off her bike

via babes on bikes

Abbey Lee Kershaw is recovering from a "cycling accident" her New York agency has confirmed. “She is fine now” is all Next director Stephen Lee would tell frockwriter when we contacted him this morning, following days of rumours on online model fan sites. Lee provided no other details and nor could Kershaw's Sydney mother agency Chic Management, for whom the accident appeared to be news when we called. Good to hear that she is OK. Bike accidents can be nasty - especially if you are not wearing a helmet (no idea whether this applies here). But it does most likely explain why Kershaw, one of Chanel's current season advertising faces, was a no-show at the brand's Pre-Fall presentation in Paris on Tuesday. Australia was repped at the show instead by Priscillas' upwardly mobile Bambi Northwood-Blyth and Lauren Brown, the second Chanel show in three months for both models, following the Spring/Summer 2011 season in Paris. The accident does not, however, explain why Kershaw missed out on walking last month's Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, after two consecutive years in the show. She attended castings but was just not cast in the final lineup, say our sources. Kershaw has had more than her fair share of injuries. In October 2008, she fell on Rodarte’s runway in New York in a pair of very high Nicholas Kirkwood shoes. Three weeks later in Paris, she fainted on Alexander McQueen’s runway in a tight corset. 

A knee problem – that apparently predated, but presumably was not helped by, the Rodarte fall – prompted her to pull out of the following season altogether. 

At the time Chic Management told frockwriter that Kershaw had a longstanding problem with her knee ligaments and she made the decision to skip the Fall Winter 2009/2010 season after an arthroscopic investigation revealed bone fragments.

Kershaw is not Chic Management's only accident-prone modelling superstar.

In January 2009, Catherine McNeil was photographed on crutches in Sydney. According to Chic Management, she injured the ligaments in one knee after a "trekking" holiday with her family in Queensland. 

Then in December 2009, Chic Management told Australian media outlets that McNeil had incurred a skateboard injury, after she appeared at a Sydney event with fresh cuts on her arms.  

McNeil's mother subsequently told local media that she believed her daughter had not fallen off a skateboard, but rather, had fallen down some stairs. 

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.

Vogue shoots live at Chanel

What a blast Australia's first Fashion's Night Out was on Thursday night. Everywhere you looked there were people - many of them apparently also shopping (Ashley Hanson from Uscari in the Mid City Centre told frockwriter her sales were up 200percent). Tried to take in as much as possible, but it wasn't easy with so much packed into such a narrow window and over 450 retailers involved. Particularly enjoyed the Chanel photoshoot in the basement of the brand's Sydney flagship on Castlereagh Street, during which Vogue's fave snapper Max Doyle shot Chic Management's Sarah Stephens and Annika Kaban (above) in the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 collection. According to Chanel Australia's general manager fashion Ian Clark, Chanel did the same last year in London for the first Fashion's Night Out in that city and it had exclusive dibs on the live fashion shoot concept for the Sydney event. People loved it, crowding around to watch Doyle and his team working. Covered a little of it in real time on Posterous but here are some other shots. Have yet to experience a Fashion's Night Out in its native New York, but you can only imagine the vibe and energy. If only retail could always be like this...

Make that The Blonde Kob...

@modelinia

Just yesterday frockwriter mentioned that a number of Australian hair salons are reporting a spike of interest in the new “choppy” longer bob, aka The Kob, sported by Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw (now the world number five according to models.com) - whose long, bohemian locks were trimmed by Chanel for the company’s recent Fall/Winter 2010/2011 ad campaign. Well perhaps those salons should be en garde: snapped a matter of hours ago at a Chanel cocktail party at New York Fashion Week, Kershaw has just died her hair platinum blonde. Yes we know there are far more pressing matters on the global agenda than a model’s hair colour change, but the fashion world does tends to exist in its own bubble. “OMG!!!! Abbey Lee has gone blonde!!!! LIKE BLONDE and looks amazing!!!!!” noted Canadian photographer and blogger Tommy Ton on Twitter – a Tweet, together with this Chanel party snap, above, taken by US model-dedicated news site Modelinia, that is rapidly spreading across the Twitterverse. Kershaw’s hair was coloured by high profile Cuban hair stylist Orlando Pita, Kershaw's mother agent Kathy Ward tells Chic frockwriter, but there are no changes to the style. We're now wondering if perhaps Chanel wanted to keep Kershaw under wraps until the soiree. Kershaw, Chanel's current advertising face and a star of every Chanel 2010 fashion show, did not show up at Tuesday night’s Fashion’s Night Out show at the Lincoln Center produced by Vogue (while compatriots Catherine McNeil, Ajak Deng and Julia Nobis did), even though she was featured in one of the FNO promotional videos.

Chop shop: Salons report a run on Abbey Lee Kershaw's bob

david jones SS1011 backstage

We’ve seen The Pip and The Pob, make way for The Kob – aka The Chanel Bob. That’s the short, choppy bob currently being sported by Australian supermod Abbey Lee Kershaw. LifeStyled editor Paula Joye christened it The Kob in her David Jones show wrap, noting that beyond the Mark McInnes sexual harassment scandal, Kershaw’s do was the talk of the front row at the August 3 show in Sydney, which starred Kershaw, Catherine McNeil and Nicole Trunfio as replacements for pregnant Miranda Kerr. “It’s a modern, long bob and I think a lot of the people in the front row have already booked in for an Abbey chop” Joye told frockwriter. “I think this the beginning of the return of the fringe. Kim Kardashian has just cut one. Lea Michele was sporting an extra long one at the Emmys. Leighton Meester, she’s had one cut as well. That long bob and that serious fringe that’s cut from quite far back". So have people in fact been booking in for Kershaw’s look? Update 10/09: Chameleon Kershaw now a platinum blonde.

“Her [Kershaw’s] 60s style fringe is a big request and so is the long bob, which is a great care-free look for summer’ Sharona Short from the Gold Coast salon Oscar Oscar told The Gold Coast Bulletin on Tuesday. 

And it seems Sydney’s most high profile hair salons are also feeling the Abbey Lee love.

Harold Samu, salon manager at the Renya Xydis City salon reports that at least 15 women have asked for Kershaw’s bob in recent months. Notes Samu, “They ask for a choppier bob. My senior stylist Ryan Mitchell has named it The Chanel Bob, as made famous by Abbey Lee”.

According to Joh Bailey, “It’s having a huge impact. I think she’s single-handedly reinvented the bob and the blunt fringe, particularly the blunt fringe. It’s definitely being consumer-driven and they’re definitely mentioning her name. I think it looks fabulous. We’re doing a lot of that look in the salon at the moment”.

Well might Ryan Mitchell call it The Chanel Bob because Kershaw’s mother agency, Chic Management, tells frockwriter that it was in fact Chanel’s hair stylist who cut Kershaw’s hair - for the brand’s recent Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign (below).  

Perhaps Chanel felt Kershaw’s previously long locks were a little too boho (not to mention Gucci) for its haute couture image?

“She looked more Seventies disco queen than high fashion model” notes another high profile Sydney hair stylist, George Giavis. Giavis reports that although he hasn’t vetted any calls for Kershaw’s new bob per se, a number of clients have come in to his salon with magazine tear sheets of Kershaw asking for her distinctive “sun-kissed” hair colour which, according to Giavis, “looks like she’s spent a week in the Bahamas”.   

chanel FW1011/zinio via TFS

Kershaw’s new choppy bob may even be catching on with men.

Overnight, coincidentally, Dutch stylist Jean Paul Paula blogged photos of himself sporting a new do which he is calling The Manbob:

jean paul paula

Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and others reportedly to offer plus size clothing at Saks Fifth Avenue, while France launches a plus size manifesto

karl lagerfeld for V via models.com

It’s been interesting tracking the story of plus sized designer clothing over the past two years. In March 2008, at Fully Chic, we incurred the wrath of some plus-sized consumers after reporting that although Target Australia made up to a size 16 in its Stella McCartney collection in 2007, so much size 16 merch was left on the sales racks Target stopped at a 14 when it came to producing its next collab with Zac Posen. Several weeks later we reported that Australian designer Leona Edmiston was doubling her size range to a 24 – but only in her online boutique. The story triggered a heated debate amongst those who lauded Edmiston's pioneering efforts - and those who claimed the move was “normalising obesity". Last year, Today Tonight took size 16 Melbourne blogger Hayley Hughes undercover into Melbourne’s Chapel Street. She found virtually no merchandise over size 12. Eighteen designers and retailers refused to discuss with the program why fashion's high end actively discriminates against larger consumers by ignoring them, with insiders citing concerns the issue was "bad for their image". So it was with some surprise that we spotted what could be the best-kept secret in the fashion business: a report that Saks Fifth Avenue is about to trial plus sizes from luxury brands including Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce e Gabbana and Fendi on its New York designer womenswear floor.

New York retail blog Racked reports:

“Saks Fifth Avenue is about to become the only major retailer in the city to carry plus-sized womenswear by names like Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana. Coming very soon to the department store's super high-end third floor, fall and winter plus-sized pieces will be mixed right in with existing stock—most of which would formerly have only been available in sizes ranging to a 10. Stock will reach size 14 (Australian size 18) across the board, and in some cases—depending on the brand—will go up to a size 20 (Australian size 24)".

The story also mentions the brands Akris, Armani, Carolina Herrera, Escada, Donna Karan, St. John, Oscar de la Renta, Max Mara, Valentino, Michael Kors, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Roberto Cavalli.

The plus-size pieces will be one-offs, reports Racked, adding that if the trial is successful it may be rolled out to other stores.

No sources are cited beyond the Saks website, which makes no reference to the initiative. Due to the time difference, it was difficult to track down anyone who could throw further light on the matter. Frockwriter is waiting to hear back from Saks Fifth Avenue, Chanel USA and the Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce e Gabbana and Fendi head offices.
 
Chanel Australia knew nothing about it. 

UPDATE 28/07: A full business day later and no response from any of the above. Nor does there appear to be any comment from either Saks or any of the brands reportedly involved in the plus size trial in the deluge of coverage that has since ensued on this story. This is not surprising, given my experience with October's Today Tonight story and even the Leona Edmiston story two years ago. After doubling her size range to 24 in her online boutique, Edmiston declined all interviews. Sources indicated this was out of fear of being branded "a plus size designer". Fashion companies may be warming to the idea of going after the fat dollar, but they still seem to think there's a stigma attached to it. 
 
Coincidentally, Chanel recently cast plus size model Crystal Renn in its Cruise 2011 show. 

In January, Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld also shot plus size burlesque artist Miss Dirty Martini for V Magazine’s Size issue (above), one of a raft of recent fashion titles that have been dedicated to larger sizes. They include ELLE Spéciale Rondes and Vogue Curvy.

Curiously, Lagerfeld's V Size issue shoot followed a matter of months after he derided efforts by German magazine Brigitte to use “ordinary, realistic” women rather than professional models as “absurd”, adding that the world of fashion is about "dreams and illusions.... noone wants to see round women" and describing those leading the chorus of disapproval against skinny models as:

"fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television."

The Saks Fifth Avenue story coincides with news of the launch of a "Manifesto for the Visibility of Plus Size Fashion" by online French magazine Ma Grande Taille.

Citing data published by the French Institute of Textiles and Clothing, which indicates that more than 40percent of the French population wear plus size clothes, the manifesto boasts over 1000 signatories including plus size model Johanna Dray and celebrity Velvet d’Amour. 

I first interviewed d'Amour in Paris in October 2006, after she walked in Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2007 show - and then again in 2008. At 130kgs, d'Amour has been considered too big for even the plus-size modelling industry. 

“My hope is that it [the manifesto] would indeed make a difference - if nothing else it details what we look to change- inclusion, particularly in fashion” she told frockwriter, adding that the biggest buzz in the plus-size industry at the moment is the controversy over Renn's alleged weight loss.

"Personally I think if we were allowed more then ONE HUMAN BEING to represent our entire chubby populace then we wouldn't be so entirely focused on her. Given her anorexic issues in the past, it cant be easy for her to have everyone and their second cousin demonizing her for fluctuation. She is not the one who books models for mags. I think the question is less about Crystal, and more about the fact that while we are globally millions strong, we have, more or less, just one individual who has made her way into the mainstream magazines. Her weight fluctuations are dramatic, and they are all her own. As I have always been on the far extreme end of ‘plus’ modeling, people would equally debate my status as a ‘plus’ model, stating I was a “bbw”, not a plus model.

“We need to push for media inclusion, so that all shapes and sizes etc ‘belong’. When the media excludes us to such an extreme, magazines like PLUS are what get started. Models make their own way, and people who haven’t the ‘right’ to be considered a ‘plus’ model, or a straight size model, etc pick up the camera and start their own revolution. If we can use the frustration our exodus encites in a positive manner, then there will be no stopping us, and there will be so many damn fat models getting thin and thin models getting fat, that we wont have time to debate it, because we will be on the way to our next shooting ;o)".

On June 27th, the Australian federal government's National Body Image Advisory Group unveiled its Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image. The code's  industry recommendations include using a greater diversity of body shapes in the promotion of fashion and the need for retailers to embrace a wider range of sizes to better reflect consumer demand.

Abbey Lee Kershaw walks Chanel (again), makes world number 6

chanel haute couture FW1011/getty via daylife

The haute couture shows roll on and overnight, to the best of frockwriter’s knowledge, Abbey Lee Kershaw was the first Australian model to pop up therein – at Chanel. This is no surprise, as Kershaw has spent the past eight months forging a powerful alliance with the iconic French couture house and its German creative director, Karl Lagerfeld. Kershaw closed Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2010 haute couture show in January, opened its Fall/Winter 2010/2011 ready to wear show in March and appears in both the Spring/Summer 2010 ad campaigns for Lagerfeld’s own collection and the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 Chanel campaign. Back in December, during an interview for Australian current affairs program Today Tonight (only a fraction of which made it to air) Kershaw told me that she was moving on from Italian luxury goods house Gucci, with which she had booked four campaigns – although in everything other than the Flora by Gucci campaign, as part of a group of bigger name models. But Kershaw’s star is definitely on the rise. Since December, beyond her Chanel coups, she has appeared on ten magazine covers. Today Tonight asked, could she make it to number 1? Well she's getting closer - models.com just upgraded her ranking to world number 6.

Click here to see more of Chanel's sumptuous haute couture collection on Style.com. And here is a video shot by Bryanboy from his front row seat:




WWD appears not to have included the couture shows as part of its regular free runway show coverage, so see Style.com also for highres of Armani Privé, Christian Dior and Givenchy. The Givenchy collection (that was inspired by Frida Kahlo and Mexico's Day of the Dead) is particularly beautiful: a tightly-edited presentation of heavily-embellished, mermaid-like sheaths in white, ecru and gold.

So which other Australians are in town for the haute couture?

Stephanie Carta has been Tweeting from fittings, although it’s not clear which shows she is up for.

Last weekend, Carta mentioned she was at the Elie Saab studio and several weeks ago, made reference to Karl Lagerfeld’s “black bride”, although whether this was second-hand info from someone who did attend a fitting or something sighted in the Chanel atelier for either the show or a private client is also unclear. Perhaps Lagerfeld changed his mind - his FW1011 bride overnight was in traditional white.

Priscillas reports that its white hot new faces Julia Nobis and Emily Wake are both confirmed for today’s Valentino show.

Hollywood's risk takers

reuters via daylife



Just a couple of personal favourites from last night's Oscars. Most of which, frockwriter notes, are already turning up on worst-dressed lists. In a sea of safe, so-so goddess gowns and meringues, however, we applaud their bravura: Charlize Theron, Zoe Saldana and Sarah Jessica Parker in haute couture, respectively Christian Dior, Givenchy and Chanel. Then there was Nicole Richie's quicksilver boho de luxe gown by Lebanese American designer Reem Acra. And the statuesque Kathryn Bigelow, who looked striking in her gunmetal Yves Saint Laurent sheath. Although the latter design was far more conservative than that of Theron and co, when you are the first woman in 82 years to be awarded a Best Director Oscar, who needs haute couture?















all images: daylife



sarah jessica parker/getty

nicole richie/getty

zoe saldana/AP

charlize theron/reuters