Hailey Clauson was 14 when she posed for this shot, but apparently only some of her more recent work is "blatantly salacious"

kava gorna

Another day, another tabloid scandal involving controversial fashion images of an underage model. On Friday The New York Post broke the news that American Hailey Clauson has commenced proceedings in the New York federal court against American photographer Jason Lee Parry and three US retailers, including the US streetwear chain Urban Outfitters, over the sale of merchandise featuring sexually provocative images of Clauson that were shot by Parry when Clauson was 15. Clauson, who turned 16 in March this year - and last December, told New York magazine that she still sleeps with her baby blanket - is seeking US$28million in damages. Court papers claim that although Clauson’s representation at the time, New York’s Ford Models, obtained an assurance from Parry that the images would not be published, the shots were subsequently published in Germany’s Qvest magazine and several of the images later appeared on T-shirts and other merchandise, all without Clauson’s consent. The court papers allege that “She is posed in a blatantly salacious manner with her legs spread, without a bra, revealing portions of her breasts. The image of Teen in a spread eagle position making her crotch area the focal point of the image may portray a child in a sexually suggestive manner and may be in violation of one or more federal and/or state laws”. But are we talking about the louche image, above, of Clauson with her legs spread? No. Below is the image in question in the New York federal court case, which also references another Parry shot in which Clauson is holding a six-pack of beer.

Three is a magic number (maybe)

leoni milano

Happy Independence Day to my American readers. July 4 is also frockwriter’s birthday and today we turn three. How time flies. It seems like only yesterday that I was saying sayonara to mainstream media blogging (for smh.com.au and news.com.au) and venturing into the wild blue yonder of the indie blogosphere. What a ride it has been. And what can I say but, once again, thank you for your interest, your comments, your Tweets, your links, your trackbacks, your feedback and your shit-canning. Over exuberance of the latter at one point over the past year prompted me to finally upgrade my comments system. Couple of milestones. It took two years to reach one million page views. But just one to reach two million. What might it take to hit one million PIs per month? Certainly much more of an effort than currently goes into this blog, due to paid work commitments and other distractions (such as a family drama, which has occupied a huge amount of time over the past few months). But I’m working on it. Thanks to new advertising partner Pages Digital, the first ad campaigns have gone up. Early days of course. But baby steps. 

Pretty babies

sharif hamza for vogue paris via sharif hamza

So after editorial spreads showcasing cosmetic surgery, loved up old folks and Ali McGraw et al, what other subjects did Tom Ford explore during his editorial stewardship of the Christmas edition of Vogue Paris? Tarted-up six year-olds. Photographed by Sharif Hamza and styled by Melanie Huynh, the 15-page 'Cadeaux' gift spread features a gaggle of little girls kitted out in designer gear. Yes, most kids love playing dressups and some images are no different to spreads you might find in childrens' fashion magazines such as Vogue Bambini, Vogue Enfants or our Studio Bambini. Save for the fact, of course, that the latter are all childrens' fashion magazines, marketing childrens' clothing to parents. As distinct from an adult's fashion magazine that is using children to advertise grownup merchandise to adults - and which happens to include several simulated sex scenes elsewhere in the edition. However the inclusion of several shots of heavily made-up children draped seductively over chairs, daybeds and an animal skin rug, with their legs and décolletages bared, like child prostitutes in a brothel, illustrates just how untouchable Ford and Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld believe themselves to be. Ditto the alarmingly ambiguous image of the child brushing her teeth. ***UPDATE 18/12/10: Today's surprise announcement that Roitfeld will be leaving Vogue Paris in January after 10 years at the magazine's helm, to pursue "personal projects", will no doubt prompt some speculation that she might not have been quite as untouchable as she thought.***

A chat with Kelvin Harries

Sydney stylist Kelvin Harries pulls together all the David Jones shows. Here is a quick chat we had backstage after this morning's show, during which we talked trends and models - notably, just how young Australian models are supposed to get any runway experience now that Rosemount Australian Fashion Week has banned under-16s from its event and David Jones will now not use anyone under the age of 18.

Tallulah Morton, Model Citizen

Tallulah Morton is about to add a Nylon editorial to her modelling portfolio. We know this thanks to an iv Morton just recorded with Nylon Guys (and tks models.com for the headsup). Part of a new Nylon TV series called 'Model Citizen', the video was recorded during a recent shoot for Nylon’s denim issue, for which Morton was shot by, you guessed it, Mark Hunter. Apparently in the middle of having lunch while he recorded his piece-to-camera, Hunter is seen to be licking his fingers as he intros the video. Click here for a Morton/Cobrasnake backgrounder. The video is interesting for several reasons. It reports that Morton was discovered at the age of 11, that she harbours a secret ambition to be a monster truck driver and that she has appeared on the covers of Australian Vogue, Marie Claire and Harpers Bazaar. That’s fantastic news. If only it were true. Morton may have shot editorial for these titles but the only Australian covers that appear on her portfolio on the website of her mother agency Scene are indie titles RUSSH and Follow.

Although Morton declines to give her age to Nylon she is nevertheless shot taking a sip of something that could be beer, from a wine glass – and you have to wonder whether this shot was deliberately engineered to provoke commentary, given how much there has already been on the subject of Morton's underage drinking. For the record, Morton is 17.

It is possible that the beverage was non alcoholic.

However it is also possible Nylon serves alcohol to minors on shoots. According to sources, the same applies to at least one local indie Australasian title.

Of course it is not unheard of for models to drink on the job or for champagne to be served backstage at fashion shows.

But while we're on the subject, frockwriter would just like to point out that she has never personally witnessed models served alcohol just as they are about to step onto a runway.

Which is why we were interested to read this backstage report on IsaacLikes that Jean Paul Gaultier served "all" his models champagne “moments” before they took to the runway on Wednesday.

Gaultier’s cast included at least one minor – American Karlie Kloss.

Equally interesting was the attempt by one industry insider to shut this information down on the blog.

In a series of comments, the anonymous insider initially requested that the information be deleted, noting, of Kloss:

“She's still underage in paris and posting something like that will get her, her agency, and those at jpg all in trouble. it's happened before and VISAs have been revoked for that fact”.

All was apparently forgiven however when the blogger jumped to attention to assure the insider that the American model singled out in the anecdote, who reportedly knocked back her champagne flute a little too quickly and then burped loudly, was definitely over age.

Morton was not in the show, as some expected she might have been. Although she walked in both the Jean Paul Gaultier and Hermès Fall/Winter 0910 shows in Paris in March, Morton's last JPG haute couture show was this time last year.

According to Scene, Morton recently had her wisdom teeth removed and has taken some time off work while the swelling goes down.

Guns n poses

vee speers via lens culture


Was interested to spot a 2007 series of shots by Australian photographer Vee Speers, currently on show in several international exhibitions – including Atlanta’s Jackson Fine Art Gallery until tomorrow. In spite of the facts that a/the shots were apparently originally shown in Sydney at the Byron McMahon Gallery in 1997, and b/Speers happens to be an Australian photographer, who nevertheless lives in Paris, her name was unfamiliar to frockwriter up until this point. Called The Birthday Party, the series depicts a series of children playing dressups. I saw the initial images on the Cyana Trendland blog overnight – and was struck by the beauty of the shot (below) of the little girl in the black angel outfit and some of the other fashion-y shots. I did however find some other shots unsettling - notably the image of the little girl tarted up to look like a child prostitute in black lace bicycle shorts, with her bare chest obscured by an armful of dolls. Not to mention several images of little boys with naked chests. But that was before I found the rest of the series elsewhere online. It includes one bare-chested kid holding a semi-automatic rifle, with three pistols stuffed in his pants - all real weapons, not toys - and another half-naked boy with a mace, who looks like he’s off to a Belgian S&M paedo party.



vee speers via lens culture



vee speers via penn house productions



vee speers via cyana trendland

Of course had Bill Henson not arrogantly insisted on rubbing a full frontal naked shot of one young female subject in the face of the press - and it followed, the public - via his Roslyn Oxley show invitation last year, the exhibition would most likely have gone ahead without a peep. As indeed Speers' 2007 Byron McMahon exhibition appears to have done.

Even Roxley Oxley herself harboured concerns about the appropriateness of the shot on Henson's invitation, frockwriter hears.

Speers' earlier photographic series was called Bordello. Inspired by the Paris red light district of the 1920s and 1920s and shot inside former bordellos, it was commemorated in a 2005 book which featured a forward by Karl Lagerfeld.

Speers reportedly hails from Newcastle, but has been based in Paris since 1990 and lives near the Rue St Denis red light district.

In the unlikely scenario that Speers was ever tempted to take more childrens portraits back in her home state, it would be interesting to see if, as an artist, she would fall in between the cracks of new NSW legislation which mandates that anyone wishing to employ children under the age of 16 for modelling purposes must first seek permission from the NSW Childrens Guardian.

The bureau has also implemented a new Code of Practice that is designed to protect children from being cast in roles inappropriate to their age and experience.

At 14 this Polish teenager was banned from RAFW. Then she opened Calvin Klein

calvin klein FW0910/wwd

A shoutout to Monika Jagaciak. On Sunday we mentioned that although banned in Sydney last year, Jagaciak, now 15, had made a “breakthrough” in New York. Given that New York Fashion Week's Fall/Winter 09/10 season was only a couple of days old - and in spite of models.com hyperbole - it was an ambitious statement. Well, after scoring some of the week’s biggest shows, including Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan and Proenza Schouler, Jagaciak has just pulled off the ultimate model coup: opening and closing Calvin Klein. To be sure, there are many big shows in New York, however none as highly coveted from a modelling perspective as Calvin Klein. This journalist feels we owe Jagaciak a special thumbsup, given that we shoulder much responsibility for the fracas in which she became engulfed in the leadup to Rosemount Australian Fashion Week last year.

Click here to see the complete Calvin Klein collection on wwd.com.

To recap, in early 2008 IMG announced plans to fly out a contingent of its ‘Development’ board models to tread the runways at Australian Fashion Week, which is operated by IMG.

The idea served two purposes: to give IMG’s fledglings some off-main circuit runway experience and also, rev up the quality of AFW’s much-maligned group shows.

The Development girls had been promised minimum work in the group shows – with anything else up for grabs once they attended castings.

Jagaciak was promoted to local media above the other girls, as the VIP “face” of the event.

A promotional photograph of Jagaciak, lying on her back in a Vichy spa, wearing a wet, white swimsuit, was provided to The Sunday Telegraph, which published it on April 6, not thinking to ask her age.

Here is the image:


l'officiel singapore via TFS

But the names and most of the ages of the IMG Development girls had been documented in this April 5 blog post (on a blog called Fully Chic, which I was writing at the time for NEWS.com.au, News Limited's Australian online news portal).

After an April 7 phone call to Jagaciak's Polish mother agency, it emerged that Jagaciak had only recently turned 15 - and had been 13 at the time the shot was taken. Taken by Singaporean photographic duo Chuando & Frey, the image had been published in the February 2008 edition of L’Officiel Singapore.

A subsequent April 8 blog post entitled, “This Polish teenager was 13 when this photo was taken, do you have a problem with it?”, promoted on page one of NEWS.com.au, sparked considerable reader debate.

On April 9, Vogue Australia cancelled a planned cover shoot with Jagaciak, claiming Jagaciak was too young (in spite of the fact that Vogue had previously featured a 15 year-old New Zealander on the cover).

On April 11 The Daily Telegraph (same publisher as The Sunday Telegraph) jumped onto the story, asking “Should Monika Jagaciak be at Australian Fashion Week?” - soliciting comment from, among others, the Australian Family Association.

Later that day IMG FASHION Asia Pacific made the decision to ban all under-16s from the event.

Several weeks later News Limited dispatched a news crew to Poland.

According to IMG FASHION Asia Pacific managing director Simon Lock, the crew staked out Jagaciak's home and school, upsetting her. The incident prompted heated debate between the various IMG offices (the latter witnessed by independent sources).

The Daily Telegraph published paparazzi-style long-distance shots of Jagaciak en route to school with a classmate in this May 1 2008 story.

The story included quotes from Jagaciak's mother and local model agent and does make make reference to a gag order from IMG.

According to Lock, The Telegraph crew was dispatched to Poland after initial interview requests with the Jagaciak family were denied by IMG.

I was unable to blog about this at the time due to the fact that I was working for News Ltd.

I found out about it at AFW, when Lock bailed me up one day to say (words to the effect), “Do you know how much trouble you caused that young girl?”.

For the record - and one more time - I would just like to state that I do not personally have an issue with underage models.

But that is on the very strict proviso that underage models are fully chaperoned by responsible adults. And that the work they do is age-appropriate.

By age-appropriate, I mean that underage models should not be permitted to pose for sexually provocative imagery.

No Australian media outlets asked if Gemma Ward was too young for AFW, even though Ward was 15 when she debuted on its runways in May 2003, one of many 15 year-olds who have participated in the event.

Nor were any questions asked when Tallulah Morton opened the Josh Goot show in May 2005. Morton's agent told media outlets that she was 14. It later emerged that she was in fact 13 at the time.

Banning underage models from major fashion events does not protect them from exploitation. Notwithstanding unscrupulous parties who try to take nude backstage shots of models changing, underage girls are in fact likely to be safer at major fashion events than anywhere else, by virtue of the fact that these events are crawling with media outlets.

Banning Jagaciak from AFW did not prevent the subsequent production and publication of yet more provocative photographs - including several shots in which her breasts are clearly visible.

Evidently neither IMG nor Jagaciak’s parents have had a problem with that.

That’s great if Jagaciak has finally cracked the big time. Well done. She would undoubtedly have arrived there with or without a few turns down the relatively low profile Sydney runway.

And look, if any company has a history of embracing sexually provocative imagery of teenagers, it’s Calvin Klein.

Banned in Sydney, breakthrough in New York

models.com

You know Monika Jagaciak. Also known as Jac, in April last year, at the age of 14, the Polish teenager found herself at the epicentre of Australia’s biggest fashion controversy of 2008. Jagaciak was supposed to make her international runway debut in Sydney. Promoted as the star model of Australian Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 08/09 showcase, those plans were foiled after Jagaciak – and all under-16s – subsequently found themselves banned from the event altogether. The fracas was sparked following revelations on Fully Chic (frockwriter’s previous NEWS.com.au incarnation) that Jagaciak was still 13 when she posed for a highly sexualised image that was being distributed by IMG to promote the event. Well Jagaciak is now 15 – just, her birthday was January 15. At the time of writing the cover shot of the modelling industry’s most high profile website, models.com, she is currently in New York and being talked up as one of the season’s hottest new faces.

Notes models.com:

“Flawless body lines …an impeccable walk…stunning face…this girl is what every casting director in town prays will walk into the room this season. We suspect Jac might very well trigger a stampede to Poland to try to source more girls like this”.

Head to models.com for a somewhat amusing short video in which a very serious-looking Jagaciak struts her runway stuff.

Click here to see Jagaciak on the runway in Friday's Rag & Bone show on wwd.com (Look #5).

And here, to see her backstage at the same show on the blog of ace Belgralian photographer Sonny Vandevelde (Pic #3).

Win or lose, Karla Reid already has a two year modelling contract

karla reid/girlfriend via ninesmn.com.au

Yesterday frockwriter predicted that, given the babymodel brouhaha which erupted in Australia this year, Girlfriend magazine may have issues with its choice of a 12 year-old as state finalist in the 2008 Girlfriend Model Search. And so far two Australian media outlets have picked up the story. One point seems to have been overlooked. Both The Australian and ninemsn.com.au reported that Reid is in the running to win a two-year contract with the Chic Management model agency. As stated in the competition’s terms and conditions, reported by frockwriter yesterday – and as confirmed again today by Chic – Reid has already won a two-year modelling contract with the agency just by being a state finalist. The outright winner of the competition wins additional representation with Chic’s New York affiliate Next.

As Reid’s mother Karla Reid told ninemsn.com.au today, the Chic Management contract might not start "for a few years".

However she already has the contract.

And let's clarify something here, Chic Management is not a childrens' modelling agency.

According to frockwriter’s model industry sources moreover, sometimes it is in fact the parents who are pushing their kids into work, even if the agency wants to hold back.

There are highly reputable modelling agencies which do carefully monitor the type of work done by underage girls, as well as ensure that they are strictly chaperoned at all times.

Chic Management certainly appears to be one of them.

By the same token there are also disreputable agencies.

There are parents who allow underage girls to travel the world without chaperones.

And there are also apparently clients who either don’t know that the women who appear in the provocative images in their magazines/advertisements are underage – or who simply don’t care.

Not forgetting the creeps who leave comments (obviously unpublished) on blogs like this, saying precisely what they think about the girls in question.

Girlfriend, you better work

13 yr-old russian wannabe supermod katiusha/TO2W


Back in July – and by popular request (tks Voguettes) - frockwriter looked into the 2008 Girlfriend Model Search competition. Eyebrows were raised over this year’s state finalists, four of whom were already repped by model agencies - in direct contravention of the comp’s rules, which stipulate that entrants must not have either worked professionally or be agency-affiliated. An organiser told this blog that Girlfriend takes information provided by entrants in good faith and anyone found to be in breach of the guidelines would be disqualified. Well Girlfriend has just unveiled its six national finalists. And although none of the original quasi-pro four are among the names, frockwriter can’t help thinking that the magazine may have other issues with its final selection. One of the national finalists is 12.

Twelve year-old Karla Reid from Fitzgibbon, Queensland, is now in the running for the main title, the winner of which is to be announced in late November.

According to the Girlfriend website, each state finalist wins a 24-month contract with the Chic Management model agency.

In addition to other prizes, the overall 2008 winner of the Girlfriend Model Search competition wins an additional contract with Chic Management's New York affiliate agency Next.

As already reported by this blog, the Girlfriend Model Search entry criteria do stipulate a minimum age of 12.

According to Chic Models director Kathy Ward, previous winners have included a 13 year-old. The competition has springboarded the careers of a number of successful Australian models, including Catherine McNeil, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Sarah Stephenson and Alyssa Sutherland.

Tallulah Morton was of course just 13 when she opened Josh Goot’s Australian Fashion Week debut show in May 2005.

Following the April 2008 controversy over 14 year-old Polish model Monika Jagaciak, a 13 year-old would however of course no longer be able to take part in AFW, which now imposes a minimum age requirement of 16.

The latter controversy erupted over one specific, highly sexualised image of Jagaciak, taken when she was 13.

David Jones recently imposed an age minumim of 18 for its own shows.

“Babymodels” is not a new story.

In 1980, at the age of 14, Brooke Shields became the youngest model to appear on the cover of US Vogue, subsequently appearing in a controversial advertising campaign for Calvin Klein jeans.

However it does appear to be the case that that more young girls are now entering the business than ever before.

At least one model agent, Priscilla Leighton-Clarke, confirms this.

Modelling industry website The Ones 2 Watch recently showcased two extremely young girls: 13 year-old Katiusha from Russia and Noor from the Netherlands.

With a stated birth date of September 27 1995, Noor was most likely still 12 when her images appeared on TO2W website.

Some of the images of these girls are quite provocative. And precisely what is the point that is being communicated here by the girls' respective 'mother' agencies, which presumably supplied the images? To say, "Here's our latest sexy asset, she's ready to promote your products"?

In some images both Katiusha and Noor appear to be either wearing strapless tops – or perhaps no tops at all.

The latter certainly seems to be the intended inference:


noor/TO2W

Any parent who is considering actively encouraging their 12 year-old to enter the modelling profession would be well advised to consider the following.

The modelling industry experienced a dramatic shakeup in 1999 when the BBC's MacIntyre Undercover program alleged that models as young as 13 were being pressured into drugs and sex in Milan by people in positions of trust.

The scandal, which prompted stricter age regulations in some places (notably France), ensared two executives at the European division of Elite Models, then the world's biggest modelling agency - both tendering their resignations to Elite's board of directors.

One of them, Gerald Marie, is today back at the company - as the current president of Elite Paris.

Leaving Russian model mafia conspiracy theories out of the equation - for a moment - over the course of the past four months two models allegedly killed themselves by jumping out of multistorey apartment buildings.

One was Russian Ruslana Korshunova (20), in New York in June, the other Canadian Hayley Kohle (26) – who died last week in Milan. Coincidentally on the same night as 20 year-old American Randy Johnston, whose cause of death has yet to be confirmd.

That’s two suspected suicides out of a total four models who have died over the past four months.

Another Canadian, Diana O’Brien, was murdered in Shanghai in early July whilst on assignment.

Like many entertainment fields, modelling has always been a high pressure business.

But it seems the pressures have never been more intense.

Miranda Kerr: I was a teenage political pawn

1997 dolly scan via vogue.com.au


Had a (very) quick chat with new David Jones fashion ambassador Miranda Kerr after last night’s show. I was particularly interested in her take on the recent decision by DJs to ban under-18 models from its runway show. I thought Kerr would be well-placed to comment on the subject given that she made her modelling debut in Dolly at the age of 13 (see above scan^), in a blaze of controversy.

Sadly I am unable to quickly locate the original print stories from 1997. I was however working in current affairs television at the time and I recall the "child porn" outcry.

There is a quote that is widely attributed to Kerr on matter, on the net – the exact origin of which is unclear.

The quote appears on many modelling sites and on what appears to be a Victoria's Secret fan site, under Kerr's Victoria's Secret Angel profile.

Here is the quote:

“They were blowing out [sic] of proportion. In the media at the time they were trying to cling on to anything remotely to do with paedophilia. Dolly is a magazine for teenage girls, not for old men. And I was fully clothed! Doing a winter shoot! They just made something out of nothing.”

The Australia Institute appears to have a slightly different opinion on the subject of children in advertising - even when the children are advertising childrens' clothes.

In its 2006 discussion paper Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of Children in Australia, the Institute pointed the finger at several retailers over marketing material which featured children.

David Jones dropped legal action against the Institute in May 2008.


kerr rocking alex perry last night



Here is the i/v with Kerr done backstage last night, before Kerr was whisked away to other duties.


David Jones recently introduced a ban for under-18 models. You yourself started modelling at 13.
Miranda Kerr: I wasn’t doing fashion parades at that age. I was modelling for magazines that were targetted for young girls.

There was a lot of controversy at the time.
There was. That was running in the media at the time. There were people running for Senate and they were using me as a platform to enhance their own careers basically.

Gemma Ward started her career at 15 – she was in at least one David Jones show.
The thing is that I was always at school and I never let modelling interfere with school and I just modelled for Dolly magazine, which was a young girls’ magazine at the time. I was two weeks off 14.

Do you think girls should be modelling at 14?
Well I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with it. But I think the reason why David Jones has said ‘We’re not having them for the runway show...’ is because, for the runway show, their target audience is women and adults. So that’s why they’ve chosen adults to model for them. So it makes sense to choose adults [who are] over 18.

Iekeliene Stange on skinny models, babymodels - and breaking through

sonny vandevelde


Over on his blog, Belgian Australian supersnapper Sonny Vandevelde has just logged a great behind-the-scenes reportage on a recent shoot he did with Dutch supermod Iekeliene Stange. It was a cover shoot for RUSSH Japan and the styling taps Stange's eclectic personal fashion sense - I gather she posed in mostly her own gear, with a little assistance from a professional stylist.

It's not by any means the first time this duo (below) has worked together. They are in fact great mates, who flat together in Paris during the shows and hang out at other times.

I'm not quite sure how unique their working relationship is. But in spite of the fact that they're definitely not romantic partners, just friends (each has a separate partner), I think they need their own hybrid name.

Let's call them Sonneliene.


Sonneliene in action in scotland/sonny vandevelde

The shoot reminded me that in my archive of little-published and indeed also completely unpublished material, I had this great Q&A with Stange which has never made it live.

It was done in October 2006, at the end of her "breakthrough" show season - during which she walked in pretty much every major show and at the end of which Karl Lagerfeld dubbed her "the face of the season".

Whenever she decides to leave modelling, it will be interesting to see just where Stange's career takes her. Her parallel career as a photographer is blossoming, with work published in a number of titles.

And already her eclectic fashion style has been quite influential. Prior to her making geek glasses fashionable, for example, I don't recall seeing many other models in glasses.

I did not blog this immediately because it was done right at the end of the SS07 season and by the time I had returned to Sydney, the smh.com.au Fashion Season blog had pretty much gone on hiatus. The iv went on the backburner.

Now 23, about to turn 24, Stange is a much bigger name today. But it's interesting to see what she had to say at the time.




How long have you been modelling for?
Iekeliene Stange: I started when I was 18 but the last year I’ve been doing it properly.

Were you modelling last season?
Yes I was doing last season but this was kind of like my first season.

So you were at the RTW shows in Feb/March?
Yes, I was doing them as well. But this season is the first season that I'm doing it properly.

How many shows did you do?
I don’t know. Thirty-six in New York and another 20 in Milan, like about 20-something in Paris, about eight in London. I don’t know how much that adds up to.

How many shows did you open? I remember Marc Jacobs, Galliano...
I did a few in NY as well. I really don’t remember.

Fashion is so much about the new look or the new face… When did you realise, ‘Hang on, it’s me’ this season?
Well I guess after New York. I was just kind of going from show to show, like six shows a day. I mean I was going well but I had no idea how much the other girls were doing - like what’s normal in New York to do, you know? But my booker said at the end, ‘Yeah, you’ve done the most of the whole agency and like the most of maybe of all the girls in New York’. And then I was like, ‘Oh wow, like yeah…’.

They didn’t realise it at the time?
I realised it was going well but I didn’t know that I was doing, like, the most shows of the girls.

So what does that mean? There are lots and lots of models but it’s interesting when someone breaks through like that.
It was because it was my first season in New York. And everybody was like, ‘Oh you know, new girl, cool’. And then my agency, they didn’t really know what kind of shows I was going to do. If I was going to do the smaller ones or the bigger ones. So they represented me to all the different ones and then it turned out all of them wanted to book me so that’s why I was really busy. And then when I was doing Milan and Paris, they knew that I was doing the nice shows, so then they only represented me for the nicer shows.

So they turned shows down?
Yeah, I mean the smaller ones, they didn’t let me do those anymore.

But the thing is, you were doing shows last season, so if you were available last season, why didn’t they all book you then? This is what I mean about it being interesting vis-a-vis 'breaking through' all of a sudden…
Because I had all these editorials coming out after the summer. It was the first time I went to New York before the summer to do editorials, so I did all these magazines. I did something for W, for Italian Vogue, something for French Vogue and all these big editorials.

When you got to Milan and Paris, then it just kept going?
Then I did London as well, in between. Then I fell off the pavement and I couldn’t do three days. I twisted my ankle. After the second day of London I was supposed to do another, third, day and I go to Paris for two days for a shooting. But I had to cancel the third day. I had to cancel three shows. It was a bit too much. When I was doing New York, I was doing a shooting for ID, which was a night shooting and we were shooting until like five in the morning. And then I had to go straight to the airport. And I got to London in the evening and I would go straight to do like, four fittings, and come home at one - and six am in the morning, call time again for the first shows on Monday. By Tuesday I was kind of like, ‘Woah’. And then when I ran out of a show, I was looking for my motorbike, to go to the next show and I just fell off the pavement and twisted my ankle. My boyfriend was so shocked because I looked like I was fainting or something. But then I just hopped on the motorcycle and went on and did two more shows and two more fittings, but once I got to the fittings I couldn’t even walk anymore. I was still trying it but it was really too much for my foot. And the next day, I couldn’t even walk anymore so I had to go show all these people that I really couldn’t walk.

Just as well it happened in London and not Milan or Paris. So how long did you have off?
Three days.

That was enough?
It had to be. Milan was starting on Saturday.

So if you’ve been modelling for four years and suddenly now, all this success, what does it feel like?
The other years I didn’t really do modelling properly. I was with the wrong agency, they didn’t do anything for me. The last year, I didn’t really want to do anything with it anymore. Last year I was studying and everything. I was studying photography. I studied multimedia design before and then I was going to do photography. Then I got scouted in London by a different agency.

You started a degree?
I did about half of my multimedia design studies in Holland, in Rotterdam.

So you’re a photographer?
Yeah, I plan to kind of build up a portfolio now, because I want to do more reportage and documentary-style. But I’ve been documenting the backstage as well.

Some of those have been posted on Anina’s website?
Yes, because we’re working on the magazine 360F as well. So she’s going to use all of them. I took pictures with a Nokia phone for her as well, so she’s going to use those for her magazine and they’re going to be sponsored by Nokia.

Why not start your own blog?
I didn’t really want to. I didn’t want to have all this attention and stuff. It’s more about my photographs and not about anything else. But I made pictures with my actual cameras as well which are going to be in another magazine.

When you get to the level of being 'The face of the season’, is it competitive? How do other people in the industry react towards you – any differently? What about the other models?
Yeah I guess there are people who start acting differently to you. A lot of people are much nicer to you all of a sudden. People that you’ve seen before that have ignored you. Like suddenly, [enthusiastic] ‘Oh Iekeliene! How are you?’

Models or people in general?
Mostly casting directors and people from the industry. A lot of girls are actually really nice, they’re like ‘Oh I’m so happy you’re doing so well’. Because they know, they’ve seen me already doing it before and they know I’ve always been struggling and now it’s going so well, they’re like really happy for me.

Do you mean successful girls – or not-so-successful girls?
Yeah… I mean a lot of successful girls, they don’t know that I’ve been struggling. They just think, ‘Oh another new face in the big shows’. So when I tell them, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, good for you’.

Do you think there’s a lot of jealousy in modelling?
I think most of the jealousy and bitching is in the lower….. The girls that are not doing so well, the girls that are more commercial. Those kind of girls that really want to be a model and they do some small commercial jobs. I think in the high fashion stuff there’s not that much. A lot of girls are just picked up from home and it just happens they came into this industry….

Just on really young girls, as young as say 14 years of age. Do you think that’s too young?
Yeah I think it’s too young. A lot of these girls haven’t developed any character yet. They come from highschool straight into this industry and it’s too much. I started when I was 18 and then I had some time when I was living on my own for one and a half years, and I was just kind of like, independent, and I developed my character. And then you feel much stronger in your own shoes. A lot of these girls get into these agencies and they’re there trying to influence them and telling them what to wear and what to do and how to act. And they feel like that’s how they have to be. But it’s really not true. There’s so much more than just fashion in this world.

It's interesting comparing what models wear backstage - ie their own clothes. There are those who look like they’re trying to really glam it up. Huge boots, miniskirts etc. Whereas you’re in your geek glasses and Tinkerbell dresses.
The agencies are telling them what to wear and they all feel like they have to be like this for jobs. I just feel like everybody should just be themselves. I’m not really into.... I couldn’t do it if I had to be like that everyday. I have to express myself and be creative and everything. Some girls, that’s what they like to wear. But a lot of them are just trying to be all designer… They’re all so influenced by what the other girls wear or what they feel like they have to wear to see clients.

And they all have the latest luxury bag. What do you carry?
I’ve got a Mulberry. It’s been given to me and it’s a practical bag. But I’m not really into that much designer. I wear it sometimes when people have given it to me and it’s cool, like I can wear it with some crazy tuutuus or something. But I’m not really, like, ’Check out my latest Prada’.

How would you describe your look? It’s fairly unique.
Well, I’m influenced by a lot of the Japanese street style - Harajuku. I used to be quite a punk rocker when I started. I was the girl with red dreadlocks in my hair and had like huge pants and a ring in my nose and rainbow braces everywhere, quite a crazy style. When I started I had to really tone it down. I felt really comfortable in the beginning because I was so not used to… I had to dress quite normal and everything. My other agency was also telling me what to do, what to wear.

Did they think it put clients off?
Yeah, It was too much. I definitely had to get rid of my dreadlocks.

So what do you wear to castings now?
Now because my agency [Marilyn] is so cool, I wear what I want to… I wouldn’t wear what I would wear in my free time, I would kind of tone it down a little bit. I have friends in London and we always run around with angel wings and crazy stuff.

What’s the story with the [glassless] glasses again?
Well my boyfriend was wearing … I lent him my sunglasses and he took out the…. We had a dressup party this summer and he dressed up like Napoleon Dynamite. So we took out the glass so he was wearing them to dress up. So I started wearing them. It makes me feel [tongue in cheek] more intelligent.

So you feel like you need to feel more intelligent in fashion biz?
It’s just kind of cool. Because all the girls are so trying to be fashionable and models and stuff... and I always just kind of like to be really dorky, just the opposite. I don’t really feel like I have to be this…

What do you think about the skinny models debate?
Some of the girls I was talking to wanted to go to Madrid and were having problems. I’ve heard so many stories, like girls drinking lots of water before [shows] so they would get into the weight limit. All this crazy stuff. Because they all had to be this certain weight. For me, it’s ridiculous, because I would love to gain some weight but I can’t really. I’ve been skinny my whole life and sometimes it’s a problem, I can feel really weak because Fashion Week is like tiny little food, little carrots and little pastries, there’s not much food backstage at Fashion Week. It’s no wonder that we got so skinny. A lot of girls, it’s their structure, it’s how they are. I mean I can’t say there are no girls having anorexia because there are.

Really?
Yeah of course. But not that extreme or anything. There’s maybe a few girls who are having anorexia. But most of the girls just eat normally. I’ve been doing some little movies for my friend as well, some interviews about girls, and they all think it’s crazy. And it’s always been like that in the industry so why all of a sudden make such a big drama about it? In America there are lots of people that are having lots of fat people.

Sure – obesity affects a very high percent of the population. By the same token there is pressure on models to stay thin.
I know that we influence people a lot. I actually have someone close to me who has anorexia. And I know that she’s in a clinic.

There's no other store - for anyone over 18 - like David Jones

the david jones summmer 2008 show invitation

In what could be a first for Australian fashion, David Jones has banned under-18 models from its upcoming Summer 2008 showcase. That’s what model agents, and David Jones’ own fashion director Kelvin Harries told The Adelaide Advertiser yesterday, during Adelaide castings for DJs' big August 5 show which is coming up in Sydney.

Model agencies were obliged to provide written confirmation that models were over 18 and the models themselves asked to bring ID to the castings.

Harries is quoted as saying:

“Eighteen to 35 is the target audience and (we) need girls to reflect that”.

One unnamed industry source is quoted as saying that it’s the first time they can recall an under-18 ban.

It’s certainly the first occasion that I can think of. And it seems bizarre, given the big hoo-haa David Jones has made in recent years over the multimillion dollar upgrade of its youth-focussed first floor, not to mention the appointment of numerous “Youth Ambassadors” as young as 15, including Abbey Lee Kershaw and Samantha Harris.

The move follows hot on the heels of a spate of 2008 underage modelling controversies.

Firstly, the babymodel brouhaha at Australian Fashion Week which erupted after organiser IMG announced it would bring out Polish model Monika Jagaciak as the face of the event.

Initially there was no controversy at all, even after The Sunday Telegraph published a sexed-up image of Jagaciak: in full makeup, with lips parted and reclining on a spa bath, her white swimsuit moistened by shower jets. The shot was a PR handout from IMG.

On my Fully Chic blog, I subsequently pointed out that Jagaciak had been 13 at the time the image was taken. The blog erupted.

Vogue - which had used a 15 year-old girl on its cover in 2007 – then cancelled its cover shoot with Jagaciak. Two days later all under-16 models were banned from the event altogether.

In early May David Jones dropped legal action against the Australia Institute, over the latter’s 2006 paper Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of Children in Australia. The Institute had accused several large local retailers, including David Jones, of exploiting children in marketing material.

Later that month, Australian photographer Bill Henson became embroiled in a child pornography scandal over images of naked teenagers in an exhibition at Sydney’s Rosyln Oxley 9.

The Henson obscenity investigation was dropped, however the child porn debate erupted again earlier this month when Art Australia used an image of a naked five year old girl on its cover in protest over the Henson debacle.

This week federal arts minister Peter Garrett proposed the establishment of a set of protocols for the artistic depiction of children.

Miranda Kerr features on David Jones' Summer 2008 show invitation (pictured above^) and she will of course be front and centre at the August 5 show.

The irony of a ban on under-18s will presumably not be lost on her.

In 1997, Kerr won the Dolly Magazine/Impulse Model Competition and was flown to Sydney to shoot for the magazine one week before her 14th birthday – prompting an outcry from the Australian media over the sexualisation of children.

Could the real issue here be that, in the challenging economic climate of 2008 – which has seen David Jones lose almost half its market value – cash-strapped young women have simply stopped buying David Jones’ clothes?

Irrespective of who is, or who is not, buying, frockwriter hears that David Jones may be dramatically cutting its show budget this season - by cancelling the regular touring fashion showcase.

Traditionally, once the big Sydney and Melbourne presentations have taken place, an entire month of dozens of smaller shows then roll out across the David Jones flagships in almost every state. Shows run several times a day, over several days, in each store.

This year, the Sydney show on August 5, followed by one in Melbourne the following week, are it.

Tallulah rising - and having an Absolut ball

Tallulah Morton at the Lonchamp party, Paris, July 2/thecobrasnake

Great to see Tallulah Morton doing so well in gay Paree. Just last week frockwriter asked: with four show nods from Jean Paul Gaultier in four months, could she be JPG’s new muse? As these currently-circulating shots from the hugely popular website of high profile party snapper Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter demonstrate, Morton has been out on the town toasting her Euro success – with some assistance from compatriot Stephanie “Raking it in” Carta.


Tallulah Morton and Stephanie Carta, Paris. July 6/thecobrasnake

Although at 16 of course, technically Morton doesn’t require an adult chaperone.

She is still, nevertheless, below the legal Australian drinking age.


Cooling off after a Jalouse magazine party. June 28/thecobrasnake

In fact there are are so many shots of Morton currently on Hunter's website - and shots of Morton and Hunter published elsewhere - that some have wondered if there might be a litte romance in the air.

One blog even asks: "Is Tallulah Morton the new Cory Kennedy?"


Tallulah Morton, Olivier Zahm and Stephanie Carta, Lonchamp party, Paris. July 2/thecobrasnake

Over several nights of party pics Morton also looks to be whooping it up with Olivier Zahm.

That’s the fortysomething French publisher of Purple – a hipper-than-hip French fashion mag, in which many up-and-coming models would presumably love to feature.

Judging by his front row status at every show at which I have ever seen Zahm, clearly he is considered to be hugely influential.

And the breadth of Zahm's influence looks to be matched by that of his ego.

On what appears to be Zahm’s MySpace page, he uses a photograph of himself inspecting a woman’s ass at very close range, together with the following quote that he attributes to Helmut Newton:

"You should feel that, under the right conditions, all women would be available."

Tall Puppy Syndrome: What do we do with ambitious children?

Bindi Irwin has been a hot button topic in Australia since Steve Irwin’s death. No surprises then perhaps, that most of yesterday’s flack on this blog about Bindi’s new fashion range focused on her age. But any residual controversy surrounding Steve Irwin notwithstanding, the subject of professional or celebrity children is fascinating – if only because of the fact that our intolerance appears to be somewhat selective.

MODELS

Under-16 model bans are gaining momentum in fashion, an interesting off-shoot of the ‘skinny model’ debate. London Fashion Week mooted imposing an under-16 ban on its spring/summer 2008 showcase, from September 15-20. The Melbourne Spring Fashion Festival recently dropped a 15-year-old as its advertising face.

Italy has also floated legislation banning under-16s from its runways. In France, an unofficial under-16 ban exists, however that may be circumvented via a children’s work license and lots of paperwork.

Fashion is a fast-paced business whose primary stock-in-trade is images of women. Many of these images advertise sexually provocative clothing. Sexually provocative poses in even standard fashion imagery are also increasingly common.

There is however plenty of other work which does not require under-16s to ‘sex it up’ for the camera. So, if a young girl wants to model, has the opportunity to do age-appropriate work and is chaperoned, should she be prevented from doing so?

An under-16 ban at London Fashion Week would have precluded both Twiggy and Kate Moss from working there. Both started at 15.

In Milan, it would have prevented 15-year-old Australian Gemma Ward from getting her first big break at the September 2003 shows.

Yes, fashion is a fickle business but it is what it is. Ward was in the right place, at the right time, with the right look. And at 19, she is now a multi-millionaire.

Two other Australians, Tallulah Morton (pictured above) and Samantha Harris, started modelling at 13.

Morton’s mother reports having initially been the subject of much tut-tutting about her daughter’s age – from those concerned Tallulah should have been in school (which she was) and that her mother may have pushed her into it. Amber Morton says she resisted sending Tallulah to an agency for a year – but was eventually worn down by approaches from agents and photographers, and eventually, also Tallulah herself.

ATHLETES

But are those parents who drive their athletically-endowed children to the track, or pool, at 6am each day for training subject to the same criticism? What about the 160 girls aged 7-12 currently in four Australian Institutes of Sport, being groomed for Gymnastics Australia’s elite squads?

The Institute has an under-16 ban in every sport bar women’s gymnastics. This exception was made, according to the AIS, because the international careers of female gymnasts are generally over by the time they are 19 or 20.

ENTERTAINERS

And what about child entertainers like Bindi Irwin? Lindsay Lohan, Drew Barrymore, Macauley Culkin and Michael Jackson all entered the entertainment industry at a very young age – and all subsequently experienced problems.

Nicole Kidman, who started working professionally at 13 and Ron ‘Opie’ Howard, who was younger still, haven’t done too badly for themselves. It’s early days yet for Dakota Fanning.

So is it horses for courses or should all under-16s be banned from every arena for the following ‘sensible’ reasons:

1/ They’re in no position to make an informed choice at that age.
2/ It’s their parents pushing them – and the parents are only interested in the $.
3/ There’s no way minors can handle that type of pressure.

What do we do with ambitious children?


Original post and comments.