Prue Lewington: style editor, photographer, exhibitionist

We’ve read a lot about self-taught blogger photographers. A good eye and an even better camera can work wonders for anyone seeking to fill their online publishing ventures with original photographic material. Scott ‘The Sartorialist’ Schuman, Tommy ‘Jak & Jil’ Ton and Todd ‘The Selby’ Selby three great cases in point. But multitasking mainstream fashion editors or journalists? Not quite so common (and as frockwriter can attest, we’re not that welcome in the blogosphere. Something to do with the sentiment that we’ve somehow cheated our way to a profile that the ‘grassroots’ blogging crew have had to build from scratch). Sydneysiders would know the name Prue Lewington from her weekend fashion musings in The Sunday Telegraph. But who knew that she could also take a decent photo? Also self-taught, Lewington has been shooting in her spare time for the past three years and her work has been published in The Sunday Telegraph and elle.com. Tonight her first exhibition opens at the Kit & Kaboodle Stairwell Gallery in Sydney's Kings Cross. 

To be fair to Lewington, she brings more international chops to the Australian fashion reporting table than most - including journalists and bloggers.

She interned in the fashion department at US Harpers Bazaar before moving on to assist New York superstylist Patricia Field on Sex And The City. She then worked as an editorial manager at Nylon magazine, a Sunday stylist at The New York Post and finally, as the style editor of The New York Daily News. 

Here is a selection of images from Lewington’s website, taken in Sydney, New York and Argentina, some of which will be offered for sale tonight at the Stairwell Gallery. In addition to two of her hitherto unseen portraits: British model Jacquetta Wheeler (above) and a rather forlorn-looking Elle Halliwell (second from the bottom).  

Snapped in an abandoned café, flanked by a solitary, empty bottle of vino, Lewington's Sunday Telegraph fashion colleague stares off into the distance – perhaps contemplating the uncertain future of print.  

all images: prue lewington

First look: Jacquetta Wheeler for Jigsaw Australia Spring 2011

Anthony Cuthbertson is a busy guy. Not only is the Brit import the new creative director of Australian sportswear brand David Lawrence, as it emerges he is also the creative director of Jigsaw Australia (which, like David Lawrence, is owned by the Sydney-based M Webster Holdings). The British high street brand celebrates its 20th anniversary downunder with the upcoming ‘Cool Britannia’-inspired Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection of smart coats and sweet dresses, which launches in store at the end of this month and includes a capsule collection of swimwear, dresses, tops and skirts in Liberty of London’s iconic micro florals. To mark the occasion, Cuthbertson cast English rose Jacquetta Wheeler as the face of Jigsaw’s Max Doyle-lensed Spring 2011 campaign. Spotted by Mario Testino at age 16 in 1998 and named “model of the millennium” by The Face magazine in 1999, Wheeler's 13-year career has embraced advertising campaigns for the biggest names in the fashion business, including Gucci, Calvin Klein, Givenchy, Prada, Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Roberto Cavalli. 

Previous Jigsaw Australia faces have included Jandra Dziaugyte, Alice Rausch and, last season, Australia’s upwardly mobile Rosemary Smith - who walked in the Chanel haute couture show in Paris on Tuesday, her third Chanel runway show since March after the French luxury brand's Ready-to-Wear and Resort shows.

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by jigsaw australia

creative director: anthony cuthbertson
art director: kasia wydrowski 

photographer: max doyle 

retoucher: samantha hawkins