Three is a magic number (maybe)

leoni milano

Happy Independence Day to my American readers. July 4 is also frockwriter’s birthday and today we turn three. How time flies. It seems like only yesterday that I was saying sayonara to mainstream media blogging (for smh.com.au and news.com.au) and venturing into the wild blue yonder of the indie blogosphere. What a ride it has been. And what can I say but, once again, thank you for your interest, your comments, your Tweets, your links, your trackbacks, your feedback and your shit-canning. Over exuberance of the latter at one point over the past year prompted me to finally upgrade my comments system. Couple of milestones. It took two years to reach one million page views. But just one to reach two million. What might it take to hit one million PIs per month? Certainly much more of an effort than currently goes into this blog, due to paid work commitments and other distractions (such as a family drama, which has occupied a huge amount of time over the past few months). But I’m working on it. Thanks to new advertising partner Pages Digital, the first ad campaigns have gone up. Early days of course. But baby steps. 

Thanks to Kent for his unwavering support. Thanks also to my mates. You know who you are.
 

Special thanks to the inimitable Andrej Pejic, the subject of frockwriter’s two most popular posts of the last twelve months (not to mention an in-depth current affairs profile on Seven Network’s Sunday Night program). The year’s other top posts included Pretty Babies, about the eight year-old stars of an editorial in the December edition of Vogue Paris - a post that attracted the attention of the US Christian Right and broke frockwriter’s comments record. Coincidentally, it also precipitated, by several days, the announcement of the departure of Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld. Bulgari’s Lolcats and Givenchy’s Gender Bender (about transsexual model Lea T) were other popular posts.
 

Thanks to all the photographers, designers, editors, PRs and model agents for their generosity with tips, info, access and notably first looks at images, covers and campaigns - and of course the models themselves, who occupy such a huge part of this blog.
 

Thank-you also to the other bloggers, journalists and media outlets which regularly pick up frockwriter's stories. So very much appreciated.

From a tattoo parlour to a Givenchy exclusive - Lydia Willemina Collins

givenchy FW1112/getty via daylife

There are three days to go in the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show season. So far, frockwriter estimates that 24 Australians have walked its runways, several among them clocking up over 30 shows apiece from New York to Paris - and one (Julia Nobis), over 40. We've seen circuit veterans, circuit virgins and several models who have returned to the runways after taking a break - in Miranda Kerr's case at Balenciaga, two months after giving birth. But as the arrival of Lydia Willemina Collins overnight at the prestigious Givenchy show attests, it's not too late to throw a wild card into the ring. Modelling for a month, the 18 year-old Sydneysider - who is working under her two first names - was originally scouted three years ago by Work Agency's Helena Vitolins, working in her mother's tattoo parlour. "But she wasn’t ready" reports Vitolins from Paris. "I just waited for the right time. We got her passport on Thursday, flew her out on Saturday. All of this happened very quickly. We’re going to New York tomorrow, she has some major, major holds and some major, major appointments". The Givenchy exclusive was Collins' second job, after this lookbook for Australian label Scanlan & Theodore, shot by Max Doyle. A natural brunette (see below, from a February 3 post on models.com), her hair was dyed red by Givenchy's hair stylist Luigi Murenu specifically for the show. 

As for the extraordinary popularity of Australian models at the moment, Vitolins believes their down-to-earth attitude could be a contributing factor. 

"They’re cool, they're honest, they’re direct, they’re smart... I think that’s quite unique to Australian girls" notes Vitolins, adding that in the case of Collins, "If she wasn't modelling, she'd be a motor mechanic". 

Make than a motor mechanic on the Grand Prix circuit. 

 

work agency via models.com

Givenchy's gender bender

mert + marcus via givenchy

With all the buzz about androgynous Oz model Andrej Pejic at the recent Fall Winter 2010/2011 menswear collections in Europe, it's been easy to overlook Givenchy's intriguing FW1011 womenswear campaign. It's not news - WWD reported it back in May - but alongside several high profile women, including Australia's Catherine McNeil (below), Givenchy creative director Tisci also cast his longtime muse, assistant and fit model, transsexual Lea T, nee Leo (second on the R, above). “She’s always been very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic” Tisci told WWD. That was until Vogue Paris just published the following shot of Lea in its August edition. (warning NSFW).

paris vogue via the imagist, fashin

In an accompanying interview, Lea tells Vogue that it was Tisci who originally encouraged her to cross dress, suggesting she bleach her eyebrows and wear "drag queen heels" to a party one night.

The evening proved a "revelation", apparently prompting her subsequent decision to live as a woman, one that has not been without some pain, she reports, referring to discrimination faced out in public and also within her own family.

Lea is now repped by the Women model agency, appropriately enough, and since the publication of the Givenchy campaign, has been busy with bookings.

She is awaiting a "definitive intervention" (read sex reassignment surgery) which will "liberate her femininity".

Suddenly the womens collections and the mens collections seem to be blurring into one...

mert + marcus for givenchy via wwd

Hollywood's risk takers

reuters via daylife



Just a couple of personal favourites from last night's Oscars. Most of which, frockwriter notes, are already turning up on worst-dressed lists. In a sea of safe, so-so goddess gowns and meringues, however, we applaud their bravura: Charlize Theron, Zoe Saldana and Sarah Jessica Parker in haute couture, respectively Christian Dior, Givenchy and Chanel. Then there was Nicole Richie's quicksilver boho de luxe gown by Lebanese American designer Reem Acra. And the statuesque Kathryn Bigelow, who looked striking in her gunmetal Yves Saint Laurent sheath. Although the latter design was far more conservative than that of Theron and co, when you are the first woman in 82 years to be awarded a Best Director Oscar, who needs haute couture?















all images: daylife



sarah jessica parker/getty

nicole richie/getty

zoe saldana/AP

charlize theron/reuters