Mythical Myf's nifty fifty

sonny vandevelde

We know Myf Shepherd walked a lotta runways across four cities over the past month. Lose count? You’re not alone. Well, according to the preliminary “season leaders” lists just posted by those model otakus over at The Fashion Spot, Shepherd walked in 51 shows to be precise, placing her in the season’s Top 29 girls in terms of show numbers.

That’s no mean feat for a newbie, with the rest of The Fashion Spot's list dominated by very well-established names such as Natasha Poly, Vlada Roslyakova and Olga Sherer.

As far as frockwriter can ascertain, Shepherd may well be one of only two models this season who made the Top 29 in their first show season. Certainly, she is the only Australian on the list. Little wonder she also made the Top 10 New Faces of SS09 on both model industry blogs COACD and models.com's Of The Minute.

At 47 SS09 shows, Abbey Lee Kershaw just misses out in the Top 29, but then Kershaw did not walk in any shows before Gucci in Milan – wrapping up five shows in very quick succession over the following 24 hours. At 30 New York shows however, Kershaw tops the TFS New York SS09 shows sub-list and she also makes the season's top show closers list, closing a total of six shows across the four cities.

Shepherd is the third consecutive Australian model to shoot to prominence in her first international show season, following Kershaw and Catherine McNeil. All three models, coincidentally, are with the same agency amalgam (Chic/Next).

Gemma Ward (Viviens/IMG) was of course booked for a Prada/Miu Miu exclusive for her first season, SS04.

However Shepherd scored not only both the coveted Prada and Miu Miu shows, but also some other very big names, from Marc Jacobs to Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Hermes and Gucci.

Shepherd’s tally just beats Kershaw’s first season show effort from the Fall Winter 0809 season earlier this year (44). But then, Kershaw did only do one show in Milan that season - Gucci.

In McNeil’s first show season, Fall Winter 0708, she did 35 shows. That was however across just two cities - Milan and Paris - where the then unknown model stunned the industry by opening seven shows and closing four.

As revealed by frockwriter, both McNeil and Tallulah Morton pulled out of the SS09 season after New York.

We can also reveal that Alexandra Agoston had to return to Australia immediately following the London shows due to a family matter.

More to follow.