Snow blind - Australians on the Fall/Winter 2013/2014 runways

Another show season bites the dust. As per usual, frockwriter has been following the Australian model story as the season rolled from New York to London to Milan to Paris (and interesting to see the mainstream Australian media also keeping close tabs on model movements). So far we have counted 31 Australian faces, which is not far off the all-time record of 38. And a dramatic increase on the 19 from the last season in September/October. Not bad, considering the freezing northern winter and notably, New York’s Snow Storm Nemo – which Julia Nobis described to us during New York Fashion Week as like “Flying snow resembling a washing machine on spin cycle. Needless to say, I now have the flu! Thanks Nemo, Jolly good times”.

If the shoe fits

andrej pejic models chris benz SS12 via sight management studio

We all talk – a great deal – about the sizes of the bodies of fashion models. The sizes of their feet, however, rarely come up for discussion. What an interesting topic of conversation it proved to be when we puffed this week's Anmari Botha post on both frockwriter’s and my personal Facebook pages, using one of Botha’s IMG Models showcards as an illustration – and her published shoe size, "7.5", sparked a raft of comments. “How does a 5’11” woman have such small feet?!” asked Sydney-based media trainer Shauna Stafford. Another noted, “Most women that size would have size nine or ten feet”. While a former magazine maven chimed in, “Your basic nightmare. Perfect” – referring, we assume, to the dearth of “unusual” shoe sizes in the fashion cupboard of a typical magazine.

New Zealand's next top model: Anmari Botha

david oldham for wonderland via red eleven

It’s not only Australia that is proving to be a major launchpad for international modelling careers at the moment. Scouts and casting directors are also looking towards New Zealand. Frockwriter has talked about Jessica Clarke and Emily Baker, the latter emerging overnight in February 2011 to become one of the most buzzed-about new faces of the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show season. In the leadup to last month’s New Zealand Fashion Week we wondered if perhaps Cait Kneller might be the next Kiwi star. Noone mentioned Anmari Botha.