King Flinn

The live finale of Australia's Next Top Model is tomorrow night at the Sydney Opera House, a time that's sure to prompt a little soul-searching amongst ANTM-ites. Questions such as "Will the series be renewed for 2012?" and "Will I, won't I, have my contract renewed"? Although no Foxtel announcement is as yet forthcoming, given that ANTM is the highest-rating Australian production on pay tv, the chances of a Cycle 8 are good. Josh Flinn, the show's model mentor for the past two seasons already has, we hear, a few other tv irons in the fire. So stand by to see if he becomes ANTM's next breakout star. In the interim, here is Flinn like you have never seen him before. Produced and art directed by Mother & Father PR as a frockwriter exclusive, the story was lensed by Sonny Vandevelde, styled by James Dykes, with hair by Natalie-Anne Ayoub and makeup by Rebecca Hatherly for Napoleon. Entitled 'The thin white duke', it was inspired not by David Bowie, but in fact Edward VIII, British monarch from January-December 1936, who became the Duke of Windsor following his abdication.

Given that the Duke of Windsor died of throat cancer, the cigarettes are more than appropriate. They're no props, however. But Flinn is not the show's only smoker. Judge Alex Perry, who recently described the fashion industry as "a glass of champagne and a cigarette", once had a 20 fag-a-day habit. Perry is currently trying to give up, which is probably a good thing given how many impressionable teenage girls watch the show.  

Six Australians and a Kiwi walked into a show....

richard chai SS12 backstage/sonny vandevelde

So New York Fashion Week is up and running and the so-called ‘Australasian invasion’ of its runways got off to a cracking start again on Thursday, the week's official kickoff. Six Australian models walked the Richard Chai show which, as some may recall, was opened by Aussie newbie Dempsey Stewart last season. Stewart walked Chai’s runway for the second consecutive season, flanked on this occasion by Julia Nobis, Codie Young, Ajak Deng, Rose Smith and Krystal Glynn, in her international runway debut. Joining them was New Zealand modelling sensation Emily Baker, the breakout star of the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 shows. With 26 models in the show, that's almost one third of Chai's cast hailing from the antipodes. 

Elsewhere, Melissa ‘MJ’ Johannsen popped up at the Rachel Comey and Steven Alan shows – joined at the latter by yet another new Australian face, Chadwick's Sarah Lorimer and another Kiwi, Georgia Fowler – while Lorimer also appeared at Wes Gordon; Lauren Moody, Vanessa Milde and Tom Bull worked the hilarious trompe l'oeil wedding staged by Imitation of Christ; and Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 6 winner Amanda Ware walked BCBG by Max Azria. 

With Perth's upwardly mobile Caitlin Lomax recently booking the Prada Resort 2012 lookbook (after another new antipodian face turned it down) and an exhibition of the photos of Aussie snappers Sonny Vandevelde and Candice Lake opening at the Tribeca Grand hotel tonight during Fashion's Night Out, it seems fashion’s love affair with downunder is nowhere near cooling. Here's a portfolio of Sunster's backstage shots from Richard Chai. 

all photos: richard chai SS12 backstage/sonny vandevelde

1/ emily baker and krystal glynn

2/ codie young

3/ dempsey stewart

4/ krystal glynn and rose smith

5/ ajak deng 

6/ julia nobis 

Behind-the-scenes at the Wish Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign shoot with Iekeliene Stange

Yesterday frockwriter mentioned that Australian fashion label Wish had nabbed Dutch supermod Iekeliene Stange for its Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign, to be shot by Australian photographer Sonny Vandevelde. Here is a sneak peek at the campaign shoot which is underway in New York right now, evidently making the most of the city's iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Stange, we understand, may be heading downunder at some stage in the not-too-distant future to promote the campaign. 

all images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by sonny vandevelde/wish

Iekeliene Stange makes a Wish

sonny vandevelde

A number of major modelling names have emerged from the Netherlands. They don't get much bigger than bombshells Lara Stone and Doutzen Kroes, for instance. Few have been as edgy, however, as Iekeliene Stange. Known for her killer cheekbones and elfin chic, Stange has worked with the world's biggest fashion names, most recently appearing on Christian Dior's Fall/Winter 2010/2011 haute couture runway in Paris. Right now, she is in New York to shoot the Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign for Australian fashion label Wish with Australian photographer Sonny Vandevelde. The duo will start work early tomorrow morning in and around the quaint, cobblestone alleyways of Brooklyn's Vinegar Hill district. That's Stange, above, leaving the Tribeca Grand Hotel earlier in the day. The hotel's second exhibition of Sonny's backstage images - many featuring Stange, his muse - is still in fact hanging. Great get for Wish. Frockwriter hears the company nabbed Stange ahead of another, much bigger, Australian outfit that was also trying to book her for its Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign. 

Ruby Jean Wilson is wearing a pair of bright orange running shorts at Karen Walker

How do we know? Because here she is backstage just before Walker’s show, shot a matter of minutes ago by Sonny Vandevelde (who clearly, had access to wifi). Wilson is another antipodian at New York Fashion Week and so far she’s walked in Lacoste. Just on Sunster FYI, his second exhibition at New York’s Tribeca Grand Hotel opened on Monday and runs until 12th October. Then from September 15-19, a new exhibition, ‘Sonny Vandevelde – Backstage Life’, will run in Paris as part of the Rives de la Beauté festival. That will make his fourth exhibition this year, after the Mars Gallery show during the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March and the ‘Crazy Beautiful’ group show of backstage Rosemount Australian Fashion Week photography, which just wrapped at Sydney's Queen Victoria Building. Having just added V Magazine this season to his client list, dude’s on a roll...

both photos: sonny vandevelde

Andrejyny

john galliano SS11 backstage/sonny vandevelde

Frockwriter mentioned that upwardly mobile Australian model Andrej Pejic made his international catwalk debut on Thursday in Paris in the Jean Paul Gaultier show. Well he had his second Paris runway outing yesterday courtesy of another equally high profile designer: John Galliano. There are two days left of the mens shows, where might he pop up next? Update 27/6: The answer is Raf Simons and, according to backstage snapper Sonny Vandevelde, today's Paul Smith show. The Paris runways are a long way from the east European refugee camps via which Pejic and his Serbo-Croatian family fled war-torn Bosnia in the 1990s before settling in Melbourne, where he attended University High School (whose other alumni include playwright David Williamson, entertainer Olivia Newton-John and MTV VJ Ruby Rose). Modelling for two years, full-time for one, Pejic's first modelling job was a cover - for Oyster magazine. Head to Sonny's blog to see more of Pejic and his runway colleagues backstage before and during Galliano's Charlie Chaplin-inspired show and the rest of the mens shows, including Gaultier, Issey Miyake and Dries van Noten.

ABC Art Nation's story on Sonny Vandevelde

On the eve of RAFW, frockwriter mentioned that the ABC's hot new Art Nation show would be dedicating its entire May 2 edition to fashion. After sending the embed code for the fashion bloggers story, the producers kindly shot through deets for the standalone story on photographer Sonny Vandevelde that was also featured. It was shot during the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March, when Sonny had a solo exhibition of his backstage work at Mars Gallery. Great to see his editorial work also given some due attention.

LMFF, Refinery 29 downunder and Sonny Vandevelde comes of Age

It's a busy week next week. On Sunday frockwriter will be down in Melbourne for the opening of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. On Wednesday 17th, we will have the honour of moderating the Sydney presentation by Refinery 29 co-founders, the New York-based Philippe Von Borries and Piera Gelardi. Staged at the Museum of Sydney and organised by Melbourne digital outfit Portable, it’s one of three Australian talks the duo will deliver over the next seven days, providing an insight into what went into building one of the web’s hottest indie fashion sites. Tonight they will be in Brisbane and on the 18th, Melbourne. Then on Friday 19th frockwriter will be back down in Melbourne, where we will also have the honour of opening the first Australian exhibition of our buddy, Belgralian backstage snapper Sonny Vandevelde at Mars Gallery.

The exhibition's soft opening is this Saturday and it runs until March 28th, so check it out if you are in town.

Now a regular contributor to the online entity of The New York Times' fashion magazine T (among many other publications), just last week Sonny was thrilled to find several of his shots being used on the site's homepage to flag its Fall/Winter 2010/2011 coverage.

Sonny already knows he is the focus of an upcoming feature in the Melbourne broadsheet The Age, penned by fashion editor Jan Breen Burns - which will in fact be the first mainstream Australian media profile of his work.

What he doesn’t yet know is that he is in fact tomorrw's cover story of the paper's A2 arts supplement. Above is a sneak peek at the A2 cover which features one of his shots. Buy the paper to read how this Sydney surfie became one of the best backstage photographers in the world. We'll update with a link once the story goes online (and voilà).

Women are from Venus, Sonny Vandevelde to show at Mars

There are lots of reasons to check out the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which runs from March 14-21 at venues around Melbourne. Listening to Calvin Klein creative director Francisco Costa and Calvin Klein Inc's Executive Vice President of Global Communications (and Sydney expat) Malcolm Carfrae wax lyrical on helming a fashion superbrand at the Business Seminar on March 19 is one of them. As is checking in to see the sophomore exhibition of Belgralian backstage ace Sonny Vandevelde at Mars Gallery from March 13-28. Currently snapping the New York shows, the Sunster will just manage to make the opening after the FW1011 season wraps in Paris on March 10. Above is the flyer.

Sonny Vandevelde backstage at the FW1011 menswear shows

vivienne westwood FW1011/sonny vandevelde

If you're a regular reader of this blog then you would already be familiar with the name Sonny Vandevelde: the Belgian Australian (aka Belgralian) photographer who has, in frockwriter's humble opinion, transformed backstage fashion photography into an art form. Sonny usually photographs the major womens' runway seasons, but he's on assignment in Paris at the moment completing his first menswear collections, shooting for a variety of publications. Click here to see Sonny's Milan FW1011 menswear slideshow on New York's ubercool Hintmag. And here to see his Paris FW1011 Hintmag gallery, which will be updated to include the latest shows - which wrap up tomorrow. And of course Sonny's blog for others. Frockwriter mentioned Sonny's mini retrospective in New York in September. Come March, he's having a similar show as part of the Melbourne Fashion Festival. Why he hasn't been snapped up by a major retailer or brand for a campaign is beyond me. Of course there was this Old Navy revamp - whose art director in fact used Sonny's shots for the campaign mockup (sighted by me), only to commission another photographer to copy his style. Sucks, but that's life. Ditto getting his heart broken by Lara Stone. But that's another story...