Lanvin's Lucas Ossendrijver covers the launch issue of Manuscript

Sydney-based freelance fashion journo Mitchell Oakley-Smith isn’t one for resting on his laurels. Already the author of one coffee table book through Thames & Hudson Australia – Fashion: Australian and New Zealand designers – T&H Australia has just released a second collection of his designer vignettes, Interiors: Australian and New Zealand designers. And he’s just signed a third contract, this time with the Thames & Hudson mothership in London for another, slightly more complex tome that is due for release in late 2013 and is to be co-authored with Australian art curator and writer Alison Kubler. All under the age of 25. But that’s not all. Behold a preview of the first cover of a new menswear magazine called Manuscript, Oakley-Smith’s first effort as a publisher, which is out on Friday. Lensed by London-based Australian Paul Scala at the Lanvin headquarters in Paris, it stars Lanvin’s menswear director Lucas Ossendrijver, an extensive profile of whom features inside the issue. 

The quarterly menswear-focussed art, culture and design title is being produced by Oakley-Smith and his fashion director fiancé Jolyon Mason, with art direction by Nic Adamovich. Available through bookstores, galleries, fashion boutiques and select newsagents, as well as online via manuscriptdaily.com, issue one also includes profiles of British actor Jack Derges, Australian actor Oliver Ackland and artists Olaf Breuning and Lionel Bawden. 

The fashion spreads, shot by Jordan Graham, Liz Ham, Adrian Mesko and Bowen Arico, with styling also by James Dykes and Sonny Groo, feature the models Jeremy Dufour, Jack Vanderhart, Jordan Coulter and twins Jordan and Zac Stenmark. The latter co-star in the ‘City to Surf’ fashion editorial, below, which was shot by Graham and styled by Mason, with grooming by Max May. 

Manuscript was conceived during Oakley-Smith's New York stint earlier this year, which was partially sponsored by the Australians in New York Fashion Foundation. 

A collective of Australians who have worked their way to the top of the New York fashion industry, AINYFF assists young Australians gain experience and contacts in New York. Oakley-Smith was AINYFF's 2011 runnerup. Check the AINYFF site for this year's finalists, with the 2012 winners announced in Sydney on December 19th with Calvin Klein's Malcolm Carfrae, Harpers Bazaar's Laura Brown, Ford Model's Doll Wright and Condé Nast Asia Pacific's Nancy Pilcher all due to be in attendance.

 

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by manuscript

Chloe Sevigny covers Candy as Terry Richardson

screen cap/luis venegas's vimeo

Candy, the world’s “first transversal style magazine”, frocked up model Luke Worrall and actor James Franco as women for the covers of its first and second issues. For its just-launched third issue, Candy has transformed actor Chloe Sevigny into a drag king – and in fact, in character as photographer Terry Richardson, with his trademark flannel shirt, glasses, sideburns and thumbs up. Having shot both the Worrall and Franco covers, presumably Richardson shot this one as well. Sevigny has more than a passing interest in the subject of transsexuality. She earned an Academy Award nomination as Lana Tisdel, the girlfriend of murdered transgender man Brandon Teena, in Kimberley Pierce’s 1999 film Boy’s Don’t Cry. She voiced the role of Andy Warhol’s male-to-female superstar Candy Darling in James Rasin’s 2010 documentary Beautiful Darling. And she recently shot a British television series called Hit & Miss, in which she plays a transgender Irish assassin. She also has some commonality with the controversial Richardson. Sevigny is in a minority of mainstream actors to have engaged in an unsimulated sex act in a film – Vincent Gallo’s 2003 Brown Bunny, in which she performed fellatio on co-star Gallo. Richardson has pushed the boundaries of pornography like no other in fashion - coming under fire for the alleged exploitation and degradation of some of his models in the process - and his personal work features a high volume of imagery of himself engaging in unsimulated sexual acts. Sevigny copped a lot of flak herself over Brown Bunny. So, lots to chat about during the cover shoot.

Bambi Northwood-Blyth covers V magazine with Lindsey Wixson

v magazine

Australia's Bambi Northwood-Blyth is on a roll. Behold the latest cover of US fashion magazine V starring Northwood-Blyth together with Lindsey Wixson - one of four covers of V's issue #74, shot by Terry Richardson and styled by ex Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld. Each cover pairs together two models, most of them high profile. Head to V's website to see the others, featuring Candice Swanepoel and Joan Smalls; Daphne Groeneveld and Saskia de Brauw and Sui He and Hanaa Ben Abdesslem. "These eight girls are unique" Roitfeld told WWD. "It's their diversity that makes each of them, to me, truly modern. They bring a new energy to fashion". This may be Northwood-Blyth's first major international cover, but it's her fifth OS cover this year, after French Revue des Modes (Spring/Summer 2011), Vogue Nippon (April 2011), Harpers Bazaar Espana (May 2011) and the current Fall/Winter 2011 cover of the Barcelona-based Metal magazine. And that's not the end of her V duties. She will be co-hosting V's Halloween party tomorrow night in New York with Richardson, Smalls, Swanepoel and He. Will her designer/DJ love interest "Dangerous Dan" Single play a set?

Amanda Ware and Jordan Coulter cover Wish

We might not have seen Amanda Ware at any Milan Fashion Week shows this week, but she booked a solid showlist at this month's New York and London Fashion Weeks. And the Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 6 winner is about to score her second cover in four months of The Australian's luxury magazine Wish - alongside Jordan Coulter, another rising local star. Here is an exclusive preview of the October Wish cover and accompanying editorial which showcases brands including Burberry, Prada and Louis Vuitton. Lensed by Pierre Toussaint, with styling by Ken Thompson. On newsstands October 7th. 

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by wish magazine
photographer: pierre toussaint
stylist: ken thompson

What does Andrej Pejic have to do to make the cover of Vogue Australia?

gazelle paulo/freak chic

Andrej Pejic’s first modelling job was a cover shoot – for Oyster’s 77th edition, back in 2008, flanked by a phalanx of male and female models. And while many cover tries never make it to page one, one of Pejic’s Oyster shots did, together with two of the women. It’s fair to say, however, that very few in the Australian industry knew who he was at this time and he was by no means the sole focus of the story. Fast track to August 2011 and Pejic has appeared on no less than eight international magazine covers in the space of six months: Zeit Magazin (February), Photo (March), Dossier Journal (Spring 2011), Citizen K (Spring 2011), Carbon Copy (Spring 2011), L’Officiel Ukraine (June 2011), Follow #5 and just this week, the very high-profile New York magazine, as one of four covers of the magazine’s Fall 2011 fashion special. Here is a photo gallery of all nine covers (best viewed on the blog): 

Debuting on models.com's Top 50 Men list at #40 in December, little wonder Pejic is now ranked the world number #19. 

So why haven’t Australian magazines been clamouring to get him on a cover back home? What an amazing coup it would be for Vogue Australia, for example, to be the first mainstream womens' fashion magazine in the world to do so, if only editor Kirstie Clements had the balls. 

Given that even Miranda Kerr didn’t make it to the cover of Vogue Australia until January this year – until after she had appeared on the covers of both Spanish and Italian Vogue, had married Orlando Bloom and was pregnant – frockwriter thinks there’s little chance of that happening.

Speaking of pregnancies, one of the more amusing anecdotes recounted in the  accompanying Pejic feature in this month's New York magazine was how Pejic attempted a little supermodel satire when arriving at Sao Paulo airport in June this year, for Sao Paolo Fashion Week.

Inspired by the miraculous maternity bounce-backs of supermods such as Kerr, who somehow manage to head back to work mere weeks after giving birth, Pejic had hoped to demonstrate he could do it in a day: arriving in Sao Paulo with a styrofoam baby bump, which he planned to jettison for the following day’s runway duties.

Pejic’s plan was foiled by Brazilian customs which asked him to remove the object, assuming he might be smuggling contraband. 

Once given the all clear, Pejic was reunited with his faux baby bump – and paraded it landside in this photo and video (above/below):

Robyn Lawley covers ELLE France

One of the strengths of the Australian modelling industry, say industry insiders in New York, is its extraordinary versatility. "You cross every section - you have sexy, you have edgy, you have androgynous, you have it all” Elite Model Management's Doll Wright tells frockwriter. Add curvy to that list. Twenty-one year-old Robyn Lawley has just pulled off what no other plus-size Australian model has thus far managed to do: score the cover of an international fashion title. Here is Lawley on the cover of French ELLE’s ‘Spécial Rondes’ issue, which has just hit the newsstands. She also appears on 10 other pages inside the issue. Even more exciting: on Monday and Tuesday this week in New York, we can reveal that Lawley, an Australian size 14, shot an editorial and cover try for the June issue of far more prestigious European fashion title, with one of fashion's biggest photographic names. Yes, the shoot was for a plus-size story. But give her time.

Already, the world’s most high-profile plus size model, Crystal Renn, is ranked world number 21 on models.com’s Top 50 Women list, alongside the biggest so-called “straight size” names in the business. The latter include Australia’s Catherine McNeil, who is ranked #24.

Models move up and down on the list, pending how “hot” they are in the business – and their "hotness" factor can be impacted by whether or not they have gained weight.

Renn's rapid rise in the fashion industry has seen her recently book advertising campaigns for Jean Paul Gaultier and Jimmy Choo, shoot editorials for Vogue Paris and now her first Vogue cover, Vogue Mexico. 

Many have argued, however, that Renn's 'high fashion' ascent has coincided with a dramatic fall in her BMI. Although Renn concedes that she has recently stepped up her exercise regime, she insists she is a US size 10 - an Australian size 12. This is still significantly bigger than most other models with whom Renn is competing for mainstream fashion jobs.  

Lawley’s story is not unlike Renn’s – as documented in Renn's 2009 book Hungry: A Young Model's Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves.

Originally from Sydney, but now New York-based, Lawley began modelling at the age of 14, when she was a size 8-10 according to her Australian agent Chelsea Bonner at Bella Model Management. 

One of her first jobs was for Dolly magazine, an editorial accompanied by a headline that would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, at least in the skinny-obsessed modelling business: "Super Size Me".

At 186cm (6’2”), however, it wasn’t only Lawley’s height that spooked clients. 

As Lawley matured, she had difficulty maintaining that size 8-10. Although she did try various diets, unlike Renn, she never developed an eating disorder according to Bonner.

At 18, Lawley gave up trying to fit in to the mainstream modelling business and joined Bonner at Bella. She never looked back, booking editorial work with Madison, Cosmopolitan, The Australian Women’s Weekly, New Idea, Woman's Day, US Glamour, Germany's Flair and advertising campaigns for Autograph, David Jones, Myer, Calvin Klein and, recently, H&M. 

At New York Fashion Week in February, Lawley was the solo star of the One Stop Plus show, which was broadcast in Times Square:

 

But if fashion is – very gradually – starting to include larger models, this apparently does not mean that agents like Bonner want to help facilitate any size 22s getting up on that runway.

Bonner reports that she often fields complaints from consumers that her models “aren’t big enough”.

“What is big enough?” she asks. “Big enough to us at Bella is if you are within your healthy weight range for your height and bone structure, that’s big enough. You shouldn’t be above that. With size 22 models, the garments don’t fit right. And it’s not healthy. I’ve not yet met a woman who is a size 22 who is healthy. Of course, there are also a lot of girls who are far too thin”.

all images: supplied by bella management

Sunday rose: Abbey Lee Kershaw covers Sunday Magazine's fashion issue

Can't get enough of Australian supermod Abbey Lee Kershaw? Then you'll be pleased to know she is the cover story of tomorrow's Sunday Magazine inside Sydney's Sunday Telegraph and Melbourne's Herald Sun newspapers. Here is an exclusive preview of the cover, part of an editorial spread that was recently photographed by the mag in Sydney while Kershaw was shooting the Portmans campaign. This issue is a fashion special, timed to coincide with next week's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Frockwriter didn't do the Kershaw profile, but we did write the 'style dynasties' story: a profile of three Australian families which have passed the fashion torch down the line to subsequent generations.  

In the four-page story on Kershaw, penned by Melissa Field, the world number five makes a few revelations: 

- As a child, she used to pretend she was a mermaid in the bath and lock the door so noone could see her tail. "I think that's why I'm so good at what I do - I find it very easy to pretend to be part of a world I'm not actually in". 

- She loves to be barefoot and "hardly ever" wears shoes when in Australia. 

- She shares a Brooklyn apartment with her bf, Our Mountain frontman Matthew Hutchinson, and would like to further pursue music, in addition to art and dance.

- On the pain of piercing: 

"It's like wasabi. I love it because it's hot and intense, then it goes away, which is similar to getting a tattoo. Anyone who says it doesn't hurt is lying - it canes, but then it goes away. I find that fascinating".

"I think most people would be surprised by my dark nature and the fact that I have quite an addictive personality. When I started getting tattoos, I couldn't stop. I also have piercings all over...... One day, I'll have a lot more tattoos and probably some odd hair colours, too".

image: supplied to frockwriter by sunday magazine

Andrej Pejic on the cover of ZEIT magazin

zeit magazin's facebook

Andrej Pejic's first modelling job was a cover: issue #77 of Australia's Oyster magazine, in 2008, together with two female models. Given Pejic's profile today, that was extraordinarily good foresight on Oyster's part. What is surprising, perhaps, is that it has taken this long for Pejic to land a solo cover. Germany's ZEIT magazin is the first cab off what frockwriter understands is a rapidly lengthening cover rank for Pejic, with two other European covers shot in the past two weeks - one of them, quite a big deal in fashion terms. ZEIT magazin is the arts/culture supplement to German newspaper Die Zeit. Founded in 1970, the magazine describes itself as the paper's "emotional section" and its numerous investigations and scoops over the years include having tracked down, in Buenos Aires, the long-lost original version of Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist masterpiece Metropolis, which then premiered at last year's Berlin International Film Festival.

The cover line translates as "She is a model" and Tillman Prüfer's cover story promises to be an interesting read, one that hopefully examines the broader cultural backdrop into which Pejic has landed.

The cover and accompanying fashion editorial were lensed by Juergen Teller in London over two days a fortnight ago - in between the Paris mens' fashion week and the haute couture shows, in which Pejic now famously walked as Jean Paul Gaultier's bride. Here are a few of the images below. Head to Les Mads to see a few more. It was the second time Teller and Pejic had worked together - after the Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2001 campaign shoot in Marrakech late last year.

Currently at New York Fashion Week, where he has so far walked in eight shows - half of them in womenswear and half of them in menswear - Pejic has also made several other television appearances since the Seven Network's Sunday Night profile ran on Sunday 13th February. Including CBS, Inside Edition and a live cross to Seven's The Morning Show.

zeit magazin via itfashion.com

Oyster sells out with Lara Bingle

Australia's longest-surviving indie fashion mag a sellout? Well, newsstand-wise, that could be the end result vis-à-vis Oyster's hot 91st edition which is out on Friday. Here is a first look at its double trouble cover of Shire babe and scandal magnet Lara Bingle, shot by Georges Antoni (above) and Stephen Ward (below). Also up in issue #91: profiles and photoshoots on/featuring Fashion East's Lulu Kennedy, Ryan McGinley, Andrej Pejic, Emma Balfour, Myf Shepherd, Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino, Ohne Titel and Max Blagg. Looking good.

both images: supplied by oyster

Sasha Knezevic popped the question to Anja Rubik after a vampire musical

the rocks, december 31st 2010/stephen lee

Anja Rubik and fiancé Sasha Knezevic were among out-of-towners who rang in 2011 in Sydney. Confirming an earlier report by frockwriter that the world number 3 ranked model was en route downunder to shoot for Vogue Australia, the duo arrived on the morning of the 31st and spent the day sightseeing with Stephen Lee, who heads up Rubik’s New York agency Next Model Management, including lunch at iconic Watson’s Bay seafood restaurant Doyles. And at midnight? Joining an estimated 1.5million who assembled to watch the city’s NYE fireworks from the harbour foreshore, Polish native Rubik and Serbian Knezevic, a former pro basketballer-turned-model (who also jointly edits Viennese fashion magazine 25 with Rubik), braved the hustle and bustle of The Rocks (where the above shot was taken). But as Rubik explains in this interview I recorded on New Year’s Day, the model duo loved it. Rubik, whose career highlights include multiple campaigns for Fendi and Chloé and 10 Vogue covers, dishes on her engagement deets, the Vogue Australia shoot and Karl Lagerfeld’s 2011 Pirelli calendar, with one fascinating revelation. She turned down the opportunity to shoot the world’s best-known calendar in 2009 for one reason - because Terry Richardson was shooting it.

gap fragrance campaign via the anja rubik and sasha knezevic facebook fan page

Frockwriter: When did you arrive?
Anja Rubik: We arrived yesterday morning. We did so much yesterday and today. We met up with Stephen. We walked around The Rocks. We enjoyed the whole day. Then we had a quick disco nap and we went out about town for NYE. It was pretty incredible. We were just walking around The Rocks. At midnight we were actually on the street. We always go to parties and we wanted to do something different. And the energy of the street was so incredible. We watched the fireworks - you can smell it almost. And you can really feel the energy of the other people. It was something completely different. I think in Sydney you have to do that. I was really amazed. It was so well organised.

FW: You and Sasha just became engaged didn’t you? Congratulations.
AR: Yes, yes, we just got engaged a few days ago, just before Christmas. Noone really knows about it yet.

FW: They know about it on [one of the world's largest fashion web forums] The Fashion Spot.
AR: They know about it on TFS? You’re kidding me?

FW: They know everything.  

AR: OMG, that’s really scary.  

FW: How did he propose?
AR: We were spending Christmas in Vienna this year because Sasha grew up in Vienna and his family is there and my family was coming over. And just two days before he came over, we went to Dance of the Vampires, the one that Roman Polanski directed [NB: I originally thought she meant Polanski’s 1967 film, aka The Fearless Vampire Killers – on which the musical is based]. It’s an opera. I wanted to see it for such a long time and Sasha organised the tickets, so it was really nice for Christmas. And then we went out and we walked around, it was really foggy the whole night and then he finally proposed, which was funny... It was pretty incredible. In the middle of the street. In the middle of the night. And then we went and had dinner in this restaurant that was on the rooftop of a building. And it was really, really nice. Apparently he was carrying the ring around for a while. And that day we fought all the day long. We were preparing the whole house for Christmas and there were all these things to be done and I had to cook and I had to do this and that and the Christmas decorations… I couldn’t find the ones I liked. So it was totally dramatic the whole day. I thought, ‘I’m going to kill him’. I was like, ‘I think this was my last Christmas ever’ [with him]. And he said ‘I picked this day on purpose, because although we have our fights, we’ve been together and ra ra ra ...’ And he’s right.

FW: Have you made any plans yet re dates etc?
AR: We are kind of hoping to do it in May or June. That’s what we’re aiming for. 

FW: So you are here shooting for Vogue Australia?
AR: Yes I’m shooting for Vogue on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. They’re taking me to a place in the middle of the desert. We’re going to do a shoot there, which I’m really excited about because I get to see a bit of Australia. The good thing is I actually have a lot of friends here. Of course, there are a lot of models, girls that I know that are here, there’s [photographer] Emma Summerton, Kannon [Rajah – show producer] . So actually I’m really far away from home but there’s a lot of people that I know who are in Sydney. It’s crazy, because I came to a completely different part of the world, so many hours of travelling and I know so many people, it’s really funny.

FW: Who is shooting you for Vogue?
AR: Max Doyle. There are two shoots. The other one is actually a good friend of mine, a Polish photographer, Marcin Tyszka, he’s a very young upcoming photographer. And we’re doing a shoot together, me and Sasha. And the other one with Max is just me. And we’re shooting a cover so I’m excited. I think there’s going to be like a little interview and then something about style. So it’s going to occupy the whole issue [laughs].

FW: So it’s the Anja Rubik issue of Australian Vogue?
AR: Yeah.

FW: How long are you staying in Australia for?
AR: I’m staying actually until the 20th, so for a little while. And it’s funny because I wanted to come to Australia since a really long time and then I was planning it and something popped up at the last minute so I couldn’t do it. So I’m really excited to be here. I want to go to the Great Barrier Reef and I want to see the red mountain [Ayers Rock]. And I scuba dive, so I want to do a lot of scuba diving.

FW: We have a lot of sharks, you know.
AR: I know, I know. But they never attack the scuba divers, they always attack the surfers. You’re safe underwater. I started diving when I was 14 so it’s quite a long time ago and I’ve been diving all around the world. This is a place I always wanted to come to so it’s exciting. But basically we want to keep the time very spontaneous, which is the best way to do it.
 
FW: So if you are staying until the 20th, are you not doing the haute couture?
AR: No I am. I’ll probably just go for Chanel, just for Karl. Chanel is on the 25th. So I should be back. I’m going to fly straight to Paris.

FW: Do you have to be careful about getting a tan with some work?
AR: Well no, I do tan very quickly, you do have to do a lot of protection. But they’re not so super strict on that unless you go completely brown. But you know, I’m going to try to do Karl because I’ve worked with Karl quite often and I love him to pieces, I think he’s a genius. I just saw him in Moscow. I was there for the Pirelli launch.

FW: So what else do you have coming up that people might not know about?
AR: I’m on an i-D cover, I don’t know if people know about that. Emma Summerton shot it. She’s genius, I love her to pieces. I mean I have a few campaigns coming out, of course Fendi. And there’s a bunch of editorials that I did. I don’t know which ones people know about. I mean I have a Russian Vogue cover coming out, a Spanish Vogue cover coming out, that should be released soon. And a bunch of stuff I shot before Christmas. 

emma summerton for vogua italia via fashion gone rogue

FW: It will be on TFS soon enough.
AR: It’s crazy, sometimes they have editorial on there… I don’t know how they get it because it’s not even out. And sometimes there are people working for the magazines, they take a picture of the wall or the layout, which is crazy.

FW: Do you read your TFS thread?
AR: I do look at it but I have to say my secret is I don’t really read it. I just look at it from time to time when there’s new pictures. Because they have everything so so quick, that sometimes I’m curious because maybe the newest campaign is out. But I try not to read it because If someone is saying something really bad then I take it very personally so I try to avoid that. I mean I don’t know if they do. I think they’re quite nice but I just look at the pictures. It’s better that way for me. I keep myself more sane.

karl lagerfeld for pirelli via anja rubik fan blog

 

FW: So for 2010, what were your personal highlights?
AR: My personal highlights....well, fashion highlights, let me see. Actually I think it was the Tom Ford show [at New York Fashion Week in September]. That was such an incredible thing. I always dreamed of doing Tom Ford but I started modelling a little bit later, so I never worked with him when he was at YSL or Gucci. And just the show itself it was so incredible and they weren’t doing like a typical show, it was very old-fashioned, the way the girl would walk out then he would describe the outfit. He would say, ‘Anja Rubik’s wearing this and that’. It was really cute and the runway was very small. People were sitting very close to the runway. And just to be among those incredible women who were there.. because he had models, he had older models, like supermodels, plus a lot of actresses and Beyoncé. So that was an incredible experience. And doing the Pirelli was also incredible, because it was always my dream to take part in this calendar. It’s like the most famous calendar in the world, it’s such a huge honour. And the best people shot for it and the best girls were in it. So that was really great. And I was actually supposed to do the Terry Richardson one but I was a little bit afraid, because I never undressed, I was never shot actually nude before. Although I love Terry and I worked with him a lot for French Vogue and other editorials, but I was a little bit afraid of his Pirelli.

FW: And with good reason.
AR: I knew he would, like, push the borders and you know, I was just afraid of how far they were going to be pushed and if I’m going to feel comfortable. The worst thing is to go somewhere to a shoot and be there and feel uncomfortable. Because first of all, it’s bad for me, it’s bad for him, it just creates a really bad atmosphere. So when Karl was shooting the Pirelli, I just thought, you know, he’s a genius and I knew the way he would shoot a woman would be in the form of art, it would be very beautiful and very tasteful. So that’s why I jumped on board immediately.

FW: So just to clarify this: you actually turned down the Pirelli calendar last year?
AR: Yes I did.

FW: That’s interesting. Have many models turned it down before do you think?
AR: I don’t know. You’d never know, because you deal with your agent, you don’t really know about other girls. I did. I just knew it would be uncomfortable for me and maybe for him, because I wouldn’t feel right in the moment.

FW: Obviously there has been a lot of controversy over Terry Richardson’s modus operandi of late.
AR: Yeah I know, but to be honest I know him, I’ve shot with him many times. And I think he’s great. I never felt uncomfortable, I never thought he pushed me into anything. I think if a girl, like, leaves her green light that she’s open to doing different things, he maybe pushes the boundaries. And if he knows how the girl is. Like I don’t get all these allegations. I mean I worked with him over, I don’t know, 15 times and I never felt awkward…..that I felt I had to do something.

FW: So why turn down a “dream” opportunity to do the Pirelli calendar just because he was shooting it?
AR: Only because I know he would push it a little bit more, in a way that would be very naked and I know that I wouldn’t go there probably. So that’s why it was stupid to accept the challenge because I thought I wouldn’t be capable. And you think...how it’s going to come out, because he has a different kind of take of that, a little bit more on the edge of, you know, I don’t want to say vulgar but on the very, very slight edge of it. There were supposed to be a lot of girls and he likes to shoot a lot of girls with girls and I just didn’t think I’d feel comfortable, that’s why.

FW: But there is so much nudity in fashion photography now, how did you manage to make it to this year’s Pirelli calendar without having ever done any nude photography?
AR: Well I did do topless, but I had never done full-on nude. You say no, I guess. It’s a very individual thing. I didn’t feel comfortable, earlier, before. To be honest, I kind of felt very comfortable with my body and my self actually quite recently, like four or five years ago, I started to feel really good. I had a huge change when I cut my hair, I started feeling more and more feminine and more comfortable with my body and everything. And now just felt like the right time to do it. Always [if] they ask you and you feel comfortable, you say yes. I mean I did do nude …[hard to hear] from the side, but I would always have strings and they would retouch them out.

FW: How long have you been modelling now?
AR: Full time, seven years now. Before that I would model at school.

FW: How do you find the pressures at the top of the business?
AR: Well, I mean, thanks to Photoshop our length of working is extended. Well I’m kind of joking but yeah of course it is, once you get older they can retouch everything out. The most important thing is just to stay on top. Of course there is pressure but you know....number 3, I like number 3. I think if I was number 1 I would be starting to stress ‘Where do I go from there?’ So number 3 actually suits me fine. I wouldn’t mind 2! One would be a little too much pressure.

FW: How about the pressure to be thin? That subject is never going to go away.
AR: No, I’m quite lucky in that I have a good metabolism, but I also eat really healthy and I exercise. I do a lot of yoga and Pilates and I run. You know, the body of a girl who’s a model, that’s her tool. You have to take care of it. It’s not even about being slim or skinny but it’s more about being fit and the quality of the body and [that] the skin is really nice. That’s super important. And now it’s a little bit changing, towards curvier girls, so that’s a really nice change. But they get so caught up in the whole weight thing. When you look at the world, people really die from being overweight, that’s a much, much bigger issue than anorexia. And to be honest, there are a few girls who are young who have difficulty dealing with their weight and what kind of diet. But I think it’s a huge responsibility of the agency to take care of the girls and to kind of lead them the right way. But any of the top girls, like on my level, where we work really a lot, we’re constantly on the plane, we’re constantly working, we’re constantly flying somewhere. And you have to show up in the morning and have a lot of energy and be ‘up’ and happy and you know, give our best. I think if a girl has an eating disorder, she just cannot do that. I think it’s physically impossible. So I think that with the girls are in the top ten at least...I know them personally and I doubt any of them have any larger eating issues. But I have to say if a girl doesn’t have the body type to be a model, if she’s not skinny naturally, that must be very, very difficult.

solve sundsbo for vogue russia via magxone

FW: There have been a lot of model suicides. Did you know Daul Kim well?
AR: I knew her but we weren’t very close. I only talked to her a couple of times. There was Ruslana as well and there have been quite a few male models.

FW: Does it worry you?
AR: Does it worry me? I think it’s a very individual thing. Most of the girls are models who started working very, very young. And every person deals with pressure in different ways. There are a lot of photographers out there that don’t want to work with girls under 18, like for example Inez and Vinood. And I think that’s a really good approach because when you are really young, you can really get mucked up in your head and it can really get to you at times. The way to deal with it and also regarding weight… a girl at 18, she thinks completely differently, she’s more mature than a 17 year old or a 15 year old. So I think if modelling would lean towards using a little bit older girls, like 18 and above, that would be better. But I think it’s such an individual thing, I think you shouldn’t generalise because every person is different. And [there are] different jobs. Being a ballerina for example is so intense.

FW: How old were you when you started modelling?
AR: Well I was actually really young [laughs]. Well fulltime I started when I was actually older, when I was 19. But when I was at school I would model .

FW: It must hard though, when someone is presented with an opportunity at a certain age, whether it’s wise to pass it up.
AR: Of course it’s hard. But if there would be no demand or anything like that... It’s a once in a lifetime kind of chance. It’s not like you can come back to it. You either have your moment or you don’t. And it depends on the model as to whether that moment extends to a career. If she’s smart enough to use it.

FW: So getting back to the engagement, you went to see a vampire film?
AR: No not a film, it’s an opera written by Roman Polanski. They play it all around Europe in different languages. It was actually playing in Poland and I really wanted to see it but I was working and this and that happened, so I saw it in German. It was very emotional and the music kind of tells the story, you don’t need to understand it word by word. I love the whole vampire thing I have to say. The whole idea that there’s the good guy and the bad guy and the girl goes for the bad guy. It’s so obvious, he’s a really good-looking vampire.

FW: And the ring?
AR: Yes I have a ring. It’s a beautiful Cartier ring, I think it’s gold. Solitaire.

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.  

A supermodel New Year

vogue paris june/july 2009 via style frizz

Some parts of the world might be winding down for the holidays but of course, fashion never sleeps. Frockwriter has it on good authority that Polish supermodel Anja Rubik (above)  – who is ranked as the world No 3 by models.com – will be winging her way downunder to shoot for Vogue Australia, in time for New Year’s Eve. With 11 international Vogue covers to her credit, six of them in 2010, one could only speculate that if Rubik was going to be featured anywhere in an upcoming edition of Vogue Australia, surely it would be the cover? If that’s the case, then good to see our Vogue finally shooting more of its own material, after many years of rehashing covers from international editions. Sure, plenty of other international and local titles do this, however all the publicity and accolades regarding Vogue Australia’s original covers over the past year, from Cate Blanchett to Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil and Miranda Kerr, can’t have hurt push the idea along. But we understand that Rubik might not be the only supermod in town over the New Year. 

Iekeliene Stange arrived on Monday this week, to promote the Wish Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign that was just shot in New York with Sonny Vandevelde. 

McNeil is apparently already back home for Christmas. There is even a chance, we also hear, that Kershaw might either not be heading back to New York after this week’s Portmans shoot, or else may be returning. 

If Kerr does indeed plan to have her baby downunder, as per speculation, she would most likely need to be getting back soon, given that she is due in January. 

Kerr probably won’t feel much like partying on NYE but don’t count on the others not kicking their heels up. Especially the Next posse (Rubik, McNeil, Kershaw). We hear they may even be joined by a US celebrity...

The dark side: Meghan Collison covers Oyster 90

 

Well it’s not quite Samara Morgan in The Ring. And of course, anything is better than Abbey Lee Kershaw’s October 2008 cover of Dazed & Confused (below), in which Kershaw's face was totally eclipsed by shadow. But interesting choice of image, nonetheless, of Canadian Meghan Collison for the cover of Oyster 90. Shot by Pierre Toussaint, Collison is glancing downwards, her eyes obscured by her bangs and her deathly pallor only accentuated by the use of foundation in the place of lipstick. Given that she looks like a Burberry-clad vampire extra from True Blood, perhaps Oyster is being a little ironic with the coverline "LOVE LIFE". But the sombre cover may well complement the mood of the editorial contents, which include interviews with LA Zombie director Bruce LaBruce and actor Paz de la Huerta, a star of the dark, graphic Prohibition era US drama Boardwalk Empire. Not to mention a "fashion week adventures" diary from Catherine McNeil, whose Spring/Summer 2011 runway season ended in mysterious circumstances midway through the season at London Fashion Week. On sale Friday 10th December.

nick knight via dazed and confused

oyster cover: supplied by oyster

Rachel Rutt, the face of summer

Who's a popular girl then? One of frockwriter’s favourite models, Sydneysider Rachel Rutt, finally looks to be getting some recognition. In May, we mentioned that Rutt had just scored her second international magazine cover – Dazed & Confused Japan, following one of 12 multicovers of the French Revue de modes in October 2009 – but had yet to make page one of any local titles. Well she more than makes up for it this month by scoring the covers of the summer editions of Australia’s Yen (below) and New Zealand’s No magazine (above), which launched today in NZ. Update 2/12: Although she is not on the actual cover of the December edition of The Australian's luxury magazine Wish, which is out tomorrow, Rutt nevertheless features in its Christmas fashion cover story. Here is a behind-the-scenes video:  

mick bruzzese/yen magazine

Shot by Ben Sullivan, with styling by Zara Mirkin and art direction by Delaney Tabron, Rutt’s No cover is part of an eight-page editorial spread (below) on Sydney label Romance Was Born.

Elsewhere in No's summer issue - which is themed around the concept of “Anywhere” - are interviews with actors Stephen Dorff, the lead in Sofia Coppola's new film Somewhere and American Beauty's Wes Bentley and singer and London It girl, Coco Sumner from I Blame Coco (the daughter, incidentally, of Sting and Trudie Styler).

all no images: supplied to frockwriter by no magazine. tks to isaac for the tip