Abbey Lee Kershaw channels Vali Myers for ManiaMania

maniamania SS11 via the new york times

It’s been quite a year for Sydney jewellery brand ManiaMania. First, it gets picked up by high profile European bloggers Garance Doré and Susie Bubble, catching the eye of Madonna and daughter Lourdes Leon and subsequently getting a nod on their Material Girl website. Now comes word that ManiaMania designers Tamila Purvis and Melanie Kamsler have scored Abbey Lee Kershaw as their new season face. Just gone up on The New York Times: The Moment blog: a first look at Kershaw shot by Barnaby Roper for ManiaMania's Spring/Summer 2011 campaign. Entitled Rêve, the collection was inspired by Australian artist, dancer, wildlife warrior and white witch, Vali Myers, who died in 2003 at the age of 72 after an extraordinary life, during which she befriended, was mentored by and/or played muse to some of the biggest art, literary and music figures of the 20th century, from Salvador Dali to Andy Warhol, Tennessee Williams, photographer Ed van der Eisken, Patti Smith and Marianne Faithfull. As documented in four films. The perfect muse for ManiaMania which, in just three seasons, has forged a reputation for its bold bohemian jewellery. 

The NYT reports that the SS11 collection includes a “vagabond” cuff with the texture of whittled wood, quartz jewel necklaces and a bronze “immortal” ring inlaid with amazonite. All of which suits Kershaw, who is usually laden with bold jewellery, particularly over-sized rings. 

Kershaw is a quite extraordinary get for ManiaMania. Their last collection starred another Australian, the upwardly mobile Bambi Northwood-Blyth. 

This is an interesting turn of events for Kershaw, whose Australian work for the past couple of years as she has been building up an impressive international body of work, has almost exclusively consisted of magazine covers. And it's the second local campaign that she has recently booked.

On Monday and Tuesday this week, Kershaw shot the Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign for Australian fast fashion chain Portmans for an estimated A$120,000. Presumably this kind of fee would be out of the reach of Purvis and Kamsler, so we’re assuming ALK may have done it at mates rates and because she really digs the product. 

In the ManiaMania shots, Kershaw is sporting the same platinum blonde version of her infamous “Kob” bob, that was died on the eve of New York Fashion Week in September. And which some have speculated may have cost her some work in the interim. 

What does Kershaw's hair look like now just out of interest? Still the same platinum bob, according to sources who were on the Portmans shoot.

Check The New York Times story for more images. 

mania mania SS11 via the new york times

 

Sydney and Auckland street style in WWD

Street style photography is an enormous component of the fashion blogosphere, which has in fact launched blogging empires (The Sartorialist and Jak + Jil to name but a few). This photoreportage genre however definitely predates the net. Bill Cunningham’s first street style shots were published in The New York Times in 1978, but he first began documenting the fashion choices of ordinary people on the street during WWII. British style magazine i-D has a 30 year archive of its signature street style shots - aka “Straight-Ups” - on its website. And WWD, where Cunningham worked briefly, has had its own longstanding series of street style shots called They Are Wearing. As the paper's Australasian correspondent since 1996, I have shot quite a few “TAWs” in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Seoul and Taipei for WWD FAST and (Fairchild News Service's now defunct menswear paper) DNR. During the Spring/Summer 2011 show season WWD kicked off a series of global TAW galleries in the 'Eye Scoop' section and yesterday two of mine went up, both shot last month. Here is the Sydney gallery and here is the Auckland one, which was shot around Vulcan Lane during New Zealand Fashion Week. Not including this random shot, above, which was taken for WWD FAST at Sydney's Glenmore Road, Paddington intersection in May this year. Perhaps you might recognise some of your mates.