Action Jackson

johan sandberg via models.com

So the Spring/Summer 2012 shows kick off in New York overnight. As anticipated, a contingent of antipodian models is in situ, preparing to sink its teeth into the season. Some are international runway vets, others newbies, eager for a blockbuster first season. After turning down one blue chip European brand for two recent shoots and planning to wait until January to head offshore, Penrith’s own Krystal Glynn has had a change of heart and is in New York now. Stand by to see just where she pops up over the next four weeks. Ditto 17 year-old Brisbanite Nicole Pollard. Both Glynn and Pollard have been nominated by influential New York casting director Michelle Lee as two of Lee's top 12 new girls to watch for the season. Joining this burgeoning Aussie/Kiwi model posse is Jade Jackson from Melbourne. Modelling for one year, the 20 year old former nursing student, who is repped by Viviens in Australia and One Management in New York, was so under the radar in February this year, she managed to walk in 10 Fall/Winter 2011/2012 shows, including Richard Nicoll, Jaeger and Haider Ackermann, unbeknownst to most Australian modelwatchers (including frockwriter).

Jackson then caught the eye of H&M and Terry Richardson, who cast her in the fast fashion chain’s Fall/Winter 2011/2012 campaign. Jackson co-stars opposite no less than Freja Beha Erichsen and Anja Rubik, who are ranked the world numbers two and three respectively by models.com – which reckons Jackson is going into the SS12 season with “most wanted status”. 

The H&M campaign is currently up on billboards in New York. Here's a video:

Portmans takes Abbey Lee Kershaw back to her roots, taps Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Louise Roe to boot

While frockwriter noted that Abbey Lee Kershaw had signed on as the autumn/winter 2011 face of Australian high street chain Portmans, we haven’t touched the story in the interim because well, images of the Nicole Bentley-shot campaign have pretty much been everywhere since its January 27th launch. But here’s something that caught our attention: a sneak peek at Portmans' secret second winter shoot that Kershaw has just done in New York, this time with a US team headed up by photographer Matt Jones. Same stylist, however, Harpers Bazaar Australia fashion editor Christine Centenera (which just goes to show that it’s not only in Paris where salaried magazine staff moonlight as stylists on the campaigns of advertisers). And miraculously, Kershaw is rocking her original long-haired coiffure in these images: mousey blonde, with pastel highlights and bangs. A Portmans rep assures us that this is merely a wig and that Kershaw - who, as we first reported, is ditching New York Fashion Week to appear with her boyfriend’s band Our Mountain at its three London gigs next week - still has a platinum bob. Perhaps Portmans figured Kershaw’s platinum locks would blend into all the snow in and around the Meat Packing District location? 

Frockwriter can also reveal that Kershaw will be fronting a magazine-style catalogue that Portmans is planning to release in March, around the same time that these new campaign images are due to drop in Portmans' stores.

The magazine has been edited by LA-based Brit fashion journo and tv presenter Louise Roe, a guest of the 2010 Melbourne Cup, who writes for Elle, Vogue.com, InStyle and Glamour and whose numerous tv credits include MTV reality shows The City and Plain Jane.

Included in the editorial lineup of the first Portmans magazine are an editorial shoot with ANTM Cycle 6 winner Amanda Ware, who is currently in New York hoping to score some shows. And, interestingly, a profile on Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the French art director/model/socialite/It girl daughter of former Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld.

According to Portmans, Restoin-Roitfeld was an active participant in the profile, talking to Roe about her personal style, fave labels and shopping. 

Given her family’s longstanding connection to Ford (Carine Roitfeld was a former consultant to Ford at Gucci and YSL) and that Restoin-Roitfeld modelled in both Tom Ford’s Black Orchid fragrance campaign and Ford’s debut womenswear show in New York last September, recently interviewing Ford for V Magazine, presumably his label would be at the top of her fave label list. Just a reminder that Kershaw is currently fronting Ford’s first womenswear campaign. 

Great publicity for Ford of course. And a clever way, all round really, for a run-of-the-mill fast fashion chain to dramatically lift its image.

 

images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by portmans

The big league: H&M launches a plus size collection for Spring

Karl Lagerfeld severed ties with H&M in part because the company wanted to produce his collection in large sizes, while he was reportedly only interested in designing “fashion for slender and slim people”. But it seems the Swedish fast fashion behemoth hasn’t let this rain on its plus size parade. From early March, H&M will offer a 20-unit capsule collection called, simply, Inclusive, which will be available in sizes 32-54 and sold exclusively online (these would appear to be Swedish sizes, which equate to an Australian 6-28). Many thanks to Runway Revolution for the headsup. Why online only? In 2008, when Australian designer Leona Edmiston decided to double her size range to a 24, coincidentally she also only offered the larger sizes online, after her research indicated that many larger women felt uncomfortable in boutiques. 

After frockwriter (in her previous incarnation as Fully Chic) opened up what would become a rather heated discussion on the subject, others added in that many larger women in fact feel unwelcome in mainstream fashion boutiques. 

Considering that so many fashion boutiques appear not to have much stock over a size 10, is that so very surprising? 

So far H&M appears only to be shipping to Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Swedish Finland and the UK, but we have a hunch they may be about to be inundated with global enquiries. 

The accompanying campaign features plus size Australian model Robyn Lawley (second from the top).  

Great initiative. Adorable dresses. Not before time.

all images: H&M

Portmans signs Abbey Lee Kershaw

david jones SS1011 backstage/frockwriter

How nervous are Australian retailers about the imminent arrival of Zara early next year? Wetting their pants, some might surmise, given the news that Australian mid market fashion chain Portmans has just signed homegrown modelling superstar Abbey Lee Kershaw as its autumn/winter 2011 campaign face. As revealed by frockwriter yesterday, Kershaw was recently involved in a cycling accident, injuries from which may have precluded her involvement with Chanel's big Pre Fall 2011 runway presentation in Paris on Tuesday. Kershaw is, after all, one of Chanel's advertising faces this season. Nevertheless, she has just arrived downunder and according to our sources, will shoot the Portmans campaign in Sydney next week with Nicole Bentley. The campaign is due to roll out from January 31st through until May and we hear Kershaw will bank at least six figures for the job, minimum A$120,000. This is a large sum for a single season Australian campaign. 

Although perhaps also indicative of the recent recovery in the Australian advertising industry – with expenditure up 11percent, against the wider backdrop of a global ad industry recovery – the timing of this particular campaign does seem more than coincidental. 

In April or May 2011, a whopping three level, 1800 sqm Zara emporium is due to open within the new Westfield Sydney development, fronting onto Australia's highest traffic retail strip, the Pitt Street Mall. A Melbourne store may open earlier still.   

Now the world's largest clothing retailer, Zara revolutionised the fashion business with its speed-to-market innovations which put trends in the hands of consumers in record time. Anecdotally at least, this journalist has heard more than one designer and retailer express concern about its potential impact on their local businesses.  

Founded by the Bloom family in 1946 and acquired by Just Jeans Holdings in 2002, Portmans today has over 190 stores around Australia. 
  
The company's previous campaign faces and ambassadors have included Elyse Taylor, Miranda Kerr and Jessica Hart. But none were in Kershaw's league at the time of their contracts. Kerr's contract, for instance, expired in 2007.

Currently ranked as the world’s number five overall model by industry authority models.com, Kershaw's big bucks luxury brand campaigns include Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Gucci (x 5). However her portfolio also embraces numerous sportswear, diffusion and even high street brand campaigns, from D&G to See by Chloé, CK Jeans, CK Calvin Klein, H&M, Gap and South Korean chain Lewitt. 

In July, Kershaw helped fill in for newlywed Kerr on the runway at David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 season launch. 

But clearly, she won't be available to lend a hand for DJs' Autumn/Winter 2011 launch in February. First up, she's likely to be on high rotation on the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 runways at that time. And now of course, she is going to be the face of a rival Australian retailer for winter.

Stella McCartney for Target redux - two weeks in, already marked down

As reported by frockwriter on October 1st, the second Stella McCartney for Target Australia collection was due to launch in 102 stores on October 29th. Last Thursday, Target told Ragtrader that 20percent of the stock had sold out on its first day and that the company was “extremely pleased” with the reaction. Five stores were singled out for special mention, where the 42-unit range had reportedly performed the best. Adelaide's Target Rundle Street, slap bang in that city's busiest shopping precinct, clearly was not one of them however. Because when frockwriter was in town last week for the Adelaide Fashion Festival and checked the store on November 9th, it looked to have almost the entire collection still hanging - and noone looking at it. Five days later, at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney – one of the stores flagged by Target as having experienced the highest demand – we couldn’t help but notice this 20percent off banner, top, in the middle of McCartney’s section. And this is what the Stella McCartney section looks like today in Target Rundle Street (below) - after the entire McCartney promotion was moved away from the front of the store to join the rest of the womenswear offer, reports our SA fashionista-on-the-ground, Selena Battersby.

target rundle street, adelaide, 18th november/selena battersby

To be fair to Target, there was one garment that we could not find in either of the two stores we checked – the heavily embellished sheath dress – so we have to assume that was one of the first items to go. Update 1836 AEST: One reader reports via Twitter that that particular dress was never produced due to manufacturing issues. The dress is no longer included in the Stella McCartney collection images on Target's website. In the FAQs section, Target notes "due to unforeseen circumstances the flower sequin embroidered dress is no longer available". 

Still, we also feel the need to point that some fashion enthusiasts say they were unaware that the range was even at Target. 

Could this perhaps have had something to do with the fact that Target took its time to promote the launch to the mainstream media?

As reported by frockwriter, the fashion editors of at least three major Australian newspapers received neither an invitation to the October 1st unveiling in Sydney, nor even a press release about the imminent launch. 

Six bloggers, on the other hand, were invited to attend on October 1st, with several parties flown in from interstate. As part of a special promotion, the bloggers were required to produce two sponsored (ie paid) posts apiece - with copy approved by the client before publication.

One of the newspaper editors who did not receive materials regarding Stella McCartney for Target 2010 until much closer to the launch date, recalled their experiences with Target's PR division following the release of the company's first McCartney collab in 2007. 

At the time, newspaper reporters who don't have to have their copy approved by anyone other than their editors, reported that initial consumer hysteria had turned to disenchantment - with surplus stock left hanging in many stores and some consumers returning goods.

"They [Target] went into lockdown mode" the editor told frockwriter.

More Boutiques.com: You can also shop their looks for less

 
Yesterday frockwriter revealed the name of Google’s new fashion e-tail venture Boutiques.com, which is launching tomorrow in New York. It was in fact a world scoop........by about 40 minutes (WWD had a page one story in yesterday’s edition). Today we can add some more info. The site, we understand, is moving very rapidly towards the unveil and its offer now embraces boutiques curated either by - or around - 76 celebrities, 27 retailers, 55 designers and 12 bloggers. But the list of designers simply reflects those names who have thus far, apparently, agreed to participate in the venture. A designer directory lists over 200 designer names (including Australians Bassike, Willow, Thurley, sass & bide, Lover and Ksubi). But even that doesn’t embrace the full scope of the Boutiques.com offer, because products from a raft other brands and outlets that are not, it seems, officially involved, are also featured. They include US-based fast fashion chain Forever 21, the bête noir of the US fashion industry, which has been the target of numerous trademark/copyright infringement lawsuits initiated by US designers - including participating Boutiques.com designers Diane von Furstenberg and Anna Sui. 

How are these non partner brands involved? 

From our understanding, by recommendations - from, for instance, the bloggers and notably, via Google’s own in-house curation using the image-matching technology it acquired from Like.com in August. 

Like the $1365 Alexander Mcqueen dress with trompe l’oeil jewelled bodice recommended by The Cherry Blossom Girl? Adjacent to that image, Boutiques.com throws up an array of what it is calling “visually similar” garments at varying price points, which click through to the plethora of online retail partners that are paying a fee to Google to be featured (plus, one assumes, a commission). As we noted yesterday, these include Shopbop, Nêt-à-Porter, Nordstrom, Selfridges, Bluefly and, yes, evidently also Forever 21.

Beyond mere trend matching, frockwriter will be curious to see if Google plans to moderate any direct copies of its designer partners' products that might pop up in the search fields. 

The Boutiques.com launch coincides with the possible imminent implementation of some rather groundbreaking new federal IP legislation in the United States: the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. The first statutory protection specific to fashion designs, the bill was introduced in August, reportedly has bipartisan support and may be passed by the year's end.

If passed, the legislation would provide designers with three year copyright protection on all fashion, accessory and eyewear items from the moment they are first promoted in public and it is fully supported by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, of which von Furstenberg is current president. 
  

composite: frockwriter

Clipped: Lanvin for H&M

Excited by Stella McCartney for Target Australia mark II? Try Lanvin for H&M. Here's the capsule collection video starring Hannelore Knuts, Jane Schmitt, Tati Cotliar and Natasha Poly, just launched online. The collection, which consists of 30 pieces and 15 accessories for women and 25 pieces and 10 accessories for men, will launch in 200 countries later this month: reportedly November 20th in Canada, for some reason and then November 23rd in the rest of the world.

Stella McCartney for Target redux

You've had three years to recover from the first Stella McCartney for Target Australia hysteria. Gird your loins for SMFT Mark II. In what could best be described as a Target-ed launch tonight, the Australian discount department store invited six local bloggers to the Altona mansion in harbourside Point Piper, to unveil the fruits of its second Stella McCartney capsule collection. The interstate bloggers were flown in and put up overnight at a 5 star. Noted one invitee, Sam Winter aka Sassi Sam, "we were treated like rock stars". Frockwriter wasn't there, but we can confirm that the fashion editors of at least three major Australian newspapers not only were not invited, they were given zero information by Target about the launch. Nevertheless Grazia Australia broke the news on Twitter and has a story next week (update 02/10: vogue.com.au and The Sydney Morning Herald both have the story today - although info for the SMH story was not provided by Target). The bloggers report they are being paid to write posts and must submit copy for approval. While they're busy doing that, here is a first look at the 42-piece collection (which is already on Target's website), to be sold in 102 Target stores and online from October 29. It ranges from $20 for a headband up to $299 for a silk dress and includes some kickass cropped cigarette pants, blazers, skinny jeans, tulip skirts, lace and satin blouses and some quite beautiful dresses, including one French blue lace cocktail dress with sweetheart neckline and a heavily-embellished shift. 

And good news for larger sizes: although the size 16 merchandise in McCartney's first Target collection appeared to languish on the sales racks at the end of the season - prompting Target to make its subsequent Zac Posen capsule collection up to a size 14 only - everything in this collection does appear to range from 6-16. 

Although the designer was not present, by all accounts, the launch was in typical Stella style: tableaux of fresh-faced models milling around in the gear, taking high tea. 

all images: target australia

The Gap is opening this month in Australia - it's just not sure where

American retail juggernaut The Gap is leading the fast fashion charge to Australia, opening its first store downunder this month. Spain's Zara is also en route, ditto Japan’s Uniqlo. But is the first Gap store due to open in Melbourne, as advertised - or Sydney? Looking at The Gap’s website (screen cap above - click to enlarge; tks to Guy Willis for the tip), you’d be forgiven for thinking the company hasn’t got a blinking clue which city is which. Behind the “Melbourne” sign on the left are three Sydney icons: the Opera House, Centrepoint Tower and what appears to be Aussie Stadium. Behind the "Sydney" sign on the right are three Melbourne icons: a green tram, the Arts Centre spire and what looks very much like the Docklands. To Gap’s credit it did get the correct Luna Park – that’s Melbourne's version on the left. And that appears to be a sliver of Melbourne's Flinders Street Station behind that. Unless, of course, it’s Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building. Could The Gap please sort itself out stat. We’re pretty laid back, us Aussies, but there is a minor difference of 1160kms between the two cities.

You've got to hand it to Supré

They do have a knack for a catchy, opportunistic, T-shirt graphics.