The high Low

chic management

Twenty-two year-old Brisbane-ite Angus Low may prove extra popular on the international circuit, once any runway colleagues suffering from back pain twig that he doubles as a physio. Low graduated last year from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Studies – and was awarded the Dean’s Commendation for academic excellence – and has been working full-time at a private Brisbane hospital. Modelling part-time for the past two years, prior to June 2011, the biggest name on his modelling CV was the Mercedes-Benz Brisbane Fashion Festival. Enter the Spring/Summer 2012 menswear season in Milan and Paris and Low can now add shows for Lanvin, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Costume National and Raf Simons. And we can add his name to a bulging Aussie male model pack that is headed up by Andrej Pejic, Tom Bull, Jordan Coulter, Jack Vanderhart and Jordan & Zac Stenmark. Although Low's SS12 show season transpired under the publicity radar back home, evidently he made quite an impression because two months ago, his Brisbane mother agency Dallys tells frockwriter, he shot Lanvin's SS12 menswear campaign in New York with Steven Meisel, two other male models - and a bunch of snakes. Then last month in Paris, he shot Lanvin’s SS12 eyewear campaign with Stéphane Gallois. Low has just given up his day job to pursue modelling full-time. 

Founded in 1950 by June Dally Watkins, Dallys Model Management claims to be the oldest model agency in the southern hemisphere. 

Dallys was the first agency to sign Catherine McNeil and Nicole Pollard, among many others and repped Miranda Kerr from the age of 13-18, before she moved to Sydney and signed with Chic Management (which also reps Low, McNeil and Pollard). 

all images: chic management

Rainbow warrior

justin edward john smith

With the Spring/Summer 2012 show season kicking off in New York on September 8, we know what that means: yet more antipodean models trying their luck on the international  circuit. Beyond gender-bender extraordinaire Andrej Pejic and newcomers such as Jack Vanderhart, however, we don’t often hear that much about the men. Twenty-one Indigenous Australian Jake Gordon hopes to change this. Modelling for two years, Gordon was rather low-profile on the runways of the 2010 and 2011 editions of Australian Fashion Week. His editorial work in Australia embraces GQ, Cream and Oyster and campaigns/lookbooks includes clients such as Ksubi, Bassike, Roc Eyewear, Workshop Denim and Ben Sherman. Just signed to New York’s Major Model Management (his mother agent is Sydney's Chic Management), with a mention on models.com, Gordon leaves for NY on August 14th, in time for New York Fashion Week castings. Perth-based photographer Justin Edward John Smith recently contacted Gordon with a view to doing a special photoshoot. Considering that Smith’s shots of Gemma Ward for Mark magazine helped ignite her modelling career, Gordon jumped at the opportunity. Smith flew him to Perth and the result is this 41-page portfolio, below – a frockwriter exclusive (which is best viewed on the blog).

Born in Newcastle to an Aboriginal mother and an English/Italian father, Gordon grew up in Brewarrina, in outback NSW.

His Aboriginal name is Yuluwirri Gabinya – "Yulu" for short, as used by Gordon’s family and close friends.

“Yuluwirri means 'rainbow' and Gabinya means 'boy'... I will hopefully be using it more frequently on the modelling scene when overseas to separate me from other Jakes” he told frockwriter.

To travel to New York, Gordon will be taking a little time off from his day job of the past three years - contract manager for the federal government’s Indigenous Employment Program. 

Along with fellow Indigenous Australian model Samantha Harris, he is also an ambassador for the Australian chapter of the One Laptop Per Child charity.

Gordon hopes to return to Indigenous community outreach in some capacity at some stage.

“I just want to do the best I can and the best I can is being a really awesome role model - and not just being a model who’s taking it for granted” says Gordon. “You’ve pretty much got five minutes to make as much money as you possibly can and then move on to the next thing.

“I’m hoping to be more involved with my charity when I come back. And I hope to do further training, going into communities and learning about nutrition...... There’s this whole questioning my mortality at quite a young age. My mum’s DNA compared to my dad’s DNA is really, really different. My life expectancy due to my genetic makeup is still expected to be less than my non indigenous friends”.

Catherine McNeil is a Kiwi

timo weiland's twitter

Catherine McNeil is one of Australia's best-known modelling exports. The winner of the 2003 Girlfriend Model Search, at age 14, McNeil debuted on models.com's prestigious Top 50 Women list at number 26 in early 2007, the year her international career was springboarded via covers of both Vogue Paris and the American V Magazine. But who knew McNeil also had New Zealand citizenship? Apparently not even some in her Australian mother agency, Chic Management, until frockwriter's phone call this afternoon enquiring about an image of McNeil that was just taken by New York-based designer Timo Weiland and published on Twitter. In the rather unflattering shot, a cigarette dangling from her lips, McNeil is holding what looks to be a bottle of Corona beer in one hand and a New Zealand passport in the other. The Brisbane suburb of Coopers Plains is clearly stated as her place of birth, which would give McNeil automatic Australian citizenship by birthright - although that said, due to changes to Australia's citizenship legislation in 1986, only if one parent was an Australian citizen or had permanent residency. According to Chic Management, McNeil's maternal grandmother is a Kiwi and McNeil's mother spent many years living in New Zealand. We await further information.  

But what of McNeil's modelling career?

We know she recently defected from Chic's New York affiliate Next Management to Ford (and sources claim she recently attempted to move back).

Yesterday British magazine Love Tweeted a much prettier image of McNeil (below), with the caption "Catherine McNeil is back!" - suggesting that perhaps McNeil may be about to be featured in an upcoming edition of the magazine. 
 
If Catherine McNeil is "back", then for the moment that is apparently news to some in the industry, notably models.com. Although by July last year, McNeil had risen to the world number 12 spot on MDC's Top 50 Women list, in the interim she has progressively slipped further down the rankings, only to be totally wiped off the list altogether in recent weeks. 

love magazine's twitter

 
Australian model-turned-actor-and blogger Tanja Gacic recently asked me if models are "fair game". 

Gacic mentioned that she had first heard about frockwriter via the controversy arising over several posts which discussed the antics of several Australian models in their down time, out and about in nightclubs and at parties.

I assumed she was talking about posts such as this and this.

My response to Gacic: models are public figures. It is their choice to pursue high profile careers. This blog covers fashion news. Not all of it is going to be good. To quote a cliché, we don't make the news, just report it.

If you are a model and you going to allow yourself to be photographed off duty and you know that these images are destined for the public domain, then it's worth bearing in mind that they are likely to be scrutinised. And it's probably not a bad idea to think about your image. Because the prestige brands that you are hoping will pay you big bucks to be their ambassadors take theirs pretty seriously. 

Model citizens

julia nobis backstage at yeojin bae SS1112 in sydney

Although some sniffed that that there weren't enough big name international models, the swag of top local girls walking the runways of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2011 did the industry proud in frockwriter's opinion. They included those just returned from carving up the northern hemisphere runway circuit - Julia Nobis (above, backstage at Yeojin Bae), Lauren Brown, Myf Shepherd, Rose Smith, Alice Burdeu, Amanda Ware and Melissa 'MJ' Johannsen - and brand new faces such as Krystal Glynn and Hannah McDougall, who may well soon be heading that way. No, it's not your imagination that more Australian models than ever before are kicking it OS. Various international players have also clocked this antipodian runway trend. The Australian's Wish magazine recently commissioned a feature from me on the subject. It appears in the current May edition. Here's the story:

Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, English, South African, Latvian, Mandarin, Bellarusian, Korean…. so many different languages can be overheard backstage on the international runway circuit, you could be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled into a travelling United Nations fashion summit.

Once barely audible in this model polyglot, a specific English accent with an abrasive nasal twang is starting to reach critical mass.

It’s coming from the Australians, nearly 30 of whom walked in the Fall 2011 show season in New York, London, Milan and Paris in February and March. More often than not, they walked in the same shows with at least one or two other compatriots. Karl Lagerfeld cast five at Chanel in Paris. Giles Deacon cast eight at his show in London.

Australian models suddenly find themselves very much in demand.

Abbey Lee Kershaw and Miranda Kerr are currently ranked the world numbers five and six by New York-based website models.com, the unofficial industry authority. As distinct from Forbes’ annual Top Earning Models list - which placed Kerr as the world’s ninth highest-paid clotheshorse last year, earning US$4million - models.com calibrates its Top 50 Women rankings via covers, editorial visibility, campaigns and show bookings. Catherine McNeil is ranked #24 and Sudanese-born Ajak Deng just debuted at #39.

And hot on their heels, season after season, is a cadre of newcomers with the “It” factor.

According to models.com co-founder and editorial director Wayne Sterling, so many top models are emerging from Australia and now also New Zealand – with 17 year-old Kiwi Emily Baker widely viewed as Fall 2011’s top newcomer, grabbing 60 of its biggest shows - that Australasia has emerged as a top three scouting market alongside Russia and Holland.

“It's been building for two years now, somewhere around the emergence of Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee, but I think this Fall Winter 2011 season is where it became a trend with major traction” says Sterling.

What is so appealing about the antipodians? Being low maintenance apparently tops the list of their positive attributes.

“Everybody wants beautiful girls who are slim but healthy, outgoing and easy to work with” notes Sterling.

“Australian girls are not bitches” says Stephen Lee, an Australian agent who works at Next Model Management in New York. “It’s [this attitude] ‘I’m not going to kill anyone’. There’s not this sense of desperation that was almost so formidable with the eastern Europeans”.

“The girls have a very natural beauty and ease about them, along with an incredible sense of confidence and wry humour. They are always a joy to be around and very professional" echoes Francisco Costa, Women's Creative Director of Calvin Klein Collection, who has cast Kershaw, Gemma Ward, Julia Nobis, Codie Young, Baker and fellow Kiwi Jessica Clarke. Kershaw also appears with Deng and Bambi Northwood-Blyth in the new ck One campaign and Jack Vanderhart was booked as an exclusive for Calvin Klein’s recent men’s show in New York.

“Australia is becoming a big player - there’s going to be a lot more than just the flavour of the next year or two” says New York casting director James Scully, whose clients include Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, Lanvin and Tom Ford.

Adds Scully, “For a while we had Brazil, then Russia, then eastern Europe. It seems to be that a lot of the newer girls are coming from Australia and to be quite honest, I’m happier with these girls, because they’re older and they’re healthier than, or they appear to be healthier than, the girls who were coming from eastern Europe.

“A lot of girls from other countries don’t speak English. A lot of them start too young, whereas I feel like when you get girls from Australia, they’re a lot more finished. There is a different attitude. Every country has their kind of plusses and I find that Australian girls do definitely have a relaxed manner which makes them easier to work with”.

From blue-eyed blondes à la Kershaw to Sudanese gazelles like Deng and multi-ethnic bombshells in the form of Kerr, Megan Gale, Jessica Gomes and the incredibly unique Andrej Pejic – the Bosnian-born sensation who has proven himself equally adept at modelling menswear and womenswear – another factor by which Australians distinguish themselves is that apparently, unlike some other model nationalities, you can actually tell them apart.

“After doing this for a million years, I can tell the minute a girl walks through the door where she’s from” says Scully. “A lot of the times the Australian girls pretty much throw me off. If they don’t open their mouths I don’t necessarily know where they come from”.

Australian models are no strangers to the international stage.

In the 1960s, Maggi Eckhardt worked with Royal dressmaker Norman Hartnell in London and appeared on the covers of British and French Vogue. Lynn Sutherland made the cover of US Vogue in the 1970s.

Elle Macpherson became one of the most high profile models of the 1980s, appearing on, amongst a score of other magazine covers, three consecutive covers of Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit issue.

A handful of new faces headed offshore in the 1990s. After moving to London, Adelaide-born Emma Balfour subsequently joined Kate Moss as one of the pivotal models of that decade, dubbed ‘the face of grunge’ by the British style press. Others were springboarded by a spate of new modelling competitions. Annaliese Seubert won Ford’s Supermodel of the World in 1990. Alyssa Sutherland won Australia’s Girlfriend Model Search in 1997 and Nicole Trunfio, the local Search For A Supermodel in 2002, before being crowned runnerup of Ford’s Supermodel of the World in the same year.

"When I started you could count the number of girls who were doing well on one hand, now there’s so many buzz girls around" says agent Joseph Tenni, who joined Sydney’s Chadwick Models in 1999, the year after he began writing the still-running Model Mania new faces column on New York-based fashion site Hintmag.

Over the past decade, faster air travel and the internet have brought Australia much closer to the rest of the world says Tenni.

“I remember [in the 1990s] if a foreign model was proposed, we’d get a phone call or a fax, then they’d send a bunch of pictures, a week-10 days later, we would go through those pictures and maybe if the girl’s not right, send them back again” he says. “These days, you stay on the phone together, click click click, ‘Um, yes, no’. The reaction is immediate. You can look at digitals and see exactly how a girl photographs, you can have walking videos”.

But key to the recent “Australian invasion”, says Wayne Sterling, are two factors: the infiltration of the New York fashion business by Australian agents Lee and Doll Wright and a “breakthrough girl” who emerged from the world's most isolated city in 2003.

“Gemma Ward is the founding goddess of the current fascination with Australian/New Zealand models. She changed the game." says Sterling, of the doe-eyed 15 year-old Perth native who was first scouted in late 2002 in her home town by Chris Fox at the Vivien's agency. Swiftly snapped up by IMG in New York and then Prada's casting director Russell Marsh, in September 2003 Ward was booked as a Spring 2004 season exclusive for both the Prada and Miu Miu shows. The following season, she was on every major runway.

Three years, a string of advertising contracts, over 30 Vogue covers and several runway clones later, Ward was earning US$3million a year according to Forbes’ 2007 Top Earning Models list. The same year, models.com crowned her its world number one.

The race was then on to find “the next Gemma”.

February 2005 saw the first large influx of Australian models at New York Fashion Week, including Miranda Kerr. Her big break would come the following year, when she was cast in the Victoria’s Secret runway show, leading to a lucrative contract with the US lingerie giant.

Tallulah Morton emerged at Australian Fashion Week in May 2005 at just 13, landing at New York Fashion Week one year later – a little too early according to some.

Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw, on the other hand, both spent three years finishing school and working at home after winning the Girlfriend Model Search in 2003 and 2004 at 14 and 16 respectively - the new faces competition operated in partnership with Sydney agency Chic Management, whose New York affiliate is Next Model Management.

Then in late 2006, McNeil signed a six-month exclusive contract with leading photographer Mario Testino, who shot her for the covers of V Magazine and Vogue Paris. One year later, Testino shot Kershaw for the Spring 2008 D&G campaign. At the times of their meetings with Testino, neither model had set foot on an international runway. They would subsequently emerge as the hot new girls of the Fall 2007 and 2008 seasons. The New York Times dubbed McNeil “fashion’s latest crush”. Kershaw booked 44 shows in her first season, including a Milan exclusive with Gucci, which would lead to six advertising campaigns with the company.

In late 2008, brand new Chic Management face Myf Shepherd emerged as one of the top new girls of the Spring 2009 season, booking 51 shows, from Prada to Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Gucci.

“For me it’s been 10 years in the making” says Lee, of the success of Australian models.

Does he think an Australian did a better job selling Australians to the world?

“Yes I do” says Lee, a former Chic Management booker who arrived in New York a decade ago. “Just like a Brazilian would understand the lifestyle of a Brazilian or a Russian would understand the lifestyle of a Russian girl”.

In 2008, a second Sydney agency, Priscillas Model Management, embedded its own former staffer at its New York affiliate Elite - Wright. [As this story was going to press, Wright had just resigned from Elite and was rumoured to be heading to Ford, with some of her Australian charges in tow].  

After some initial success with Alice Burdeu, the 2007 winner of Australia’s Next Top Model, in February 2010 Julia Nobis was launched via an exclusive New York Fashion Week booking for Calvin Klein. In her wake has come a string of other top Priscillas’ girls, including Northwood-Blyth, Lauren Brown, Ruby Jean Wilson and Dempsey Stewart.

“If suddenly you have someone that you know so well that’s sitting in an agency who’s coming [to Australia] all the time and saying , ‘Please get this girl on the plane, get this girl on the plane!’… suddenly the girl is on the plane and you can see what happens” says Wright. “The minute I saw Julia Nobis on their website, I knew that this girl was going to be a star. And I waited for a year, she was still in school. She obviously wasn’t ready…. You find these hidden gems and then all of a sudden, you pull them out of the bag”.

But it’s not only at the agencies where Australians have established a beachhead in New York. Models.com’s own New Faces Editor, Rosie Daley, is an Australian. Another Sydney expat, Kannon Rajah, has spent five years working in international fashion show production and casting and now has his own consultancy. In the past three seasons he has cast Australians at the shows of Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Gareth Pugh, Joseph Altuzarra and Fendi.

“It’s like the Australian mafia” says Wright, “Someone actually said to me in Paris recently - it really made me laugh – ‘I don’t know, do you think we should keep focussing on Australia? Maybe you need to diversify a bit. What about Ethiopia?”

Among those scanning this week’s runways at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week has been a contingent of international scouts, hopeful of sniffing out more hidden gems to pull out of the bag.

On their watchlist will no doubt be The Agency’s Krystal Glynn – a 16 year-old from Penrith, who booked six editorials and was signed to New York agency DNA within days of being scouted whilst sunbaking on Bondi Beach in late March.

Already sucked into fashion’s hype vortex, should Glynn find herself spat out at the other end – if she’s lucky, with a million dollars banked by the age of 20 – at least she has the luxury of going back to where she started.

“This is a business that throws them against the wall” says Lee, of an intensely competitive industry that has witnessed at least a dozen model deaths since 2007, from eating disorders, drug overdoses and suicide. “So to understand that these girls, no matter how successful they are, could just give it all up and just go back and live on the beach in Australia…

“Half of my battle is keeping them in New York” he laughs. “Even myself. You wake up on a day like today and it’s snowing outside and you say, “Why the hell am I here?”

What Catherine did Next

christian dior RTW FW0809/sonny vandevelde via TFS

Catherine McNeil might still be listed as the world number 24 on models.com’s Top 50 Women list, but we have not seen much work from her of late. In fact a Vogue Australia cover in February this year, her fifth Vogue Australia cover, appears to be the highlight of her 2011 portfolio so far – after a stellar 2010 that saw McNeil book, among many other jobs, four advertising campaigns: Givenchy Fall/Winter 2010 ready to wear and Narciso Rodriguez, Carolina Herrera and Lanca fragrances. And all of this in spite of the fact that she had skipped several international show seasons. But there has been some movement on McNeil’s models.com profile. Her New York agency is now listed as Ford, as opposed to Next Model Management, which is the agency that launched McNeil's international career in 2006. Although models.com still has McNeil listed with Next’s affiliate agencies in London, Milan and Paris, Stephen Lee, McNeil’s former agent at Next, told frockwriter that, as of yesterday, Next no longer represented McNeil in any market. “We wish Catherine all the best for the future both personally and professionally” is all tight-lipped Lee would say. So, did she jump or was she pushed?  

It is certainly true that models move around from agency to agency. McNeil is not the only model to leave Next - or notably, the only model to leave Next for Ford. She is in fact the second Australian to jump ship from Next to Ford in five months, after Elyse Taylor in around November last year. Both models remain with the same Australian “mother agency” in Sydney – Chic Management.

In May 2010, Next sued Ford for allegedly poaching three of its top contracted models, Poles Ania Cywinska and Anna Jagodzinska and Estonian Karmen Pedaru. Seven months later, the three models in question initiated a claim against Next for US$3.66million in back pay and punitive damages.

It is unclear whether these cases have been scheduled for later hearings, settled – or perhaps even thrown - out of court. 

What is clear is that there has been bad blood between the two agencies for quite some time, with Ford reportedly taking legal action against Next on at least three previous occasions over alleged model poaching. In one 2009 suit, Ford claimed that Next had wrongfully acquired models and employees under exclusive contract with Ford six times in less than a year.

As for McNeil, she might well currently be ranked the world #24 by models.com, however she debuted on the list at #26 four years ago. And by July 2010, she had made it as high as #12.
 
But while McNeil’s MDC ranking is going south, Next currently has three models in the site's world top 5: Anja Rubik (#3), Karlie Kloss (#4) and Abbey Lee Kershaw (#5).

The winner, at just 14, of Australia's 2003 Girlfriend Model Search, McNeil remained at school and worked locally for three years before being launched internationally at the age of 17.

After an introduction by Next in late 2006, McNeil secured a six-month exclusive contract with leading photographer Mario Testino, which saw her shoot covers for Vogue Paris and V Magazine in record time. In March 2007, The New York Times called her “Fashion’s latest crush”.

Whether McNeil wants to work or not, is her business. She has achieved more in the past four years than many models do in an entire career. There are certainly much easier jobs than modelling - particularly modelling at an elite international level, where the pressures are extraordinary.

We wish her luck with her new agency.  

Myf Shepherd goes back to work

The February 2011 edition of Vogue Australia doesn’t just offer up Catherine McNeil’s fifth cover of the magazine. It also represents the return of Myf Shepherd to modelling after a year hiatus to study set design in Sydney. McNeil’s Chic Management stablemate rocketed to international modelling stardom after her debut at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in May 2008, walking the runways of some of the world's biggest fashion names and booking campaigns including Gucci and Miu Miu, only to put her burgeoning career on ice this time last year. Chic Management reports that the Vogue shoot was Shepherd’s first job back at work. She appears in six images in the massive 30-page New Season Hit List story that was shot by Nicole Bentley and also stars Codie Young, Alice Burdeu, Samantha Harris, Ruby Jean Wilson and Annaleise Smith. Chic reports that Shepherd has also shot a campaign for Myer [possibly the autumn/winter 2011 campaign] in addition to two other local campaigns. “Myf’s back modelling” Chic Management director Kathy Ward told frockwriter. “She’s continuing on with her studies but she’s very excited to be based in Sydney now and modelling for top end magazines and securing some major Australian campaigns as well. She may go back for the [Haute Couture SS11 or FW1112] shows, although there are no plans at this stage. But things happen very quickly, there’s a slight chance she may”.

all images: nicole bentley for vogue australia february 2011 via TFS

Catherine McNeil scores her fifth Vogue Australia cover

vogue australia via TFS

It seems Vogue Australia just can't get enough of Catherine McNeil. Just five months after her last Vogue Australia cover, an edition which also included multiple McNeil editorials, here she is on the cover of the magazine's February 2011 issue. According to McNeil's mother agency Chic Management, the cover was shot by Max Doyle in Sydney "several months ago" - before McNeil cut her hair into a short bob and died it black (and was quite possibly shot in August, when she was in town for the David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show). This is McNeil's fifth Vogue Australia cover. Currently at home enjoying the Christmas-New Year break with her family and friends, McNeil is soon due to return to the work in the northern hemisphere.  

Rosemary Smith pieces together Jigsaw for Autumn/Winter 2011

Rosemary Smith has had a big year. After a slow burn in 2009, during which she shot for Harpers Bazaar Australia and Marie Claire Australia - and made it onto models.com's emerging models/creatives site, The Ones 2 Watch - this year she nabbed a Vogue Australia exclusive, which saw her featured in the August, October, November and December editions, swapped agencies (from Viviens to Chic Management) and will soon be featured in a new faces spread in V Magazine in the US. The latter was shot last month, while she attended castings for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Smith wasn't cast in the latter, however she has just bagged another local ad campaign. Adding to her recent Ksubi Eyewear and Ojay campaigns, here is a first look at Smith in the Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign for another Australian high street fashion chain, Jigsaw. It sees the Daria Werbowy lookalike reunited with photographer Nicole Bentley, who shot two of the Vogue editorials. The campaign was styled by Claudia Navone and photographed in a private mansion in Bellevue Hill. After her recent turn on the David Jones runway, where Smith caught the eye of Sydney expat casting director Kannon Rajah (who just added Versace to his client list, which already includes Fendi and the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show), let's hope we see her on the international runways in 2011. 

all images: nicole bentley for jigsaw. supplied exclusively to frockwriter by jigsaw

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. 

Black Cat

Yesterday frockwriter mentioned that Australian supermod Catherine McNeil had just undergone a rather dramatic change of hair and is now sporting a short black bob. Well here are the first images of said do, courtesy McNeil's New York agency Next Model Management. This is all Next would release, ditto the only other info: that it was cut/coloured by "a friend". Which may be code for McNeil's hair having been done on a recent job that has yet to be unveiled. Just as fellow Aussie and Chic/Next stablemate Abbey Lee Kershaw recently had her hair cut by Chanel during the shooting of the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign. It's an interesting look for McNeil. Almost a little Beatle-esque. Or should that be... Bieber-esque?

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by next model management

Bob's your uncle: Catherine McNeil also gets the chop

nicole bentley, vogue australia september 2010 via TFS

Yes that’s a wig that Catherine McNeil is sporting in this Vogue Australia September 2010 editorial, above. But apparently the world #12 liked the look so much, she’s gone and had it replicated. Well, kind of. By all accounts, McNeil's new do is not a "long, choppy" Abbey Lee Kershaw bob, aka a "Kob", but a bob nonetheless and black to boot. There is as yet no hard photographic evidence beyond a bunch of Facebook photos and the shot, below, published on October 21st on the blog of McNeil’s model mate Stephanie Carta, together with the caption, “Yesterday kitty cut her locks off, Sorry, died them black! Meow”. UPDATED 29/10: HERE ARE SOME FIRST SHOTS. Not even McNeil’s Sydney-based mother agency was up with her hair news when we enquired earlier this week. But after days of buzz on model forums, Stephen Lee at McNeil’s New York agency Next finally confirmed the earth-shattering news to frockwriter overnight: yes, McNeil has definitely cut her hair. Lee added that McNeil has been enjoying a month’s break of “total normality” from the modelling business. 

"It's nice to be able to see how a short break from the business can rejuvenate and revitalize that spark that everyone, no matter what their business, needs" said Lee. 

That’s a second break, presumably, after McNeil already took some time off from the world’s runways late last year and then began to make a return at New York Fashion Week in September, only to mysteriously disappear off the Spring/Summer 2011 circuit in London.

   

Perhaps McNeil was also inspired by the deluge of publicity that followed the recent decisions by compatriot and Chic/Next stablemate Kershaw to not only cut her hair, but later dye it platinum blond. In a business that's all about 'the look', a new haircut could be a great career move.

carta is back

 

Abbey Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil to replace new bride Miranda Kerr for the David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show

David Jones might have lost its ceo Mark McInnes and now even its new face Miranda Kerr, at least just for one season - with Kerr announcing on the Nine Network's Today Show this morning that she and Orlando Bloom have married and she will be skipping the department store's August 3 Spring/Summer runway showcase (with insiders reporting she is three months pregnant). But DJs has gained a fabulous replacement for the show: Abbey Lee Kershaw. Sources close to Kershaw confirm she will be replacing Kerr in the show (which is an in-season show designed to launch DJs new designer collections to consumers). Once a DJs Youth Ambassador, Kershaw is now ranked the world number six five runway/editorial/advertising model by US-based modelling authority models.com (moving up one place in the space of a fortnight). It's a fantastic get for DJs. UPDATE: Frockwriter's sources confirm that world number 12 Catherine McNeil is also doing the show, which is even better news for DJs. Other models on DJs' runway will include Nicole Trunfio, who did last season's show alongside Kerr and DJs regular Alexandra Agoston. All since confirmed in Kerr's statement that was released at 8.00am this morning (to which frockwriter did not have access), but which no mainstream media outlet considered sufficiently interesting to report at the time.

All models, coincidentally, are from the same agency as Kerr: Chic Management.

Kerr would be on a multimillion dollar contract with David Jones and the news, although of course joyous for Kerr and Bloom, is a tad inconvenient for DJs. So very handy that Chic could step in with two modelling superstars to replace her at short notice.

It's probably a safe bet that Kerr might not be doing the DJs Autumn/Winter 2011 show in the first week of February either.

The latter coincides, perhaps awkwardly, with the launch of New York Fashion Week - a time when modelling superstars tend to be extremely busy.

Thurley's butterfly effect

Deadlines kept me away from Thurley's Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show last night at a gracious old home in Sydney's Woollahra. But a few backstage shots were slipped frockwriter's way. The four year-old cocktail and eveningwear line is designed by Helen O'Connor, who has earned comparisons with Collette Dinnigan - much to the latter's chagrin. The new collection is called 'The Butterfly Effect' and the show featured all Chic Management girls, including Samantha Harris, Meg Lindsay, Hannah Saul and Emma Norris. Styling was by Jolyon Mason, with Jon Pulitano for Redken on hair, makeup by Amanda Reardon and shoes by Camilla Skovgaard - the real Camilla Skovgaard, that is and not one of numerous Australian mid market manufacturers who are knocking her off.








all photos: courtesy golightly pr

Rachel Rutt scores her second international cover - so why can't she get a gig downunder?

dazed & confused japan via chic management

In the deluge of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week coverage, frockwriter somehow managed to miss this cover. So congrats are due to one of this blog's faves, Sydney model Rachel Rutt, who scored this month's cover of the Japanese edition of Dazed & Confused. And while sure, it's not as visible as the cover of the UK parent edition (which Rutt's better-established Chic stablemate Abbey Lee Kershaw has cracked twice), it is nevertheless a fantastic get. It represents, moreover, her second international cover - after scoring one of 12 multicovers of the autumn/winter 09/10 edition of French Revue de Modesmade the cover of Dazed & Confused Japan last October, alongside big names including Coco Rocha, Ali Stephens, Karmen Pedaru, Dree Hemingway, Constance Jablonski and Maryna Linchuk. Coincidentally, in February, another Chic-ette, Rutt's great mate Myf Shepherd, scored the cover of Dazed & Confused Japan. So you could say that "MUTT" has this mag covered. 

As reported by frockwriter Rutt and Shepherd have been blogging in tandem under the MUTT hybrid byline, both for their Heyweird blog and for Australian IN Front's RAFW coverage.

For the latter, the duo interviewed local creatives including Luke Sales, Ryan Lobo, Alan White and.... themselves. Although Australian IN Front previously advertised that MUTT's RAFW interviews would be with anonymous fashion players, the only question mark hovering over MUTT's RAFW profiles concerns just which MUTT team member was being interviewed by who.

Pedestrian.tv has suggested that Rutt interviewed Shepherd. That seems unlikely however, given that Shepherd did not walk in any shows at the event ( frockwriter hears the girls swapped roles during the interview).

Rutt was one of the busiest models at RAFW - for the second year in a row - and had a great first New York season last September.

But although Dazed + Confused Japan makes two international fashion magazine covers for Rutt, she has yet to be booked for the cover of a local fashion print title (although she did appear on the December/January 08/09 cover of Australian online mag Pages Online).

Back in 2008, Rutt, who is half Singaporean, told The Australian that she was looking forward to working overseas, particularly Europe. In the latter markets, she claimed, Eurasian faces were far more welcome. Rutt described Australia as being very "Caucasian-oriented".

Beyond the late South Korean model Daul Kim appearing on a recent cover of RUSSH, several Australian modelling industry sources to whom frockwriter spoke this afternoon struggled to recall the last time an Asian model graced the cover of an Australian fashion magazine.

“For a very multicultural country, I'm surprised that it hasn’t happened” noted one observer who requested anonymity.

"People are reluctant to use girls who are not of northern European looks" noted another. "It's risky - because they're in a minority".

It's worth remembering, however, that another one of Rutt's high profile Chic Management stablemates, Catherine McNeil, was on the cover of high profile US fashion title V and Paris Vogue, before any Australian magazines showed an iota of interest in putting her on page one. (Correction: McNeil made the cover of RUSSH in January 2007 - the same month that she headed off to New York for castings and her first international ready-to-wear runway season. And four years after she began modelling in Australia).