Bath party: Marcs' five faces of Spring/Summer 2011/2012

Australian sportswear brand Marcs has been producing some cool advertising campaigns of late. Nabbing new Australian modelling superstar Julia Nobis was a good start of course. Nobis co-starred in the Spring/Summer 2010/2011 and Autumn/Winter 2011 campaigns with Broed Dilleward and Nick Hinman, respectively. Here is a first look at the SS1112 campaign, for which Marcs' creative director Rachel Allen has upped the ante with not two but five rising Australian stars: Chic's Rachel Rutt and Nicole Pollard, Viviens' Rosie Tupper, Priscillas' Andy Smith and EMG Models' Jack Vanderhart (who made his international debut at New York Fashion Week in February, with a Calvin Klein exclusive). Shot by Steven Chee, the campaign also showcases one of Australia's most beautiful sea baths: the heritage-listed Wylies Baths in Sydney's Coogee.

creative director: rachel allen
photographer: steven chee
art director: nikki hillier
stylist: kim payne
hair: max may
makeup: victoria barron


all images supplied exclusively to frockwriter by MARCS

Christopher Esber's tuxedo junction

Although inexplicably missing from many RAFW writeups, Christopher Esber's show was one of the best presentations of 2011. Esber graduated in the same TAFE NSW Fashion Design Studio class as Dion Lee and clearly, 2007 was one of the school's strongest years, because he demonstrates as much potential as his already far better-known former classmate. The luxury sportswear collection, which was inspired by the seemingly disparate notions of tuxedo dressing and beach culture, incorporated several innovative fabrics that had been created by Esber. An intricate, two-way pleated synthetic taffeta was used in a charming series of zippered, short-sleeved blouses and pencil skirts in soft powder blue and peach  - and a gossamer-like fabric that had been woven with actual fishing wire, found its way into several delicate, tea-stained slip dresses. Although the third last show on the schedule, it was the final gig for most of the week's top models, including Rachel Rutt and Myf Shepherd, who could barely contain their relief that the week was over and hammed it up backstage for the show's duration.        

Alex Perry's Cuban revolution - LMFF 2011

Could Alex Perry have started something with his Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection unveiling last night at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival? A consumer event showcasing in-season collections to consumers, LMFF is popular with designers because its runways present what is in store right now - with some retailers reporting 30-50percent spikes in business during the event. But a wholesale collection that is traditionally shown to buyers and press six months ahead of the season? That's usually the territory of Australian Fashion Week. In reality, Perry showed 'first summer' last night - that is, the first half of next summer's offerings. He still plans to show at RAFW in May. Perry will show 'second summer' at that event - and according to his wingman, Josh Flinn, the second collection will be a lot more elaborate. With the fashion cycle continuing to accelerate, retailers offering far more frequent product drops than ever before and the rise and rise of Resort and Pre-Fall collections internationally, perhaps it makes sense for designers to gain additional exposure via consumer events such as this, at the same time providing some real news value for the fashion media. 

And what a show it was. 

En route to the venue - the magnificent Victoria era Royal Exhibition Building - it felt a little like you were making your way to a big Paris show at the Grand Palais.

Entitled Cuban Princess, the well-edited collection took Perry into somewhat unchartered waters - and he told frockwriter backstage that this fact had made him a little nervous. 

"I've never done colour before - or at least not so much of it" noted Perry. 

Eye-popping turquoise, kingfisher blue, buttercup yellow, magenta, chartreuse and tangerine were deployed in an elegant series of minimalist evening gowns, many of them with sporty, racerfront necklines and simple fitted waists, others softly falling from the bust, Empire style, with embroidered straps curling delicately like tendrils over one shoulder. 

The evening glamour sequence complemented the collection's smart daywear of '40s-nosed, crisp white suits, sheath dresses in a pretty black and red floral print and some fresh-as-a-daisy white sundresses crafted from heavily-embellished lace.

A great cast that included the week's top girls, Rachels Rutt and Grasso, Cassi van den Dungen, Simone Kerr, Annika Kaban, Tiah Eckhardt and Vanessa Milde, with some special additions in the form of Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 6 winner Amanda Ware, Eliza Humble and of course, the star of the show, Megan Gale. 

Click (here) to see frockwriter's Posterous portfolio of 50 images shot backstage during the show.  

Once were couturiers - Australian fashion icons reband to launch LMFF 2011

So there I was, navigating the fluorescent yellow bowels of the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, when I bumped into an Australian fashion icon waving a steam wand. Jenny Kee, co-founder of the 1970s label and boutique Flamingo Park, was trying to get the creases out of a multicoloured scarf headdress that was due to be showcased in Fashion Full Stop, last night's opening show of the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival (which frockwriter is attending as a guest of the organisers and Tourism Victoria). Kee was resplendent in three examples of her own handiwork: a 1983 suit from Karl Lagerfeld's debut collection for Chanel, which incorporated Kee's black opal print, some vintage Flamingo Park and one of the scarves from her brand new online boutique. "It's all about online now" noted Kee, when I asked why she and former sidekick Linda Jackson don't relaunch Flamingo Park. "You need lots of money" explained Jackson backstage a few minutes later - reiterating sentiments she expressed at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week back in 2008, after Therese Rawsthorne showed a collection using Jackson's waratah print. They might not (yet) have put the band back together, but fantastic to see Kee and Jackson together again making fashion magic last night, with more than a little help from the new generation of Australian fashion talents, in one rollercoaster retrospective that spanned fifty years.

Michelle Jank did a tremendous job styling the show, together with Kelvin Harries. Other brands included Norma Tullo, Prue Acton, Kate Durham and Morrissey Edmiston. Models included Rachel Rutt, Tiah Eckhardt, Christina Carey, Simone Kerr, Samantha Harris, Vanessa Milde, Emily Cattermole and Greta Chesterman (who could in fact, it now occurs to me, pass for Anja Rubik's little sister).

I shot the whole show from backstage, which was manic, as the very large production included dancers, entertainers and various Melbourne celebrities. 

One memorable moment came at the very end of the show, as Jank and team frantically attempted to secure a massive tulle headpiece to Rutt's head at the climax of the bridal finale. 

An elaborate contraption that included several illuminated paper lanterns, it proved too difficult to secure in time, with Rutt's exit apparently synchronised to a fireworks sequence that was already queued. As they finally gave up and pushed her out onto the runway sans veil, at least a dozen people who had been watching uttered a collective sigh, which seemed so loud it may well have been heard from the audience. 

Rutt subsequently returned backstage, the headpiece was finally secured and she did a victory lap in the full ensemble. This may explain any continuity issues with photos. 

Great kickoff to the week. 

Click (here) to see frockwriter's Posterous backstage pic gallery of 72 images. 

Rachel Rutt, the face of summer

Who's a popular girl then? One of frockwriter’s favourite models, Sydneysider Rachel Rutt, finally looks to be getting some recognition. In May, we mentioned that Rutt had just scored her second international magazine cover – Dazed & Confused Japan, following one of 12 multicovers of the French Revue de modes in October 2009 – but had yet to make page one of any local titles. Well she more than makes up for it this month by scoring the covers of the summer editions of Australia’s Yen (below) and New Zealand’s No magazine (above), which launched today in NZ. Update 2/12: Although she is not on the actual cover of the December edition of The Australian's luxury magazine Wish, which is out tomorrow, Rutt nevertheless features in its Christmas fashion cover story. Here is a behind-the-scenes video:  

mick bruzzese/yen magazine

Shot by Ben Sullivan, with styling by Zara Mirkin and art direction by Delaney Tabron, Rutt’s No cover is part of an eight-page editorial spread (below) on Sydney label Romance Was Born.

Elsewhere in No's summer issue - which is themed around the concept of “Anywhere” - are interviews with actors Stephen Dorff, the lead in Sofia Coppola's new film Somewhere and American Beauty's Wes Bentley and singer and London It girl, Coco Sumner from I Blame Coco (the daughter, incidentally, of Sting and Trudie Styler).

all no images: supplied to frockwriter by no magazine. tks to isaac for the tip

Rachel Rutt scores her second international cover - so why can't she get a gig downunder?

dazed & confused japan via chic management

In the deluge of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week coverage, frockwriter somehow managed to miss this cover. So congrats are due to one of this blog's faves, Sydney model Rachel Rutt, who scored this month's cover of the Japanese edition of Dazed & Confused. And while sure, it's not as visible as the cover of the UK parent edition (which Rutt's better-established Chic stablemate Abbey Lee Kershaw has cracked twice), it is nevertheless a fantastic get. It represents, moreover, her second international cover - after scoring one of 12 multicovers of the autumn/winter 09/10 edition of French Revue de Modesmade the cover of Dazed & Confused Japan last October, alongside big names including Coco Rocha, Ali Stephens, Karmen Pedaru, Dree Hemingway, Constance Jablonski and Maryna Linchuk. Coincidentally, in February, another Chic-ette, Rutt's great mate Myf Shepherd, scored the cover of Dazed & Confused Japan. So you could say that "MUTT" has this mag covered. 

As reported by frockwriter Rutt and Shepherd have been blogging in tandem under the MUTT hybrid byline, both for their Heyweird blog and for Australian IN Front's RAFW coverage.

For the latter, the duo interviewed local creatives including Luke Sales, Ryan Lobo, Alan White and.... themselves. Although Australian IN Front previously advertised that MUTT's RAFW interviews would be with anonymous fashion players, the only question mark hovering over MUTT's RAFW profiles concerns just which MUTT team member was being interviewed by who.

Pedestrian.tv has suggested that Rutt interviewed Shepherd. That seems unlikely however, given that Shepherd did not walk in any shows at the event ( frockwriter hears the girls swapped roles during the interview).

Rutt was one of the busiest models at RAFW - for the second year in a row - and had a great first New York season last September.

But although Dazed + Confused Japan makes two international fashion magazine covers for Rutt, she has yet to be booked for the cover of a local fashion print title (although she did appear on the December/January 08/09 cover of Australian online mag Pages Online).

Back in 2008, Rutt, who is half Singaporean, told The Australian that she was looking forward to working overseas, particularly Europe. In the latter markets, she claimed, Eurasian faces were far more welcome. Rutt described Australia as being very "Caucasian-oriented".

Beyond the late South Korean model Daul Kim appearing on a recent cover of RUSSH, several Australian modelling industry sources to whom frockwriter spoke this afternoon struggled to recall the last time an Asian model graced the cover of an Australian fashion magazine.

“For a very multicultural country, I'm surprised that it hasn’t happened” noted one observer who requested anonymity.

"People are reluctant to use girls who are not of northern European looks" noted another. "It's risky - because they're in a minority".

It's worth remembering, however, that another one of Rutt's high profile Chic Management stablemates, Catherine McNeil, was on the cover of high profile US fashion title V and Paris Vogue, before any Australian magazines showed an iota of interest in putting her on page one. (Correction: McNeil made the cover of RUSSH in January 2007 - the same month that she headed off to New York for castings and her first international ready-to-wear runway season. And four years after she began modelling in Australia).

The models of RAFW

Frockwriter profiled some of the designers and a few of the bloggers of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, but what about the models? Sadly we ran out of time in the leadup and our planned RAFW newbies post remained unfinished in story drafts. But we did photograph quite a few models as we went along, in our Twitter/Posterous feed and show photo galleries (which have also, conveniently, been archived on Facebook – thanks Posterous). But we also wanted to check with each of the major Sydney agencies to see which of their models were the busiest at the event. Some of their nominated newbies were included. Of course there were many, many other models who worked during the week and it’s not necessarily about who pulled the most shows. There was in fact an exceptionally strong cross-section of Australian model experience on RAFW's runways this season. As distinct from runway diversity, which Australian designers - like their New Zealand counterparts - have yet to fully embrace, with Asian and black models still fighting hard for visibility above the bevy of über-popular blondes and Europeans. "It's like they'll only use a black girl if there's a tribal theme to the collection" noted one observer.


Good to see, then, indigenous Australian Samantha Harris and Eurasian Rachel Rutt among the week's top catwalkers. Harris did 20 shows. Thanks to her first Vogue cover unveiled during the week, she was catapulted to a whole new level of visibility at the event.

Just before the FW1011 season kickoff in February, frockwriter asked is the world ready for the first indigenous Australian supermodel? Judging by the international coverage of her Sydney season, it seems the answer is a resounding yes. Let’s hope Harris has another crack at the OS circuit come September - or perhaps even earlier with resort and haute couture. Harris travelled to London in February, but was called home shortly afterwards. The official story was that she came home to shoot the Vogue cover, even though Abbey Lee Kershaw's cover was shot as late as the week before Christmas, for an early February release.


samantha harris/jayson brunsdon

Runway veterans who added some international polish to the event included Alexandra Agoston, who has become far more acclimatised to the runways of Paris over the past five years, ditto Stephanie Carta, Alyssa Sutherland, Amy Finlayson and also new mum Tiah Eckhardt, who walked in 10 shows according to Viviens.



lauren brown/ginger & smart (top); julia nobis/dion lee

Then there were two of our latest OS stars, Lauren Brown and Julia Nobis. For those who were not following the Twitter/Posterous coverage, here is the short video iv that I recorded with Nobis straight after the Dion Lee show:



Work Agency only had two models at the event – Cassi van den Dungen, who only did four shows (and who it was nice to finally meet after all this time). They were nevertheless key shows: Dion Lee, Ellery, Romance Was Born and Manning Cartel. Another Work model, Jessica McColl, did Ksubi.

It was a little difficult extracting information from Viviens, which did supply a top girls list, however declined to elaborate on exact show numbers other than those of Brisbane law student Eliza Humble (16) – one of frockwriter’s personal faves, who we photographed on a number of occasions backstage. If anyone can elaborate on the exact show numbers of the other Viviens’ girls, then please feel free to add in the comments.





(top to bottom) cassi van den dungen/romance was born and dion lee, eliza humble/ellery and georgia fowler/romance was born

The most popular model of RAFW appears to have been Chic Management’s Meg Lindsay (below). It was by no means Lindsay’s first RAFW. Here she is in Fully Chic’s RAFW newbie list just prior to the 2008 event. Lindsay also walked at RAFW last year. Did she stand out from the pack at either event? No, for some reason. But this year, Lindsay really hit her stride, booked for an astonishing 32 shows – or over half of the entire program of 60 shows. The OS circuit could be next.





(top to bottom) meg lindsay/dion lee, rachel rutt/camilla, juliana forge/dion lee and greta chesterman/dion lee

Rachel Rutt, the breakout star of last year’s RAFW, clocked up an impressive 26 shows, with Chic’s hot new star, Juliana Forge – who looks like a cross between Abbey Lee Kershaw and New Zealand’s Georgia Fowler (who, with 18 shows, outwalked every local Priscillas’ girl), doing 21 shows in her first Sydney season.

Frockwriter also really liked Louise van de Vorst (very top of this post, backstage at Gail Sorronda - and directly below, at Manning Cartel). After having only done a few RAFW shows here and there in the past, van de Vorst also seemed omnipresent at this event. Chadwicks’ Greta Chesterman was another model we noticed. Chesterman has a bit of a tomboy vibe – à la Julia Nobis.



Also of note, Courtney James from Scene and Priscillas’ newbies, 16 year-old Ruby-Jean Wilson from Terrigal and 19 year-old Sydneysider Bambi Northwood-Blyth. In her first RAFW, Wilson did 12 shows, including Romance Was Born, camilla + marc, Ellery, Zambesi, Manning Cartel, Sara Phillips, Fernando Frisoni and Lui Hon. Northwood-Blyth did 13.





(top to bottom) courtney james (via carly hunter), sarah chuot/kirrily johnston, ruby-jean wilson/manning cartel and bambi northwood-blyth/michael lo sordo.

As a result of RAFW, reports Chadwicks, Ashleigh Wesseling and Sarah Lorimer (who we profiled here) were both picked up by IMG Development worldwide – courtesy IMG Models’ New York-based David Cunningham and Jeni Rose, who were in Sydney all week scouting.



(top to bottom) ashleigh wesseling/alice mccall (getty via daylife) and sarah lorimer/karla spetic

Myf Shepherd, who springboarded from RAFW 2008 into an instant international career, but who has put her modelling career on ice for the moment to study art in Sydney and is blogging in tandem with Rachel Rutt, made a few appearances at parties throughout the week.

As already reported, Tallulah Morton is also taking off time from modelling to study art in Sydney. So it was interesting to see her on the runway at RAFW, in no less than 12 shows – and looking pretty damned good.

Here are the top show tallies from each agency:

CHIC MANAGEMENT
Meg Lindsay - 32 shows
Rachel Rutt – 26 shows
Juliana Forge – 21 shows
Louise van de Vorst – 21 shows
Samantha Harris – 20 shows
Stephanie Cherry – 18 shows
Olivia Henderson – 13 shows

PRISCILLAS
Georgia Fowler (NZ) – 18 shows
Julia Nobis – 13 shows
Bambi Northwood-Blyth – 13 shows
Lauren Brown – 12 shows
Ruby Jean Wilson - 12 shows

CHADWICKS
Victoria Lee – 15 shows
Greta Chesterman – 13 shows
Ashleigh Wesseling – 8 shows
Sarah Lorimer – 5 shows

VIVIENS
Eliza Humble – 16 shows
Tiah Eckhardt – 10 shows
Dempsey Stewart – Shows including Zambesi, Bec & Bridge, Camilla & Marc, Ellery, Kate Sylvester, Kirrily Johnston.
Sarah Pauley – Shows including Aurelio Costarella, Sabatini
White, Ellery, Kirrily, Romance Was Born.
Sonya Kukainis – Shows including Lisa Ho, Nicola Finetti, Rachel Gilbert, Jayson Brunsdon, Ksubi.

SCENE
Tallulah Morton – 12 shows
Adele McLennan-Gillings – 6 shows
Sarah Chuot – 5 shows
Courtney James – 2 shows

WORK AGENCY
Cassi van den Dungen - 4 shows
Jessica McColl - 1 show

Myf Shepherd and Rachel Rutt are MUTT

myf shepherd via vogue.com.au

On Monday, frockwriter told you about a potentially explosive new Australian fashion blog called Heyweird: a series of interviews with anonymous fashion and creative insiders, conducted by two anonymous models. “High profile” models, promised Lorena Mercado, who has recruited the duo - whose joint byline is "MUTT" – to file behind-the-scenes dispatches for the new RAFW section of her Australian INFront site. Frockwriter had a chat to one of the models this afternoon. With her consent, we can now reveal both names. You may have heard of them. Myf Shepherd and Rachel Rutt. That’s right, the breakout runway stars of respectively, RAFW’s SS0809 and SS0910 seasons, with Shepherd instantly catapulted by the 2008 event into the beginnings of a stellar international career.

Rutt hit the ground running in the SS10 season in New York in September, but is currently hampered by visa issues.

Rutt will be walking next week’s runways. However, she reports that Shepherd will not be appearing in any shows, contrary to previous speculation.

Currently studying at Sydney’s College of Fine Arts, Shepherd will nevertheless be working closely with Rutt next week on the Australian INFront project.

Their interviewees will, however, most definitely remain anonymous says Rutt.

Rutt (below), who walked in today’s Carla Zampatti show, declined to do an interview, noting that the duo wants the blog to speak for itself.

Stay tuned for some interesting developments - especially if they start pumping their international insider network.