Mother and son

So Myer celebrated its 100th birthday, simultaneously unveiling the A$300million Bourke Street flagship store revamp, with a million dollar party last night. Arguably the biggest star of the night was Melbourne modelling sensation Andrej Pejic accompanied by his proud mum Jadranka Savic, who looked beautiful in a custom-made black Grecian-style gown by Jane Lamerton. Kitted out in embellished gold trousers and tuxedo jacket by Yeojin Bae and towering black platform boots, Pejic's extravagant up-do was inspired, he told The Melbourne Herald Sun, by Helena Bonham Carter's character Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Noted Pejic, "I watched it on the plane and I'm like, that's the hair that I want". 

all images: youbeutie.com

Andrejmania

holly blake for michael wolff

Are you ready for the seven days of Andrej? In his first visit back home downunder since his already burgeoning media profile went into overdrive, thanks to several rather groundbreaking turns on Jean Paul Gaultier’s runways in Paris in January, Serbian Australian modelling superstar Andrej Pejic touched down in Melbourne this morning for what frockwriter understands is a very busy week. We hear today is in fact his only free day. Pejic is in town for Thursday night’s big unveiling of the revamped Bourke Street, Melbourne flagship of Australian department store Myer. In and around that event, one rehearsal, one in-store photocall on Wednesday at 11.45am – not exactly a press conference, but the next best thing – and at least two photoshoots have been squeezed. One of the photoshoots is for an Australian eveningwear label – a womens eveningwear label, just to clarify. And Pejic will of course be catching up with his family, who were first profiled on Seven Network’s Sunday Night program on February 13th. 

Joining Pejic on the red carpet on Thursday will be his charming mother Jadranka, who has been outfitted for the occasion by designer Jane Lamerton. We attended last week’s fittings for Jadranka’s custom-made dress and took a few shots:

Pejic himself will reportedly be wearing a mashup of Arthur Galan and Yeojin Bae.

It’s unclear at this stage whether their red carpet sortie will be the only appearance that the Pejics make at the event.
 
Since we last covered Pejic’s skyrocketing career, after the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show season, during which he walked for twelve different designers - half in menswear and half in womenswear - Pejic has been working flat out and the global publicity has not stopped. Little wonder he is edging closer to the world Top 10 of models.com’s Top 50 Men list, having just moved into the number 11 spot.
 
Notable jobs have included two magazine covers (Zeit Magazin and Photo), a photoshoot for Dazed & Confused and at least three videos: for Dossier Journal, Crash magazine and emerging talent website The Ones 2 Watch.





 
Just how to leverage this unprecedented interest into serious earnings... that’s the $64million question.
 
A big bucks Myer campaign? Too edgy for a mainstream retailer with a very conservative advertising image, say our sources – in spite of the fact that Myer is so keen to associate itself with Pejic this week.
 

Beauty contracts are where the big money lies in modelling. You have to wonder just how long it will be before a major name snaps Pejic up. Jean Paul Gaultier perhaps, for one of his fragrances? 

So far, two small Australian companies have been the only beauty advertisers to step up to the Pejic plate. The Fudge hair product brand and, most recently, Sydney hair stylist Michael Wolff. 

Wolff's ad, shot by Sydney photographer Holly Blake, featured in a recent edition of Harpers Bazaar Australia:

Wolff told frockwriter:

“I was looking and casting girls and I couldn’t really find the girl. The reference I was using was the story that Andrej did in French Vogue. And Holly Blake said ‘You know this guy is Australian don't you?' We spent a day with him, back in December, he was on his way to Paris. Whilst he was here, I coloured and cut his hair and the next day I shot with him. I have a good friend called Christopher Esber and I borrowed a shirt, a double shirt with cotton and rubber over the top. That was the hero shot I used for the ad.

”At the end of the day, I loved Andrej’s look so much, the whole androgynous thing… it elevated the whole image of the salon. It’s kind of like stepping into the moment. Does it matter if it’s a man or a woman? So many guys have long hair. People appreciate beautiful people. To me Andrej had the most perfect face.

”It’s what’s now. This is what’s happening now. I see lots of young people walking around and I think they’re quite androgynous. It’s not about sexuality, about being gay or straight. There’s a whole new thing going on now, so having the opportunity to shoot Andrej was very cool”.

Here are some hitherto unseen outtakes from the Michael Wolff shoot, which we just couldn't resist turning into a little flash animation.... 

all images: supplied to frockwriter by michael wolff/holly blake

The show goes on for David Jones... without sass & bide

 

As per David Jones' famous advertising slogan, there used to be no other department store in Australia for sass & bide. But after days of rumours, it is now confirmed that David Jones' arch rival Myer will become the brand's exclusive Australian department store partner moving forward, having just acquired a 65percent stake for A$42.25million plus a performance bonus based on fiscal 2011 sales results. David Jones, which has winter 2011 sass & bide stock on its hands and features the brand in its winter 2011 "brand book" catalogue (above), has responded with its own Australian Stock Exchange announcement this morning that it is ending its 10 year association with sass & bide following David Jones' decision not to acquire a stake. Oh and it wasn't doing very well anyway, added DJs (at least at DJs - Myer reports that sass & bide overall delivered 50percent year on year sales growth for the past two years). Noted ceo Paul Zahra, “We did the calculations and could not justify the price paid for the business, particularly given the lack of growth in our sass & bide business with sales and gross profit in FY10 at approximately FY05 levels". This is fascinating, given that David Jones gave sass & bide its prestigious finale spot in the Autumn/Winter 2010 show one year ago. What the Myer decision ultimately means for the sass & bide brand remains to be seen. Not surprisingly perhaps, the brand has been yanked altogether from tomorrow's lineup, David Jones has confirmed to frockwriter.

But that's not to say that there won't be some familiar faces on the runway. 

It might not be quite the same as having Miranda Kerr, Abbey Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil in the show, as occurred in the last two seasons, but David Jones nevertheless has a pretty impressive cast list for tomorrow’s Autumn/Winter 2011 showcase, which kicks off at 6.30pm at the Elizabeth Street, Sydney, flagship. 

Led by Nicole Trunfio, the cast includes several Australians with international runway experience, notably Alexandra Agoston, Myf Shepherd, Christina Carey, Tiah Eckhardt, Stephanie Carta and thirtysomething Queenslander Heath Townsend, a former face of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Ralph Lauren. 

Others of note include Samantha Harris, Pania Rose and Chic newcomer Rosemary Smith, who will be heading to the Milan and Paris legs of the northern Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show season in a fortnight. 

Here is the complete cast list:

CHIC MANAGEMENT
Nicole Trunfio
Alexandra Agoston
Myf Shepherd
Christina Carey
Samantha Harris
Pania Rose
Charlotte Lohmann
Anna Sjoberg
Vanessa Breuer
Emma Taylor
Emma Power
Louise van der Vorst
Rosemary Smith
Sarah Stephens
Cisco Tschurtschenthaler de Helmhein
Jasmine Yarbrough
Annika Kaban
Brigitte Malcolm
Valerija Erokhina
Amy Finlayson
Lina Mihailova
Clare Venema
Heath Townsend

PRISCILLA'S
Eliza Humble
Greta Chesterman
Simone Kerr
Stephanie Carta
Rachel Grasso
Laura Gorun
Bella Barber
Cat Edwards
Kerry Doyle
Bruce Raubenheimer
Blair Norfolk
Lewis Grant

VIVIENS
Avril Alexander
Tiah Eckhardt
Nicole Sherriss
Karima Alexander
Ruby Brown
Nick Ingall
BJ Jarrett
Philippa

CHADWICK
Claire Quirk
Lorene Renard

EMG
Adhiel Tulba
Chris Knee

FRM MANAGEMENT
Nikki Thot

MENS DIVISION
Nicolas Curnow
 

Social (fashion) workers

@mythreads

A quick update on the Myer spring catalogue shoot, which rolled on today in Melbourne. Frockwriter mentioned yesterday that there was some confusion over the social media aspect of the campaign, with representatives of at least one model booked for the campaign, Cassi van den Dungen, surprised at the extent of the coverage. This morning frockwriter received an email from Myer rep Tim Evans, from the DT Digital agency, which is handling the campaign. Evans revealed that this was the first time that Myer had covered a campaign shoot in real time. He also wanted to clear up any “misunderstanding” over yesterday's post and insisted that all permissions were indeed sought from all the agencies – and duly granted. According to the van den Dungen camp, this is "absolutely not" correct. Confusing, it is. Update 11/06/10 @ 1.30pm. Van den Dungen's Melbourne agency, Cameron's, which negotiated the deal, claims that it did know about the social media coverage and did not have a problem with it. Work Agency, van den Dungen's mother agency in Sydney, which manages her career, has a different position.

To clarify one aspect of yesterday’s post, however, there was in fact only one party Tweeting from the set: Melbourne blogger and journalist Kat George, who writes for a variety of publications and websites, including The Vine, which is published by Fairfax Digital.

According to Tim Evans, George was hired to Tweet live from the shoot under Myer's Mythreads Twitter feed.

George also Tweeted from the shoot on her own Twitter feed.

She explains this here, here and here – although it’s not 100percent clear from this information that it’s a paid gig (George also points to several posts on Myer's Mythreads Facebook page, which refer to her "guest blogging" and being "on location" for the Myer catalogue shoot).

Frockwriter spoke to several other agents this afternoon about their approach to the burgeoning social media arena.

Several parties spoke of a new cardinal rule for models: do not post any information or images from jobs on social networking sites.

One agent recounted the story of a model who could not resist sharing her upcoming magazine cover on Facebook. Advanced to the model as a courtesy by the magazine, the cover was however swiftly dumped in favour of another image with a different model, following the indiscretion.

When it comes to commercial clients and the use of images/footage shot on location on jobs, one senior modelling industry figure conceded that social media has opened up a whole new “grey area” for the industry.

“Everyone has a camera on set now” they noted.

Every move she makes: Cassi van den Dungen stalked by client paparazzi

stylestalker's Facebook via TFS

You don’t need to wait to see Myer’s spring catalogue starring Cassi van den Dungen and Bambi Northwood-Blythe. Today’s shoot was Tweeted throughout by at least two parties Melbourne blogger Kat George, guest blogging for Myer on the company’s Twitter feed and her personal Twitter feed. Van den Dungen seemed to be a particular focus, with seemingly every nanosecond of her time on set accounted for in a Tweet. From “Cassi in braids” to “Cassi and the amazing legs that go on until forever…” to “Cassi does a balancing act backstage as she has a Cinderella moment with the stylist slipping shoes on her feet!” Beyond actually photographing the catalogue - the principle purpose of the job - Myer’s social media approach to the session apparently was, to use the parlance of Australian television industry, to “shoot the s**t out of it”. Terrific publicity for Myer of course. It’s just a shame they didn’t think to run this by van den Dungen’s agent beforehand - whose express wish, we understand, was for a closed set. Van den Dungen's Melbourne agent, Camerons, which negotiated the deal, claims that it was fully apprised of the social media aspect of the shoot. This information appears not to have been clarified with van den Dungen's mother agent in Sydney. See updated post.



myer shoot 09/06/10 via @mythreads

It was the second fashion shoot in a week in which clients have milked the social media life out of van den Dungen – who of course is no stranger to the medium, having borne the brunt of Facebook indiscretions on several occasions since being crowned runnerup of Australia’s Next Top Model last year.



stylestalker's Facebook via TFS

Last week, while van den Dungen was shooting a lookbook for Sydney label Stylestalker, no less than three parties took photos and posted them on their own sites. Some of the shots have since been removed, but not before winding up further circulated on other sites such as the hugely popular web forum, The Fashion Spot.

Stylestalker posted images on its Facebook page.

Tangent Magazine – whose studios were being used for the shoot – posted shots to Twitter, including one shot in which van den Dungen's nipples were clearly visible through a sweater, as she changed into an outfit.

Even an intern at Stylestalker, stylist Annabel Wendt, wallpapered her Love More blog with photos from the shoot, complaining to her readers that her wings had been clipped and she couldn't post more:

“I took a lot more shots and even a few videos to share but sadly
I am not aloud to use shots with the model...so this is all I can share!
(I snuck in a couple...eek..)”

love more blog


Backstage at fashion shows is one matter.

Unless you are talking about some kind of media exclusive, then everyone understands that backstage is more or less public domain. Fashion shows are media events. They are crawling with camera crews and photographers. To be sure, they are located on private property and you need the appropriate access to be there. But once there, everyone is "fair game" (with the exception of models changing in and out of clothes - there is an unwritten code of conduct that stipulates photographers must respect their dignity and not attempt to take nude or semi-nude shots).

But what of private fashion shoots for specific commercial jobs? Does everybody who is privy to the event axiomatically have permission to “shoot the s***” out of it and play paparazzi?

What about the models, their negotiated work rates and the definition of “usage” of an advertising client’s imagery? Is it good PR for the models - or are clients getting a whole lot more bang for their buck than was originally negotiated?

And should agents start to give serious thought to what, if any, limits exist in this social media wilderness, moving forward - and clarify the terms upfront so that everybody is on the same page?