Friday, February 5, 2010

Samantha Harris leads a new antipodian runway pack for Fall


samantha harris/antipodium

So the Fall/Winter 1011 shows are days from kicking off in New York. And the guessing game begins: which models will make their marks on the new season's runways? In terms of Australian talent, what a contrast to the lineup in just twelve months. Here is the tally of FW0910 shows walked by Australian models from March last year. At least two major names have been scratched from the lineup. Starting with Myf Shepherd, who is taking the year off to pursue fulltime studies at Sydney's College of Fine Arts - who walked more shows than any other Australian model this time last year. Ditto Tallulah Morton, who is studying Fine Arts.


Although Abbey Lee Kershaw bowed out of the last Fall shows due to an injury, she will, frockwriter predicts, continue her fashion ascendancy. She is now ranked world number 10 by models.com - surging past Catherine McNeil (now #14) to become Australia's biggest new modelling success story.

There is potentially some very exciting news surrounding one brand new Australian face, which this blog doesn't want to jinx by blabbing about just yet.

Meanwhile, the first indigenous Australian model is about to hit the international circuit: Samantha Harris. Harris arrived yesterday in London - skipping the New York shows, to ease her into things. Pending how London goes, Chic/Next may then send her to Milan and Paris. Harris features in an only girl editorial in Vogue Australia this month. And here she is also, above, in the new SS10 (Australian FW10) 'Ab Fab' campaign for Australian fashion brand Antipodium, which collaborated with several indigenous artists for the collection. And Harris will not be the only new Australian face at the shows.

New York will be another Chic-ette's first major league fashion week: Charlotte Lohmann. We have mentioned Lohmann several times before at Australian and New Zealand events. Here she is backstage at Trelise Cooper at Auckland's ANZFW in September:



Chadwicks' supremely androgynous Andre Pejic (below), meanwhile, is heading to London, yes for the womens' shows. Frockwriter predicts he may well wind up wearing some of that womenswear on the runway. After all, Antipodium opened its RAFW show in Sydney in May last year with Pejic. Pending the availability of both Pejic and Harris, one might assume we could see both at Antipodium's FW1011 presentation at LFW on Friday 19th February (presentation only).


RUSSH

Scene Models may have lost Tallulah Morton for the time being, but their new star appears to be Amelia Brown (below). The 17 year-old Perth-ite has been modelling for one year and her work to date includes RAFW shows and a January editorial in the local Grazia. Two days ago the latter Simon Lekias shoot wound up on models.com, which was in fact Brown's second models.com outing in seven months. Signed with Storm in London and Ford in New York, Scene director Vikki Graham reports that there is already quite some interest in Brown in New York. Now we now that "hold" does by no means equate to confirmed, but for what it's worth, Brown's New York Fashion Week holds thus far include Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Hervé Leger, Adam Lippes, Zac Posen, Isaac Mizrahi and Richard Chai.


grazia via models.com

Priscillas has three new faces heading to the shows, who are already generating buzz. No, Tahnee Atkinson is not one of them.

Lauren Brown recently featured on Models.com's The Ones To Watch. Topless.


luren brown/T02W

Cat Edwards (formerly with Chic) has an upcoming editorial in i-D with no less than Terry Richardson, which possibly guarantees that she was also topless.


cat edwards/ryanelitemodel2



And Julia Nobis was just nominated by influential New York casting director Michelle Lee on the LOVE magazine blog as a face to watch for the season - the second time in a month that Nobis featured on the LOVE blog. Here's what LOVE said about her on January 13:

"You saw her here first. Wait and see"



julia nobis/LOVE

Heading back to the shows with Kershaw are other seasoned international catwalkers such as Skye Stracke, Christina Carey, Georgie Wass and Emma Ishta.

Arguably the biggest mystery of New York Fashion Week is just where is Rachel Rutt?

After a stellar RAFW in Sydney last May and a great first New York season - and even comments about her "buzz" factor by models.com director Wayne Sterling in a New York interview recently done with Today Tonight - not only does Rutt not have a New York showcard this season, as spotted by TFS, she's not even listed on the Next Models website. Looking into it.

UPDATE: According to Chic Management Rutt is still "100%" with Next New York, but does not have a US visa, which is why she is not doing the shows. She is listed in the New Faces division of Next's London site and will be doing London Fashion Week.

One notable Chic-ette omission from the above post is Miranda Kerr who will, say frockwriter's sources, be heading at the very least to Paris, where she is already booked for a second run on Balenciaga's runway, on March 3. The same sources suggest Kerr may also make an appearance in Milan.


16 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post! I always enjoy seeing the new Australian faces in the modelling world.

it should be models.con said...

I love Abbey, but if she's "ranked world number 10 according to models.com", then why are there 14 models listed above her on that list??

DARIAN ZAM said...

Samantha Harris isn't the first Australian Aboriginal fashion model, the first successful one was in the early sixties and is featured twice in Lee Lin Chin's "strike a Pose" exhibition.
However with some luck Samantha may be the first Australian Aboriginal *super* model? Hope so.

Patty Huntington said...

models.con -

obviously there is some degree of subjectivity there. it's their opinion, calculated on campaigns and covers. several girls tie for the same ranking in several places. that's not unheard of, even in sporting competitions.

DZ -

yes but she is the first indigenous australian to hit the international show circuit, correct me if i'm wrong.

brooke said...

wow, excited for the australian girls in the shows this season... will miss myf though, she smashed it last year. and sucks that abbey lee's not around either =[ hope samantha reps for us!

xx

Anonymous said...

Samantha Harris is beautiful but just can NOT walk.

Me again said...

Patty, I understand that the rankings are subjective and that some places are tied (and I have no comment there) but if there's a 2-way tie for 2nd, then the next girl should be 4th, not 3rd, or if there's a 3-way tie for 2nd, then the next girl should be 5th, not 3rd etc..
This practice of not counting the tied places leads to inaccurate/ hyped comments such as your "She's (Abbey) now ranked world number 10 according to models.com" when she actually has 14 models listed above her (and this list only considers working high fashion models anyway). You're often sourcing and quoting MDC. Please ask Wayne why they do this.

If there are sporting competitions or any other ranking systems where they don't count the tied places, please name one.

Anonymous said...

Great there is a new slew of Aussie models set for the shows!

There hasn't been any notable aussies since Myf I believe, so hopefully at least one of these new faces hit big.

Anyways what about Monique @ Chic? I believe there was a little bit of hype behind her that may eventually turn into something. And still with Chic, they are pushing Stephanie Cherry to do well during NYFW, so she may be a face to watch aswell.

Patty Huntington said...

brooke -

abbey lee is definitely heading to the shows, as mentioned in the opening par.

anon -

stephanie cherry is apparently just checking things out in NY, not doing the shows. that's according to chic.

me again -

i reported that abbey lee is ranked #10 by models.com. this is accurate. models.com has ranked her as #10. for whatever that's worth. you don't seem to think that's much. that's your opinion and you are perfectly entitled to it.

yes the site has different lists ("money girls", "sexy girls") etc. this is the primary working models list, the girls you are most likely to see on the runway. once again, i will note it's subjective. i quote the site because it is considered a kind of unofficial industry benchmark and because those behind it are well-connected in the modelling business (this certainly applies to wayne sterling) and/or appear to have their fingers on the pulse. it comes across as a professional, credible, B2B site. in other posts i have also quoted the forbes top earning models list.

i will try and find out more about the tied rankings. meanwhile, as for tied sport rankings which are counted as one:

basketball

http://tiny.cc/8tb7m

football

http://tiny.cc/8SyMc

hockey

http://tiny.cc/HbSQY

me again again said...

Patty, you seem to be missing my point. The basketball/ football/ hockey sites you list DO count the tied places, MDC doesn't! Please read my last post.
Yes, models.com IS well connected with modeling agencies - but I think a little too closely connected to be putting out supposedly independent lists such as these. How do you think the MDC site is funded? isn't it sponsored by agencies?. I suspect the main purpose of their list is that its used by agencies as a marketing tool. God, do we have to wait for a "Top 10" crammed with 100 models, all in 10-way ties before the penny finally drops? I'd stick with the Forbes List.
and finally, I have nothing against Abbey - she's a wonderful model, and IMO should be ranked far higher than she's currently listed.
..there, I'll shut up now. I love reading your blog. Thanks for hearing my gripe :)

DARIAN ZAM said...

Genius! I'm going to rate everything by my own personal dense ranking from now on.

Patty Huntington said...

yes, you are right. my apologies, i was simply looking for examples of sport rankings which include tied places. the examples cited used standard competition ranking (1224).

on closer inspection models.com is in fact using an established ranking system. it's called (don't laugh) dense ranking. or 1223 ranking.

http://bit.ly/b3JxMX

quantitative econometrics is not my thing and i don't, sadly, have the time to research where this kind of methodology is used. a quick net search pulled up a couple of references to dense ranking used in calculating ranks of top-earning salespeople, which i suppose is more than appropriate under the circumstances. at least that's my understanding here:

http://tiny.cc/3ZSB9
http://tiny.cc/dNMwX

these are MDC's lists. their opinion. you suggest this opinion is compromised. that's your opinion. now you may be right, but where's the evidence? they have explained their methodology over on TFS - certain campaigns for example, trumping others. sure, that's going to be a matter of debate and there are other model lists out there. it's clear that some TFS-ites for example disagree with the rankings, believing that their favourite model/s should be better represented. but MDC has spent a decade building up a brand which - evidently - carries some weight in the business. which is why their ranks are worth reporting. obviously i'm not the only one using MDC as a reference. they use three quotes on their home page:

"the industry's favorite reference site" - guy trebay, the NYT

"the NASDAQ of modeling" - ivan bart, IMG

"they have this fixation with kate moss that is sickening" - julicalg, TFS

the last one is pretty funny.

Anonymous said...

If Cat went topless How Slutty and low of her to go for that filthy bastard

Patty Huntington said...

i didn't say that she did go topless, merely joked that she might well have, given richardson's propensity to photograph models half, and in many cases, completely naked. we'll have to wait and see the i-D issue.

Anonymous said...

Hi Patty,
What about Melise Williams, who recently joined CHIC. Im interested to know more on the Fresh, Faced beauty!

DARIAN ZAM said...

Samantha Harris looks MESMERISING on the cover of Australian Vogue. I couldn't stop staring at it.

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