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.  

Australia's next top models plot a New York Fashion Week takeover

elite via models.com

As far as frockwriter can ascertain, there is not a single Australian designer due to show during New York Fashion Week's Fall/Winter 2011 season, which officially kicks off on February 10th. Kit Willow Podgornik will shoot her Fall/Winter 2011/2012 lookbook in New York on February 9th, but that's a private event. This is a big change, of course, compared to five years ago, when up to seven Australian labels were showing their wares there. But this does not mean that there won't be any Australians on New York's runways. In fact, FW1112 is shaping up to be a bumper season for antipodian models in The Big Apple. The world number 5, Abbey Lee Kershaw, won't be among them, however, as she will skip New York Fashion Week this season. Although due to head to Milan and Paris, prior to those legs Kershaw will be tied up in London with a "personal music project" [telling her mother agency, Chic Management, this will involve a performance with "my band" - read Our Mountain, the band of Kershaw's boyfriend Matthew Hutchinson, with whom Kershaw has previously performed on stage). 

Seven out of the 25 models chosen by Elite New York for the agency's official Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show package, that is distributed to designers and casting directors, are Australians: Julia Nobis, Lauren Brown, Bambi Northwood-Blyth, Emily Wake, Ruby Jean Wilson and Australia's Next Top Model winners Amanda Ware and Alice Burdeu (above). After a short study hiatus, Burdeu dominated New Zealand Fashion Week's runways in September, great to see her back.

Joining them will be Australia's overnight modelling superstar Andrej Pejic, Jessica Hart, Annaleise Smith, Elyse Taylor, Codie Young, Emilia Skuza, Skye Stracke and potentially a number of others. 

Others still are due to join these names as the season moves on to London, Milan and Paris over the following three weeks. 

Myf Shepherd, for instance, who is also making a comeback after a study hiatus, is planning to head to the Milan and Paris legs.

Let's see who snags which shows. 
 

Victoria's Secret gives Australian models the cold shoulder

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

Since Miranda Kerr first touched down in the multimillion dollar extravaganza that is the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2006, there has been a steady trickle of Australian faces onto its runway. In 2008, Kerr was joined by Abbey Lee Kershaw and Sarah Stephens. Last year, the Aussie VS triumvirate was comprised of Kerr, Kershaw and Elyse Taylor. No surprise that at seven months pregnant, Kerr is out of action at this year’s event. But what is perhaps surprising is that there are no other Australian models in this year’s show – the first taping of which has just occurred in New York, with another show imminent. Not even Kershaw, who is ranked by models.com as the world number five and who some believed was locked in. Frockwriter can confirm that Kershaw did not do the show. Her Sydney and New York agencies have been unusually quiet on matters VS in the leadup to this year's event - and given that all the Australians in the show to date have been from their stable, that's understandable. All Chic Management would say this morning was that Kershaw was "very busy" with other matters.

According to our casting sources, Elyse Taylor, Jessica Hart and newcomer Rosemary Smith all made it through to the final casting call.

But that still leaves a slew of other Australians working on the show, notably in show production and casting, Kannon Rajah and of course jeweller Jenny Mercian, who has worked on the show for the past six years - and who designs under the brand name Manik Mercian.

Mercian took with her to New York four spectacular new Swarovski crystal “showstoppers” worth approximately A$100,000 each that were created for this year's show, in addition to a selection of other jewellery, including pieces from her Sahani ready-to-wear line. 

Three of her showpieces are pictured here in images 1 to 5 from the top of this page, including the black crystal-encrusted skirt, one-shouldered shrug and gladiatrix-like cuff pictured on Candice Swanepoel, (top, with two different views, below). “I have honed in my patternmaking skills learnt at uni, one look I’ve completely sewn and solded - it involves fabrics and jewels” Mercian told me two weeks ago.  

Kerr is not the only contracted Victoria's Secret Angel on maternity leave – so is Doutzen Kroes. 

The show starred the other remaining Angels, including Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, Chanel Iman, Lily Aldridge, Rose Huntington-Whitely, Swanepoel and Erin Heatherton. Joining them was a cast of headliners who included Lily Donaldson, Magdalena Frackowiak, Anja Rubik, Liu Wen and Karolina Kurkova. The models shared the runway with performers Katy Perry and Akon.

And yes of course, the models - and even Perry - wore the show's signature OTT outfits, including various sets of angel wings, all styled by Charlotte Stockdale – who also has Australian connections, being the wife of Australian industrial designer Marc Newson. 

The show will be broadcast on CBS on November 30.

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

all images: getty via daylife

Jewel citizenship: Jenny Mercian rocks Victoria's Secret

Here is another of the (numerous) posts that I have not had a chance to put up since going back to fulltime work in October. Given that yesterday was Australia Day here, this one seemed more than appropriate: another Today Tonight story which aired in late November, immediately after the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was taped in New York. Modelwatchers will obviously be more than familiar with the Australian girls in the VS show, from Miranda Kerr to Abbey Lee Kershaw and this year, Elyse Taylor. Frockwriter has also previously mentioned Sydney expat casting director/show producer Kannon Rajah, who has worked on the show for several years. One name with which you may not be familiar is Jenny Mercian, a Sydney jeweller who has worked on the show for the past five years.

I wrote about Jenny when she first showed up at Australian Fashion Week 2005, on the occasion of her first VS show and elsewhere. So this was a good opportunity to do the tv version (which I produced).

Hit up the player (above) to see the TT story.

Here are also some images from Jenny's more accessible new diffusion line Sahani - and the complete Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, in case you missed it when it aired on December 3.

Four Australian Victoria's Secret Angels?

elyse taylor/sonny vandevelde

Could Sydney super agency Chic Management be en route to supplying four Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show models this year? That’s what frockwriter is wondering, following the news that Elyse Taylor has been been cast in the 2009 show, which tapes in New York on Thursday. Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr is of course a given and Abbey Lee Kershaw is also a strong possiblity, given her appearance in the show last year and her recent VS ad work with Behati Prinsloo. Sarah Stephens may even make a second appearance after, we hear, receiving a special request to attend the castings. If all four Chic-ettes turn up on the runway, that would surpass the agency’s VS model hat trick last year. (Updated: Stephens was not cast. Only three Australians walked in the show).

Taylor is on a roll at the moment - and not before time. The face of August’s Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival, she is the November covergirl of Vogue Australia. Taylor left Australia to try her luck in the US in 2005, at the same time as her once close mate Miranda Kerr. Although Taylor has worked steadily in the interim, a high profile has so far eluded her. It will be interesting to see the two former best friends strut their stuff together on the one mega catwalk.

Amusingly, Taylor’s dad Ross is a senior executive at Australian intimate apparel giant Pacific Brands, which operates labels including Bonds, Berlei, Playtex and Hestia in this market.