Mini Andén and Brad Fisher for Trenery Autumn/Winter 2012

In terms of models-turned-actors, Sweden’s Mini Andén has managed to parlay her profile into quite the Hollywood mini career. Andén’s IMDB page boasts 22 listings, a mix of bit parts in films such as Ocean’s Twelve and Tropic Thunder (she played secretary to Tom Cruise's genius grossout agent Les Grossman) and roles in tv series such as My Boys, Nip/Tuck, CSI: Miami, Bones, Entourage and Monk. At 33, the erstwhile advertising face of Armani, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermès, among others, is still hard at work modelling – last month she added Harpers Bazaar Turkey to her 40+ swag of magazine covers. Get ready to see more of Andén down under as the Autumn/Winter 2012 face of Australian high street brand Trenery, cast opposite American artist and model Brad Fisher. Shot recently in London by British fashion photographer Paul Wetherell, a favourite of i-D, Dazed & Confused and 10 Magazine, the campaign bows on April 1st. Here is a first look. 

Once upon a time in David Jones

the great restaurant at david jones, 1938

With apologies to Miranda Kerr, the terrific cast and some great Australian designer offerings at David Jones' Autumn/Winter 2012 showcase on Wednesday, in frockwriter's opinion the real star of the evening was DJs' just-restored On Seven space. This was no mere refurb, but essentially the fruit of retail archaeology - not to mention a multimillion dollar budget that must have made the David Jones board hyperventilate when it was first proposed mid 2011, shortly after ceo Paul Zahra issued a shock profit downgrade. Originally launched in 1928 as The Great Restaurant, the space was shuttered in 1965 and eventually cut in half with a floating ceiling in 1981, to make room for an international designer brand floor. The remaining void became home to over 200 different utility cables and a lot of dust. The space has been hidden from public view for the best part of 50 years.

Rose scholar: Imogen Morris Clarke for Jigsaw Australia Autumn/Winter 2012

Jigsaw Australia hired Jacquetta Wheeler to front its Spring/Summer 2011/2012 campaign. Now for Autumn/Winter 2012 the brand has tapped another English rose: doe-eyed beauty Imogen Morris Clarke. Bursting onto the fashion radar during the international Spring/Summer 2009 show season, Morris Clarke, now 19, has walked for some of fashion’s biggest names and booked campaigns for BCBG Max Azria, D & G, Jaeger London and Pringle of Scotland, among others. After a two year near modelling hiatus while she focussed on tertiary studies, she brings a touch of the Brit It girl to the duffle coats, '40s tea dresses and redingotes of Jigsaw’s terribly English winter collection. Here is a first look at the Stephen Ward-lensed campaign, which goes into Jigsaw stores around Australia tomorrow.  

Flame war - Elliot Ward-Fear and Thom Kerr do battle for Autumn/Winter 2012

Elliot Ward-Fear’s moment in the sun has been a long time coming. The 23 year old NSW TAFE graduate, who hails from the picturesque Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney, has yet to make a standalone runway outing in Australia. That’s due to change in late April, when he is scheduled to stage his solo Australian Fashion Week debut. Ward-Fear’s first two collections didn’t generate any wholesale sales, just a few private commissions. But they did score quite some publicity – thanks notably to an edgy campaign for Autumn/Winter 2011 from Australian fashion photographer Thom Kerr. After skipping one season altogether, Ward-Fear is back in the game with an Autumn/Winter 2012 collection called Flame, which comes accompanied by yet more conceptual Thom Kerr imagery. Here is a first look at the lookbook, starring New Zealand’s own comeback queen, Liv O’Driscoll. 

To Marcs with love

Another day, another Australian Autumn/Winter 2012 campaign reveal. After casting Julia Nobis for two seasons, opposite rising Oz stars Broed Dilleward and Nick Hinman, sportswear chain Marcs upped the ante last summer with five fresh Australian faces. Creative director Rachel Allen has gone for a multi-girl and –boy look yet again for AW12, this time with four models: in her second Marcs season, Chic's upwardly mobile Nicole Pollard, alongside the 2010 winner of the Girlfriend Model Search, Jemma Baines, Belgian Cesar Casier and Brit Sid Ellisdon. Shot by Steven Chee at two Sydney cafes – Mohr Fish in Surry Hills and Coffee Tea & Me in Redfern – the styling and indeed collection proper have a cool Sixties vibe. To be sure, there’s a hint of Burberry here. And while mid market Marcs is by no means selling luxury handbags, the brand's leather goods - which are designed by Brydie O’Neil and start at $79, maxing out at $249 – are not only looking pretty sharp, but, unless frockwriter is imagining things, far more centre stage than ever before. 

Emma Balfour gives David Lawrence a code red for Autumn/Winter 2012

Happy New Year to frockwriter's readers. New year, new look for Emma Balfour? Behold a first look at a red-headed Balfour in the Autumn/Winter 2012 campaign for David Lawrence, her third consecutive campaign for the Australian sportswear brand. Shot, once again, by Georges Antoni, this season’s DL backdrop is the spectacular Seidler House in Joadja in the NSW Southern Highlands. Built in 1999 by Australia’s most iconic architect, the late, Viennese-born Harry Seidler and now operated as a private hotel, the luxury residence and its 147 acres of natural bushland setting provide a stunning backdrop to the brand’s winter collection, which includes some pretty cool handbags. As a redhead, the fortysomething Australian mother of two - and recent face of Céline - looks a little like a hybrid of Rene Russo and Alice Burdeu. But it’s just a wig apparently.

Huffer's flag dance

Another day, another US flag-waving collection in Auckland. Following Trelise Cooper’s True Blood-inspired Cooper show on Wednesday, yesterday sportswear outfit Huffer wrapped one black model in a US flag and sent US-born, Auckland-based celebrity and Ralph covergirl Aja Rock out onto the runway in a US-flag-emblazoned birthday cake and itsy bitsy string bikini. Rock is the daughter of US music producer Bob Rock, who has worked with Metallica, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi and David Bowie among many others. Dubbed “Golden Days”, the collection was supposedly inspired by the “Golden Days of Communist Russia” and also included Kiwi model Michael Whittaker swathed in a Soviet Union flag. Whittaker, whose nose was broken 30 times during an altercation following last year’s Stolen Girlfriends Club show, has clearly made a remarkable recovery. Some cute knit dresses, colourblocked anoraks, plaid shirting and platform brogues with crafty, colourblocked espadrille platforms (which frockwriter is dubbing espadrogues - dead ringers for a shoe done by Prada for Spring/Summer 2011), but the cheesy girl-in-a-birthday-cake stunt stole the show, which was presumably the intention in a bid to boost publicity and was so very reminiscent of Pamela Anderson’s 2009 sortie at the event.
 

Zambesi's World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is just a week from kickoff in New Zealand, so it’s hardly surprising that some of its athletic chic appears to have rubbed off on the locals. The focal point of Zambesi’s Autumn/Winter 2012 collection was an oh-so-sportif fluorescent yellow, that Zambesi patriarch Neville Findlay quipped to frockwriter backstage has seen his wife, business partner and the brand’s womenswear director, Elisabeth Findlay, move into “high vis Liz” gear for the season. He may not not be wrong on the collection's visibility factor. This was a strong collection from Zambesi, arguably one of its best ever. Deconstructed sportswear is the fulcrum of this brand’s DNA, on this occasion given a shot of adrenalin with a unisex vibe and the eye-popping palette, that also included an electric kingfisher blue. Opening with a slick, Mod-like black knitwear series slashed with fluoro yellow banding, then followed a fluoro yellow mens anorak – courtesy menswear designer Dayne Johnston – that will no doubt be equally coveted by women and a loose fluoro yellow and black womens’ sweater dress that looked like an oversized footy jumper filched from the bf. 

Cooper's Lite

All backstage media were kicked out just as Trelise Cooper's show was due to start yesterday. So, given that our runway photo skills tend to be hit and miss, the best shots we managed to take were the first looks from Cooper's Cooper diffusion range which opened. Cute show, whose opening number - Jace Everett's True Blood theme toon 'Bad Things'- had everyone tapping their toes. The military jackets, denim blousons, nubby wool high-waisted trousers, prairie shirts embellished with smocking or bullion fringing and microshorts galore, in American flag-printed denim and crochet, seemed tailor-made for True Blood's feisty fairy Sookie Stackhouse, who is played by Canadian-born Kiwi Anna Paquin, even if the pretty, drop-waisted teadresses with fruit prints were probably a little too virginal for same. Frockwriter couldn't help including two shots from Cooper's palate cleanser in between the Cooper and Trelise Cooper shows: an army of models in black blazers and corsets/knickers. Minus the word "boardroom" printed across the models' derrières, it was a knockoff of Dolce e Gabbana's finale for the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show in Milan in February 2010. Here is a photo gallery, best viewed on the blog. The final Style.com shot is from the original Dolce e Gabbana show.  

Her name is Lola. She was a showgirl

Kia Ora from sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy Auckland, where frockwriter is, once again, the guest of the organisers of New Zealand Fashion Week. Due to other commitments, we only touched down yesterday so missed some early shows. Beyond the event's spectacular new digs at the newly-unveiled Viaduct Events Centre, what has struck us so far is the fact that while it's not at all unusual to see Oz models on NZ runways, on this occasion, they seem a little more prominent than usual. To wit, Krystal Glynn, the face of Zambesi's Spring/Summer 2011/2012 campaign and also the covergirl of New Zealand Fashion Week's official 2011 handbook (bottom). Glynn is already en route to New York so won't be attending. Another Aussie will be opening tonight's Zambesi show - Lola Van Vorst. The name sounds familiar? A contestant on Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 5, Van Vorst has barely done any modelling in the interim, moving instead behind the camera as a photographer. But she suddenly finds herself much in demand in front of the lens.