Girls on film at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2011

screen cap 'catwalk' via 123nonstop.com

Arguably more fashion-specific documentaries have been lensed in the past four years, than in the last two decades combined, with offerings including Lagerfeld Confidential (2007), Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007), Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008), The September Issue (2009) and Picture Me (2009). That's not counting the recent proliferation of fashion shorts and videos, whose distribution has obviously been facilitated by the net. For anyone who is interested in seeing some older examples of the frockumentary genre, in addition to some less high-profile recent examples and who happens to be in Melbourne next week, this year's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which officially kicks off tomorrow - and which frockwriter will be attending as a guest of the organisers and Tourism Victoria - has an abundance of offerings.

As part of its ongoing fashion on film series, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image [ACMI] is running a festival dedicated to the model doco called Fashion Models on Film.
 

screen cap 'model' via ACMI

Featured are Sarah Ziff and Ole Schell's controversial Picture Me: A Model's Diary (2009); Robert Leacock's Catwalk: Milan, Paris and New York (1996), which tagged along after Christy Turlington during one runway season; Frederick Wiseman's Model (1980), which profiled New York's Zoli agency (since subsumed into Click) and Dressed for Summer 2011 (2010), the Spring/Summer 2011 chapter of French journalist Agnès Boulard's longrunning French television series on Paris Fashion Week.

ACMI's screenings kicked off on Thursday with Picture Me, but here is the remainder of the program:


Picture Me                           Sun 13 Mar 2011, 5.30pm
Model                                  Sun 13 Mar 2011, 7.30pm
Catwalk                               Mon 14 Mar 2011, 3.30pm
Dressed for Summer 2011  Mon 14 Mar 2011, 5.30pm
Model                                  Mon 14 Mar 2011, 7.30pm
Picture Me                           Tue 15 May 2011, 2.30pm
Model                                  Wed 16 May 2011, 2.30pm
Dressed Up                         Wed 16 May 2011, 7.30pm
Catwalk                               Thu 17 Mar 2011, 2.30pm

ACMI  

Address: Federation Square, Melbourne

Phone: +61 3 86632583

Web: http://www.acmi.net.au/fashion-models-on-film.aspx

screen cap 'catwalk' via 123nonstop.com

On Monday this week, as part of the broader LMFF cultural festival, ACMI also hosted the launch event of a new Australian initiative called NoHome.tv.
 

Conceived by Alastair McCann and Justin Watson, NoHome.tv is a fashion film portal that will go live on March 20th, showcasing submissions from, among others, Alexi Freeman, Arabella Ramsay, Beat Poet, Carly Hunter, Limedrop, Orri Henrisson, Upper Left Arm and Sweden’s Acne – with consumers encouraged and enabled via the site to remix the films.
 

On Thursday, sadly prior to the arrival of many out-of-towners for LMFF, a separate project called FASHIONFILM screened a number of short films at the Rooftop Cinema in Melbourne’s CBD, notably Mark Skaszy’s Corrine Day Diary, which documented a decade in the life of the late, great British fashion photographer.

Gemma Ward turns 23, gets cast as a princess in Jack the Giant Killer?

paolo roversi/vogue italia via virtue or vanity

Gemma Ward turns 23 today. As a birthday present, could she have been cast in yet another US blockbuster? Ward recently shot scenes for Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, in which she plays a mermaid. Now her IMDB [Internet Movie Database] listing is listing her as a potential cast member of New Line's Jack the Giant Killer, which is to be directed by Bryan Singer and is scheduled to start shooting in the northern spring. A remake of the 1962 film of the same name, Jack the Giant Killer recounts the story of a boy who rescues a princess from evil sorcerers. Ward would of course make a fabulous fairytale princess. But given that at least three names are still being mooted for the lead male role - Alex Pettyfer, Aaron Johnson and Max Irons - it sounds like not a great deal is nailed down. Ward also recently auditioned for Max Mad 4: Fury Road, however so far not much appears to have come from that. Frockwriter has attempted to reach Ward’s LA management, with as yet no luck. In the meantime, many happy returns.

Stolen Girlfriends Club has ordered 1000 jam jars for its Sydney party, but there won't be any Stolen Generation T-shirts

stolen girlfriends club AW11/kent vaughan

Next Thursday, Auckland hipster collective Stolen Girlfriends Club will stage its second Sydney shindig in five months, this time to unveil a new short film shot by renowned Kiwi snapper Derek Henderson, to promote SGC’s new Heavy Metal jewellery line. The film stars photogenic Kiwi lovebirds Dempsey Stewart and Jasper Seven modelling the inaugural collection, We Are Ugly But We Have The Music (below). Frockwriter has previously documented SCG’s predilection towards serving alcohol in jam jars at events and next week will be no different with, we are told, 1000 jam jars ordered for the occasion. One thing we won’t be seeing at the event, however, is an “I belong to the Stolen Generation” T-shirt, as appeared on SGC's runway in Auckland last month. 

After frockwriter asked just how well the T-shirts would go down in the Australian market – where the term The Stolen Generation refers to the generations of Aboriginal children removed from their parents by the Australian government – co-founder Marc Moore later told us that he and his partners Dan Gosling and Luke Harwood had previously been unfamiliar with the term and were horrified to learn what it meant in Australia. 

 

According to Moore, he and his brand-mates had originally been inspired by the iconic American “non-smoking generation” logo, down to the same font. 

The Stolen Generation T-shirt slogan has been canned reports Moore. The T-shirts will now read “I belong to the Broken Generation”.

Says Moore: 

“We changed it because it would have been incredibly insensitive to run it. Australia is one of our main markets and it’s close to home, so we want to make friends – not enemies. Sure our brand can be cheeky at times, but only as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone”.

Well, as long as you don't count those two pesky assaults after the last SGC show in Auckland....

screen cap 'heavy metal' by derek henderson for stolen girlfriends club

backstage, stolen girlfriends club AW10 show, auckland, september 2009

front-of-house at the stolen girlfriends club AW11 show, auckland, 23rd september 2010

Lewitt responds to the Abbey Lee Kershaw film flak, suicide prevention experts weigh in

Earlier this month frockwriter reported that a South Korean fashion brand called Lewitt had engaged American photographer Ryan McGinley to shoot a short film starring high profile Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw. The film, which depicts Kershaw climbing to the top of a building, hesitating whilst anxiously looking down and then hurling herself over the edge, with the fall documented in slow motion to show multiple clothing changes, seemed like an odd concept for promoting fashion to young women in a country that boasts the world’s highest female suicide rate. Odder still, given that seven models - including South Korea’s Daul Kim – committed suicide over the past two years. Four, by jumping. Kershaw subsequently revealed that the film was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. McGinley has still not responded to frockwriter’s questions. But Lewitt did finally get back to us – albeit apparently via its advertising agency. We received the following response from a South Korean company called Intoo Creative. Since we have had no prior dealings with them, we did seek to confirm with the Lewitt HQ that it was in fact an official company statement. In ten days there has been no response. So here goes:

"The basic inspiration of our film came from a picture of a model (Agyness Deyn) jumping off a building, which was taken by Mr. Ryan McGinley. We tried to show fantastical images and visuals as much as possible that are well-known as the trade mark of Mr. McGinley himself. However, our particular film includes more than his trade mark of jumping & running visuals. It also was inspired by fantasy worlds from movies called Alice in Wonderland and Pan’s Labyrinth.

We would like to point out that at our most recent press premiere in Korea, there were no feedbacks whatsoever that link this excellent film to a motive that might even be encouraging any suicidal behaviors on Korean women. This film clearly expresses and portrays a girl’s adventure of finding freedom in her own fantasy world.

We understand that feelings and feedbacks may vary depending on individuals. However, we are sorry to hear that linking this film to Korean women’s suicidal rate based on an opinion noted on one individual’s personal blog is not at all a fair claim.
 
Lastly, for your information, official website of “LEWITT” is not yet to be opened and is still under construction. It is during this period when a picture of Abbey is shown just as a filling-in image for the site’s construction period.
 
Once again, thank you for your interest. Should you have any further queries, please feel free to contact. We sincerely ask you strongly not to misunderstand the true intention of the film".

The film – in full – is now up on the Lewitt website. As are a number of still images of Kershaw – including several shots taken as she jumps and falls (above, below). 

However the image of Kershaw lying spread-eagle on the ground (at the top of this post), which was used on Lewitt's website before the video went up - and was later removed after the negative feedback - is nowhere to be seen. 

In closing, just a reminder that it wasn’t just this blog which called the video into question.

A number of other blogs and media outlets picked the story up. Others, including Jezebel, followed.

While sadly we do seem to be covering more and more model suicide stories these days, fashion reporters of course are not suicide prevention experts. 

Just out of interest, what do the latter have to say about the Lewitt film? Frockwriter spoke to several suicide prevention experts who did not seem particularly impressed. 

Jaelea Skehan, Program Manager, Mindframe National Media Initiative at the Hunter Institute of Mental Health:
 

“While it may not be intended, the video could be interpreted as depicting suicide. 

While there has been limited international evidence looking at advertising specifically, there is substantial international research that links depictions of suicide in news and entertainment media with increased rates of deaths and attempts by suicide. Risk is increased where the media portrayal depicts a specific method or location of death. 

It is important for all forms of media to consider the potential impact that their portayals may have on vulnerable audiences". 

Professor Bob Montgomery, President of the Australian Psychological Society:

“It’s a potential problem. We know there’s a copycat effect. Models are chosen because they’re presented as, ‘This is is someone you desire to be, this is the look you should have, this is clearly someone you should be identifying with’. Whatever their intention is, is irrelevant. What counts is the impact on the people who are likely to see it and be influenced by it. So it is unfortunate that they’re presenting an apparent attempt at killing yourself as in any way glamorous. Their intention is to flog whatever she’s wearing to as many people as possible at outrageous prices and they’re willing to do almost anything to achieve that. And this is what I would call reckless advertising”.

 
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Child and Adolescent Psychologist:

"Yes I think this is problematic, it glamorizes, normalizes and
sanitizes suicide. Research suggests that the more we talk about,
write about or depict suicide there is a corresponding increase in
suicides. This is manifestly irresponsible and if someone did end
their lives, I wonder whether there might be a cause for action in law
against the advertisers?"

Could it inspire copycat suicides?
 

"Yes the Yukiko effect is a well accepted phenomenon. Around 10 o'clock April 8, 1986, the 18-year old Okada Yukiko ( a Japanese Brittany Speares) was found with a slashed wrist in her gas-filled Tokyo apartment, crouching in a closet and sobbing. Two hours later, the singer jumped to her death from the seven-storey Sun Music Agency building. The reason for the suicide is still unknown. Her untimely death resulted in many copycat suicides soon christened with the neologism "Yukko Syndrome" for copycat suicides in Japan".

Is there even a problem drawing attention to it, because it might encourage
those who are sitting on the fence to take action?

"The massive wave of emulation suicides after a widely publicized
suicide is also known as the Werther effect, following the Werther
novel of Goethe.The well-known suicide serves as a model, in the
absence of protective factors, for the next suicide. This is referred
to as suicide contagion. They occasionally spread through a school
system, through a community, or in terms of a celebrity suicide wave,
nationally. This is called a suicide cluster. To prevent this type of
suicide, it is customary in some countries for the media to discourage
suicide reports except in special cases".

***Any readers in need of support and information about suicide prevention should contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, SANE Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263) or youthbeyondblue.com***

all images: screen caps/lewitt.kr