Showcards: Chic Management (men) - MBFWA SS 13/14

sam armstrong via chic management

Next up in frockwriter's MBFWA Spring/Summer 2013/2014 model showcards series: the men of Chic Management. Yesterday we brought you the Sydney agency's women's show pack, which includes some of the most successful Australian women on the international show circuit at present. The men's show pack is headed up by three of Australia's most successful male models. 

Six degrees

The Fall/Winter 2013/2014 menswear season is in full swing in Europe and our new face from Friday Nathaniel Visser did indeed, as predicted, make his international runway debut at Sunday's Calvin Klein Collection show - joined by Brisbane native Joel Meacock. So far we have counted twelve Australians on the menswear runways in London, Florence, Milan and Paris. Joining Visser as a new face of the season is Elijah Tyedmers - an 18 year-old Sydney University medical student who was scouted last year by Sydney's eMg Models in line buying popcorn at a Hoyts cinema. Canadian-born, but an Australian citizen (his father is Australian), Tyedmers is not spending his summer holidays lazing on a beach in Oz or Vanuatu for that matter, where his parents are based - but rather, rugged up in furs and flannels walking for the likes of Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Z Zegna and Joseph Abboud. 

New faces: Henry Payten

justin smith via the agency models

And now for the boys. Third up in frockwriter's new series about new modelling faces from down under is Henry Payten, who was recently signed to Sydney's The Agency Models. 

Chesty Bond market

Australian women were all over this week’s haute couture runways in Paris - playing tag team, in fact, with their male counterparts, who wrapped up the Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear menswear season in the City of Light last Sunday. Aussie male models continued their assault on the menswear market, with at least nine names nabbing blue chip shows in London, Milan and Paris. Leading the pack, once again, was Brisbane’s Angus Low who walked in 16 shows, with fellow Brisbanite, Joel Meacock and Byron Bay’s Kye D’Arcy, hot on Low’s heels.

Three minutes with Angus Low

A score of models passed through Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia last week in Sydney - and in front of our camera, for our live coverage of the event on the Fashion Week UNCUT live blog. It was great to finally meet one in particular: Angus Low, who we have profiled several times in recent months. We first met Low at Toni Maticevski's off-schedule presentation the week before MBFWA (above). He had been cast alongside one other male model to perch shirtless on the podium under Maticevski's couture-clad glamazons. Then last week Low appeared in Song For The Mute's menswear show, his only MBFWA gig before heading off for other bookings. We had a quick chat as he was walking out the door.

They love a sunburnt country

melissa johannsen backstage at rodarte FW1213, vogue.it via TFS

Fashion really is having a love affair with all things Australian at the moment (and for anyone not familiar with the line in this post's title, it's borrowed from the iconic Australian poem My Country by Dorothea MacKellar). Sydney's urban beach culture was the inspiration for Michael Kors' Resort 2012 collection and in New York last week, Jeremy Scott looked to have deployed an army of Ms Fitz clones to model his Fall/Winter 2012/2013 collection. Scott said the collection was "inspired by the computer and the way information is disseminated today" and his show styling and even invitation certainly bore a striking resemblance to the work of the New York-based, Sydney expat artist, stylist and blogger. The Mulleavy sisters, meanwhile, themed their Fall/Winter 2012/2103 Rodarte collection around the "rugged Australian outback". Their cast included two Australians, Codie Young and Melissa 'MJ' Johannsen (above). Johannsen, who turned 17 yesterday, is of course more than a little au fait with Australia's Red Centre, hailing as she does from Alice Springs. Young and Johannsen were among at least 28 Australians to walk the New York Fashion Week runways last week. Below are their New York Fall/Winter 2012/2013 showlists.

Man up

Australian women have become a force to contend with on the international runways, now here come the guys. The Fall/Winter 2012/2013 menswear shows are currently underway in Europe and while there is no sign so far of androgynous superstar Andrej Pejic (who nevertheless looks like a sure bet for at least Jean Paul Gaultier), in his place is a cadre of antipodian Adonises with chiselled jaws and razor-sharp cheekbones. At least thirteen to be precise. This time last year, Calvin Klein booked Jack Vanderhart as an exclusive for its menswear show. This season, the brand had three Australians, all on exclusives: identical twins Zac and Jordan Stenmark, who opened and closed the show and Joel Meacock. Overnight, on the first day of the season's Paris leg, the Stenmarks opened a second show: Nicola Formichetti's sci-fi Mugler show. Meacock is confirmed as a Paris exclusive for Louis Vuitton later in the week, opening the show no less. 

The high Low

chic management

Twenty-two year-old Brisbane-ite Angus Low may prove extra popular on the international circuit, once any runway colleagues suffering from back pain twig that he doubles as a physio. Low graduated last year from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Studies – and was awarded the Dean’s Commendation for academic excellence – and has been working full-time at a private Brisbane hospital. Modelling part-time for the past two years, prior to June 2011, the biggest name on his modelling CV was the Mercedes-Benz Brisbane Fashion Festival. Enter the Spring/Summer 2012 menswear season in Milan and Paris and Low can now add shows for Lanvin, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Costume National and Raf Simons. And we can add his name to a bulging Aussie male model pack that is headed up by Andrej Pejic, Tom Bull, Jordan Coulter, Jack Vanderhart and Jordan & Zac Stenmark. Although Low's SS12 show season transpired under the publicity radar back home, evidently he made quite an impression because two months ago, his Brisbane mother agency Dallys tells frockwriter, he shot Lanvin's SS12 menswear campaign in New York with Steven Meisel, two other male models - and a bunch of snakes. Then last month in Paris, he shot Lanvin’s SS12 eyewear campaign with Stéphane Gallois. Low has just given up his day job to pursue modelling full-time.