Portmans takes Abbey Lee Kershaw back to her roots, taps Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Louise Roe to boot

While frockwriter noted that Abbey Lee Kershaw had signed on as the autumn/winter 2011 face of Australian high street chain Portmans, we haven’t touched the story in the interim because well, images of the Nicole Bentley-shot campaign have pretty much been everywhere since its January 27th launch. But here’s something that caught our attention: a sneak peek at Portmans' secret second winter shoot that Kershaw has just done in New York, this time with a US team headed up by photographer Matt Jones. Same stylist, however, Harpers Bazaar Australia fashion editor Christine Centenera (which just goes to show that it’s not only in Paris where salaried magazine staff moonlight as stylists on the campaigns of advertisers). And miraculously, Kershaw is rocking her original long-haired coiffure in these images: mousey blonde, with pastel highlights and bangs. A Portmans rep assures us that this is merely a wig and that Kershaw - who, as we first reported, is ditching New York Fashion Week to appear with her boyfriend’s band Our Mountain at its three London gigs next week - still has a platinum bob. Perhaps Portmans figured Kershaw’s platinum locks would blend into all the snow in and around the Meat Packing District location? 

Frockwriter can also reveal that Kershaw will be fronting a magazine-style catalogue that Portmans is planning to release in March, around the same time that these new campaign images are due to drop in Portmans' stores.

The magazine has been edited by LA-based Brit fashion journo and tv presenter Louise Roe, a guest of the 2010 Melbourne Cup, who writes for Elle, Vogue.com, InStyle and Glamour and whose numerous tv credits include MTV reality shows The City and Plain Jane.

Included in the editorial lineup of the first Portmans magazine are an editorial shoot with ANTM Cycle 6 winner Amanda Ware, who is currently in New York hoping to score some shows. And, interestingly, a profile on Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the French art director/model/socialite/It girl daughter of former Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld.

According to Portmans, Restoin-Roitfeld was an active participant in the profile, talking to Roe about her personal style, fave labels and shopping. 

Given her family’s longstanding connection to Ford (Carine Roitfeld was a former consultant to Ford at Gucci and YSL) and that Restoin-Roitfeld modelled in both Tom Ford’s Black Orchid fragrance campaign and Ford’s debut womenswear show in New York last September, recently interviewing Ford for V Magazine, presumably his label would be at the top of her fave label list. Just a reminder that Kershaw is currently fronting Ford’s first womenswear campaign. 

Great publicity for Ford of course. And a clever way, all round really, for a run-of-the-mill fast fashion chain to dramatically lift its image.

 

images: supplied exclusively to frockwriter by portmans