Dion Lee composes himself

This morning at the Sydney Opera House, Dion Lee staged yet another bravura presentation: his 'Composure' Spring/Summer 2011/2012 collection. Here is a gallery of images. Review to come.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011 by Juergen Teller - the campaign

We've seen a preview of Marc by Marc Jacobs' Spring/Summer 2011 advertising imagery, lensed by Juergen Teller. But now, on his website, Jacobs has just unveiled much more of the campaign. It stars Latvian Ginta Lapina, Serbian Australian Andrej Pejic and, it now emerges, a third model: androgynous Dutchman Jaco van den Hoven, the only brunette amongst the three. Shot in Marrakech just before Christmas, the campaign illustrates Pejic's unique versatility: he's not just the dude in the dress, but can also rock the sexy surfer boy look in straight menswear.

Meet the new girl, Emilia Skuza

elie saab haute couture SS11/getty via daylife

In spite of the deluge of global publicity following Jean Paul Gaultier's decision to cast Serbian Australian male model Andrej Pejic as the bride of his haute couture show in Paris on Wednesday, Pejic was of course not the only Australian on the haute couture runways. Abbey Lee Kershaw, a recent Chanel advertising face and runway regular, turned up at Chanel for yet another exclusive, no surprises there. Also scoring Chanel: Julia Nobis, who had a busy haute couture season, also walking at the Elie Saab, Georges Hobeika and Bouchra Jarrar shows. Ajak Deng walked at Alexandre Vauthier. According to Priscillas, Lauren Brown, who has appeared in several Chanel ready-to-wear shows, was in town for the haute couture castings but as far as frockwriter can tell, did not turn up on a single catwalk. One Australian who has slipped completely under the radar until now walked at Elie Saab and Bouchra Jarrar, alongside Nobis, as well as the show of new haute couture name Maxime Simoens - Emilia Skuza.

Andrej Pejic celebrated Australia Day on a Paris haute couture runway in a wedding dress

now fashion

While many Australians were celebrating our national day with a bbq, minutes ago Andrej Pejic just did something a little different: he walked in Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 haute couture show in Paris. Closed it in fact, as the traditional bride. Yes, a day after the designer finally unveiled his much-anticipated Spring/Summer 2011 ready-to-wear advertising campaign starring Pejic and Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova and almost a week after Pejic closed Gaultier's mens Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show dressed as a woman, Gaultier and Pejic just made a little more gender-bending music together. And they may have just made fashion history together to boot. Givenchy deployed its muse and advertising face Lea T, a transsexual (and technically a pre-op transsexual) in the brand's most recent haute couture presentation. That was, however, a static display only, not a show. Frockwriter is not sure that any couturier/couturière has ever previously sent a man down his/her runway in womens' clothing. And certainly never in a wedding dress. The collection was inspired by British punks and French showgirls, with the models sporting mohawks and Pejic trailed by a highkicking cancan girl. There was no soundtrack, just the soft drawl of no less than French screen legend Catherine Deneuve reading out the names of the garments, one by one, with the models each carrying a corresponding number - the way they used to do it half a century ago, in the golden days of the couture. Below are what appear to be three recent backstage shots of Pejic taken by a French photographer - and possibly before this show. They were posted at the same time he was in hair and makeup. Vive la Liberté.  

Trench coat glamour mafia: Andrej Pejic and Karolina Kurkova for Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2011

A matter of days after Andrej Pejic strutted Jean Paul Gaultier's Autumn/Winter 2011/20112 menswear runway in Paris as both a man - and a woman - and twenty-four hours before the designer's feverishly-anticipated haute couture womenswear show, Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 campaign images starring Pejic and Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova have finally landed. With the designer himself joining Twitter to excitedly unveil them. Shot by high profile photographic duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, the campaign consists of two black and white images of Pejic and Kurkova, both in fishnet stockings and wearing matching trench coats from the Spring/Summer 2011 womens collection (as first revealed by Kurkova just before Christmas in a Tweet from the set). In one shot, they are kissing. Who's the prettier of the two though?

Calvin Klein gets back into the movie business ahead of the Golden Globes

Tom Ford isn’t the only American luxury brand going gung ho in the leadup to this Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles. Following the unveiling of a supersite billboard of Ford together with Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, comes a 20 second television commercial produced by Calvin Klein to run during the Globes broadcast on NBC. No this is not Calvin Klein's first tvc. Founder Calvin Klein made an impact with a series of highly provocative television spots in the 1980s and 1990s starring, among others, Brooke Shields and Kate Moss in the company's jeans, underwear and fragrances (here is a backgrounder). But this tvc, the company claims, represents the first time it has ever produced a branded tv campaign advertising Calvin Klein's designer collections (with accessories and homewares also getting a lookin). Starring world number 1 Lara Stone and Tyson Ballou, the commercial was shot on location in La Jolla, California and directed by Fabien Baron. Here is a first look.

When Abbey met Tom

Shots of Australian supermodel Abbey Lee Kershaw in Tom Ford's new eyewear campaign are all over the net. But who knew she was also in his first womenswear campaign? Behold a supersite billboard of Kershaw not just in a sequined sheath from Ford's debut womenswear collection, but locked in a staged passionate embrace with Ford himself, that has just gone up in Beverly Hills, California, coincidentally a few days ahead of the 2011 Golden Globes. According to Kershaw's US agent, Next, it's part of the womenswear campaign. More images to come presumably. Kershaw was among the very select cast of Ford's intimate runway presentation at New York Fashion Week in September last year.

Tom Ford's eyes-only debut womenswear collection is now on YouTube

Well Tom Ford certainly got off to a cracking start in 2011, uploading images of his new eyewear campaign which co-stars Abbey Lee Kershaw. Evidently Ford is another client who didn’t mind Kershaw’s new platinum blonde do – even apparently adding hair extensions. Now (via Homotography) comes a video of that top-secret debut Tom Ford womenswear show which was presented to a tightly-edited throng of just 100 at New York Fashion Week in September, with highly restricted camera access. Ford has spent a lot of time talking down the new digital news domain, telling US Vogue, "I do not understand everyone's need to see everything online the day after the show". Now that it’s crunch time for Ford's collection to hit stores, frockwriter has little doubt he is thrilled that social media is spreading the buzz. 

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. 

Andrej Pejic: Shooting Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 campaign with Karolina Kurkova, rattling rednecks from Sydney to Serbia

karolina kurkova's facebook

Overnight Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova published a shot of herself and a Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2011 campaign co-star on Facebook and the cat is out of the bag and all over the net. Australia’s Andrej Pejic is also in the campaign. That’s the second big international SS11 campaign booked by Pejic to which frockwriter referred in our post on Tuesday. It is unclear at this stage if the JPG campaign features any other models beyond Kurkova and Pejic. But both do look to be wearing similar pleated trench coats – which were prominently featured in Gaultier’s SS11 womenswear show in Paris in October. The garment does not, however, appear anywhere in Gaultier’s mens SS11 collection, which was shown in Paris in June and which, as you may recall, Pejic in fact walked. What conclusion can we draw from this? That, unless Kurkova posted a staged teaser shot, Pejic may well be modelling womenswear in this campaign. Stop the press. 

Andrej Pejic, campaign trailblazer

thomas lohr for i-D via TFS

Long time, no Andrej Pejic post. Australia's most successful new model, of either gender, has been building up such a body of editorial work since first emerging on the Paris menswear runways in June, it has been difficult keeping up. We clocked, of course, his three Vogue coups - notably the Vogue Paris and Vogue Italia spreads, shot with Mert + Marcus and Steven Meisel, respectively. And it seems Pejic's blue chip editorials - which all capitalised on his distinctive androgynous look, a look that some have suggested is at the vanguard of a new "femimen" trend - have not gone unnoticed by other fashion heavyweights. Frockwriter can reveal that Pejic recently flew to north Africa to shoot an advertising campaign for a major international fashion brand. We can't disclose the name, unfortunately, just that it co-stars top (female) Latvian model Ginta Lapina. With the right styling, 21 year-old Lapina could be a dead ringer for 19 year-old Pejic, who is of course half Serbian and half Croatian. It sounds like the brand, which produces both mens and womens collections, may be planning a mix-and-match, guess-the-gender concept. But that won't be Pejic's only Spring/Summer 2011 campaign. After returning to Australia on Saturday to commence work with some local publications, Pejic has suddenly been obliged to up stumps after being booked for another ad campaign - this time for a major European fashion brand. He leaves tomorrow for New York to shoot that with a well-known photographic duo. Pejic will then return to Australia to spend Christmas with his family, before leaving for Europe in early January, ahead of the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 menswear season in Milan and Paris.   

Summer blockbusters: Australians on the runways for SS11

Another international show season has wrapped. And as has been the case over the past seven years - since the arrival of Gemma Ward - Australian models continue to grab an increasingly large share of that runway real estate. Below is a list of all Australians on the Spring/Summer 2011 runways - updated from frockwriter's post three weeks ago, at the end of the season's first leg in New York. The list is ranked, top to bottom, by show numbers, but clearly, some shows eclipse others in prestige. Hence Abbey Lee Kershaw doesn't have the biggest show tally, but overall was booked for a higher volume of big shows. Unheard of this time last year, Julia Nobis walked in 43 shows, including some of fashion's biggest names. Ajak Deng and Lauren Brown also continued their ascent. Even Miranda Kerr, at five months pregnant, made an appearance on Balenciaga's runway. Who would have thought it possible two years ago? With Kerr recently lurching forward to the eighth position on models.com's Top 50 working models rankings - jumping seven places since we last profiled this list in July - that places three Australians in the world top 12.

Louis Vuitton's glitch in the Matrix

There is no spoon, OK? As consolation, in approximately half an hour (ETA 14.30 CEST, 23.30 AEST), the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2011 womenswear show will take place in Paris. Head to Louis Vuitton's Facebook page to watch the live stream and Now Fashion for still photos in (almost) real-time. And as if runway models didn't have enough backstage photographers to contend with the nanosecond they exit the runway, they are due to be assaulted by 52 cameras in-the-round backstage, via which every outfit will be clocked in 360. Check back in back at LV Facebook central at 20.00 CEST (05.00 AEST) to see the fruits of those Matrix-style photo sessions (in the interim, you can practice rotating Jacobs with your cursor via LV's handy little player, above). After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and Marc Jacobs shows you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Short black: Bambi Northwood-Blyth also snags Chanel - Spring/Summer 2011

The Australia's Next Top Model judges seemed to enjoy giving flak to some of the shorter contestants on this year's show. In the end, the taller model - Amanda Ware - won Cycle 6. But a lack of runway regulation height (5'6"-5'7") hasn't stymied Bambi Northwood-Blyth's chances of an international runway career. Her Paris Fashion Week started with Thursday's Balenciaga show, moving onto to Loewe and yesterday's back-to-back Ungaro and Giambattista Valli shows. Well she has just added to that impressive Paris show list with no less than Chanel, joining three other Australian models on the French luxury brand's Spring/Summer 2011 runway: Chanel face Abbey Lee Kershaw, Julia Nobis and Lauren Brown. Judging by this video below (thanks to TFS for sourcing), Northwood-Blyth has been working on her walk, which raised a few eyebrows after New York Fashion Week. She's up at around 1.07. It seems the sky may well now be the limit for her.

Beth Ditto backstage at Jean Paul Gaultier - Spring/Summer 2011

jean paul gaultier SS11 backstage/steve wood

Jean Paul Gaultier is no stranger to runway diversity, having sent arguably the world's most high profile plus size model, American Crystal Renn, down his Spring/Summer 2006 runway in October 2005. The following year, plus-sized Paris-based American actor Velvet d'Amour made her Gaultier appearance (here is the interview I did with her at the time). Yesterday Gaultier upped the plus size ante by having no less than three plus size models on his Spring/Summer 2011 runway in Paris: Renn, Marquita Pring and Beth Ditto, the frontwoman of US indie rock outfit Gossip, who opened the show and later delivered an a cappella performance. A photographer mate, the inimitable Steve Wood, just zipped me these backstage shots of Ditto with Gaultier and some other members of his show cast, including Sasha Pivovarova and Eliza Cummins (but no sign of former Gaultier face Tallulah Morton, who is in Paris at the moment).  

There's no other store like... Balenciaga - Spring/Summer 2011

Much will be made over the coming days of the inclusion of a five months pregnant supermodel in the Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2011 show in Paris. It's not the first time a pregnant model has walked a runway. But this is Balenciaga. And given how much hoo-haa is normally made about model weight at the elite end of the fashion business, it does seem like some kind of watershed moment. The model in question, Miranda Kerr, is of course now not just a model, but a celebrity. And she has already walked in Balenciaga's shows on two previous occasions. Kerr's appearance at Balenciaga comes almost two months after she pulled out of the Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway showcase of Australian department store David Jones, to which she is currently contracted, after marrying fiance Orlando Bloom. Since confirming her pregnancy, Kerr has spoken of her morning sickness in the first trimester, which presumably would have made the David Jones show difficult for her. That's assuming that David Jones would have been perfectly happy to put a pregnant model on its runway. In an odd coincidence, Balenciaga creative director Nicolas Ghesquière chose a large abstract houndstooth motif for this collection. The houndstooth motif being an integral part of DJs' brand identity (as is the advertising slogan, "There's no other store like David Jones").

Bambi bags Balenciaga - Spring/Summer 2011

balenciaga SS11/nowfashion.com

Did we say there was buzz about Bambi Northwood-Blyth going into Spring/Summer 2011? We did. Far more importantly, of course, so did Ashley Brokaw, one of the world’s top casting directors who started beating the Bambi drum in an interview with The New York Times’ Cathy Horyn on the eve of New York Fashion Week three weeks ago. And then cast her in her first international show, Rag & Bone, alongside Julia Nobis. Brokaw had told Horyn that both Northwood-Blyth and Nobis were at the top of her casting list this season. Well Brokaw has just cast the duo again - along with five months pregnant Miranda Kerr - this time, in the Balenciaga show in Paris. Given that Nobis already has one international show season under her belt and is regulation runway height, however, it’s nothing less than an extraordinary coup for Northwood-Blyth, who started modelling six months ago and also happens to be 5’7” tall – that’s the official version, with some suggesting she may in fact be 5’6”. How many girls have been turned down by model agents because they’re too small? Legions of them. Kate Moss is one of the rare exceptions and you have to say, Northwood-Blyth could be shaping up to be Australia’s version. 
 

In full Bloom: After ditching DJs, five months pregnant Miranda Kerr walks for Balenciaga

balenciaga SS11/in my shoes

Last month, much was made of Miranda Kerr's mysterious pullout of the David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway showcase in Sydney. Kerr, who is under contract as the new face of the upmarket Australian department store chain, released a statement at the time saying she had just eloped with her fiancee Orlando Bloom and the couple wanted to spend some quality time together. Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil, Nicole Trunfio and Alexandra Agoston filled in as high profile replacements. A deafening chorus of gossip pegged her as being three months pregnant at the time - later confirmed by Kerr. Well, while a pregnant model may have been far too awkward for DJs, this just in: Kerr, now five months pregnant, is about to walk in the Balenciaga show in Paris. According to WWD's Twitter, husband Orlando Bloom is front row waiting to see Kerr on the runway. Interesting times indeed. You have to wonder exactly what David Jones thinks about this. And hilariously, the collection - including the outfit worn by Kerr - features a giant abstract houndstooth check. David Jones uses a black and white houndstooth check for its corporate identity. 

The Kob crosses the Pond - Charles Anastase Spring/Summer 2011

charles anastase SS11/style.com

No sign yet of Australian supermodel Abbey Lee Kershaw at London Fashion Week. But frockwriter did do a double take while watching this video, below, of yesterday’s Charles Anastase show. Not only were the models showcasing the collection's fluid chemises, floral teadresses and silver foil clamdiggers and shifts, every last one was sporting what looks very much like Kershaw’s new haircut (which has now of course been dyed peroxide blonde). Described by various Australian beauty aficionados as a long choppy bob, aka "the Kob" or "Chanel Bob", as we previously reported, it’s caused a bit of a run on local salons from consumers wanting Kershaw’s look. Supposedly inspired by 60s/70s icons Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy and Jane Fonda, Anastase’s hair stylist Lyndell describes the look as being “like virgin hair...a backlash against try-hard, dip-dye, pastel and over bleached hair, this girl is cool without trying”. To achieve it, the wigs were dyed four times and then razor cut. Frockwriter suspects that we might not see Kershaw in London until Tuesday morning at 9.00am. That’s the show time of iconic British brand Jaeger London and Kershaw is of course its Fall 2010 face. In the meantime, a new video of the Jaeger campaign has surfaced starring Kershaw and male model Ollie Edwards, below. And for those who can’t get enough ALK, here’s another new video - taken backstage taken at last week’s Anna Sui show in New York, which shows Kershaw, together with model mates Freja Beha Erichsen and Behati Prinsloo.

Caribbean queens: sass & bide Spring/Summer 2011

Sass & bide’s roots lie in London’s Portobello Road, the world’s largest antiques market, where designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke sold their edgy customised jeans to the city’s early fashion adopters back in 1999. Yesterday, for their third season back at London Fashion Week after a few years in the sportswear-nosed wilderness of New York Fashion Week, they returned to slightly more auspicious digs: the Royal Opera House. Entitled Papa Sucre  - French for 'sugar daddy' and possibly named after the 1995 instrumental track by Brit alt rock outfit Supergrass (but with a definite Creole undercurrent) - the collection saw a slight detour from the brand’s trademark heavy embellishment to explore the moment’s digital print trend in a monochrome palette of black, sepia and white, popped with watermelon and a hint of utilitarian khaki.