Wild orchid - Emma Balfour tones it up for David Lawrence Spring/Summer 2011/2012

David Lawrence evidently has a thing for women of a certain age. The 33 year-old Australian sportswear brand has chosen iconic fortysomething Australian model Emma Balfour as its campaign face for the second consecutive season. Herewith an exclusive preview of the Spring/Summer 2011/2012 advertising campaign shot by Australian fashion photographer Georges Antoni at one of the penthouses of Sydney bar/restaurant complex The Ivy. This is the second brand campaign orchestrated by new David Lawrence creative director Anthony Cuthbertson and his first full collection for the brand, which is owned by M Webster Holdings and has 101 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Cuthbertson brings considerable design experience to the job. The UK-born graduate of Leicester's De Montfort University and London’s Royal College of Art has spent a decade working as either creative director or designer at such well-known brands as Max Mara and Sportsmax, Moncler, Daks (creative director 2000-2006), Workers for Freedom, Burlington, Rene Lezard and Amanda Wakeley.

“The campaign itself and the collection both have a lot of jewel colours and I wanted to bring in a feeling of holiday in the evenings, taking these jewel colours but seeing them in the night” Cuthbertson told frockwriter. “Continuing where we were for Autumn/Winter, where there was still a lot of movement through the shots, we shot through orchid flowers and the mood was very much like she was in a hotel lobby and on her way out”.

As it emerges, it's not the first time that Cuthbertson and Balfour have worked together.

“When Emma launched her career, she modeled for me in London for my own label at London Fashion Week, about 15 years ago. From there I remembered her and when I started thinking about who should be the face of this great Australian brand, Emma Balfour was the person I decided on because I really wanted to use a real Australian women. So many people look at young girls but really, to be closer to our customer, we have to use a woman”.

all images: georges antoni. supplied exclusively to frockwriter by david lawrence

"Catherine McNeil is iconic for her generation" - Doll Wright

ford models

Well at least one mystery has been solved regarding Catherine McNeil - one of Australia's best-known modelling exports who has been on a bit of a self-imposed career hiatus for much of the past year and who, as it now emerges, also boasts New Zealand citizenship and travels on a Kiwi passport. The photo of McNeil that was Tweeted two days ago by Britain's Love magazine, together with the caption "Catherine McNeil is back!", was not part of any upcoming photoshoot for the magazine, but one of a handful of new digital shots of McNeil that have just been taken by McNeil's new New York management, Ford Models (curiously, the shot appears to have now been removed by Love). Here are the rest, supplied by Ford, which contacted us overnight for a little damage control, presumably not terribly happy with Timo Weiland's unfortunate Twitter shot of McNeil that we published yesterday. But while Love has yet to book her, newly-minted Ford Models agent Doll Wright tells frockwriter that McNeil has just shot 25 pages with a major photographer for a major international fashion title. 

Wright declined to comment on the Weiland shot, in which McNeil is holding a beer bottle and her NZ passport, with a cigarette dangling from her lips. Wright was also unable to clarify whether McNeil is actually an Australian citizen or merely has permanent residency here.

But Wright did stress that McNeil has been "working really hard to get herself together. She's really determined. You can see what she looks like".

“She hasn’t shot Love or worked with [editor] Katie Grand yet" added Wright. "But we’re thrilled because obviously it shows that the support is still there. At the end of the day, the industry, at the level that’s she’s at and the calibre of people she has worked with, they respect her. Catherine McNeil is iconic for her generation. As a model, she will always be remembered for that and people at the top level of this business appreciate and respect the hard work that she’s put in for them. She’s worked her ass off for this business, she’s travelled the world non stop. On the back of Gemma Ward she helped put us on the map and maybe she had a moment where she wanted to take some time out.

"Life is a rollercoaster and these girls go through so much, they’re worked to the bone. Some burn out or fade out and are never heard of again. Or they do have some fire in their belly and they come back bigger and better than ever before. And in the case of Catherine McNeil, that’s what it’s going to be”. 

McNeil and Australian-born Wright are not Ford Models' only new antipodian additions. 

Wright joined Ford a week ago after recently resigning from New York rival Elite Model Management. And she has taken a swag of Elite’s Australian highprofilers with her to Ford: Julia Nobis, Lauren Brown, Bambi Northwood-Blyth, Ruby-Jean Wilson and Emma Balfour, in addition to Canadian Kate King and American Hannah Holman.

all images: supplied to frockwriter by ford models

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

Lawrence of architectura: Emma Balfour tones it down for David Lawrence Autumn/Winter 2011

Adelaide-born Emma Balfour was a very big modelling name in the 1990s. Launching her career at approximately the same time as Kate Moss, Balfour helped co-pioneer modelling's 1990s "waif" trend - which helped shunt the more statuesque 1980s supermodels off their pedestal. Kate Moss went on to become a much bigger name and her career has continued unabated. After taking time off to have children and move back to Australia from London, Balfour pretty much disappeared from the fashion radar. That was until September 2008, when she attempted a career relaunch on the runways of New York Fashion Week, booked for two top ticket shows: Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs. In the two year interim Balfour, now 41, has been clocking up a steady stream of work, including numerous advertising campaigns that girls half her age - and of course their agents - would love to be booking. In Australia, she has fronted campaigns for Willow and Mimco. Here is an exclusive preview of her latest gig: the Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign of Australian fashion chain David Lawrence. 

Shot by Georges Antoni at two spectacular buildings in Sydney - Harry Seidler & Associates and The Cove - the campaign hits stores next week and magazines in early February. 

It was styled by Claudia Navone with hair by Sophie Roberts and makeup by Linda Jeffreyes.

It is hard not to notice the Céline-like minimalism and colour palette of these clothes.

Given how influential the French luxury brand's new creative director Phoebe Philo has proven since her return to the fashion arena following her own maternity hiatus, two seasons ago, that's perhaps hardly surprising.

But the fact that Balfour in fact appeared in Céline's Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign, is somewhat amusing.

A strong branding campaign nonetheless from a mid market player. With Abbey Lee Kershaw coming up in the same season at Portmans, the bar for Australian high street fashion advertising imagery looks to have been set a little higher than usual.

all images: georges antoni for david lawrence. supplied exclusively to frockwriter by david lawrence

Yes, Emma Balfour did shoot Céline's Fall/Winter 2010/2011 advertising campaign

212 @ modernparty.cn via the fashion spot

On June 1, frockwriter mentioned that our well-placed sources had spotted veteran Australian model Emma Balfour shooting the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign for French luxury brand Céline in New York alongside at least one other model. The first images of the Juergen Teller-lensed campaign have just surfaced and voilà Balfour, together with Martiniquais/French model Sigrid Agren (below). This is a huge coup for Balfour, who popped back up on the modelling radar in September 2008 during New York Fashion Week in the Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang shows. Pushing 40, she was old enough to be the mother of her teen runway colleagues. By the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season in February/March this year, which boasted Stella Tennant, Kristen McMenamy and Elle Macpherson, among others, Nineties modelling faces had made a small, yet significant, return to the runways - not to mention the ad pages. Here is 39 year-old Tennant in Balenciaga's FW1011 campaign.

Emma Balfour shoots Willow... and Céline?

Here is a sneak peek at Australian modelling veteran Emma Balfour in Willow’s Resort 2010/2011 collection. The lookbook was shot yesterday by Max Doyle at designer Kit Willow’s Sydney headquarters and it was styled by Melanie Huynh. A stylist at Paris Vogue for five years and a former assistant to editor Carine Roitfeld, the now freelance Huynh flew out from her Paris base on Friday specifically for this job. It’s not the first time that Kit Willow and Huynh have worked together. Huynh styled Willow's 'Eclipse' Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show in New York in February (she also styled Joseph Altuzarra’s FW1011 show). Willow's Resort collection, entitled 'Bachelor Girl', will begin dropping into stores here in September and overseas, from October. Balfour was once a very big modelling name, who emerged in London in the early 1990s as part of the so-called “waif” brigade, that was spearheaded by Kate Moss. Balfour only recently returned to the business and frockwriter hears that she could be in for a major career boost - courtesy one very high profile French luxury brand.


Since Balfour’s return to the runways in September 2008 during New York's Spring/Summer 2009 shows, walking for headliners Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang, the Sydney-based mother of two has been quietly building a portfolio of editorial work in this market.

Balfour has also appeared in several Rosemount Australian Fashion Week shows, including last year's Friedrich Gray and camilla + marc and last month's Ksubi show.

According to our well-placed sources, Balfour has just shot the Céline Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign. The campaign is said to include at least one other model.

Of course nothing is concrete in the modelling biz until it’s in print. But with new creative director Phoebe Philo, ex Chloé, helping reinvent Céline as of the world's hottest fashion brands, even booking the job is a fantastic get for Balfour.

In September 2008, coincidentally the month of Balfour's return to New York's runways, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and other members of the original 1990s supermodel pack began resurfacing in major fashion advertising campaigns.

Ad campaign shots are of course slightly less risky for advertisers, because well, they can be controlled and airbrushed - unlike most runway images.

Although Céline did not use any models aged 40+ on its Fall/Winter 2010/2011 runway earlier this year, however, several other brands did, deploying a handful of runway veterans, including Elle Macpherson, Kristen McMenamy and Stella Tennant.

So, interesting times indeed.