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.

Bambi Northwood-Blyth covers V magazine with Lindsey Wixson

v magazine

Australia's Bambi Northwood-Blyth is on a roll. Behold the latest cover of US fashion magazine V starring Northwood-Blyth together with Lindsey Wixson - one of four covers of V's issue #74, shot by Terry Richardson and styled by ex Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld. Each cover pairs together two models, most of them high profile. Head to V's website to see the others, featuring Candice Swanepoel and Joan Smalls; Daphne Groeneveld and Saskia de Brauw and Sui He and Hanaa Ben Abdesslem. "These eight girls are unique" Roitfeld told WWD. "It's their diversity that makes each of them, to me, truly modern. They bring a new energy to fashion". This may be Northwood-Blyth's first major international cover, but it's her fifth OS cover this year, after French Revue des Modes (Spring/Summer 2011), Vogue Nippon (April 2011), Harpers Bazaar Espana (May 2011) and the current Fall/Winter 2011 cover of the Barcelona-based Metal magazine. And that's not the end of her V duties. She will be co-hosting V's Halloween party tomorrow night in New York with Richardson, Smalls, Swanepoel and He. Will her designer/DJ love interest "Dangerous Dan" Single play a set?

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. 

A Merry Marc, Anna, Carine, Tom and Tavi Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the fashion house, not a creature was stirring….. Wait, that can't be right. Carine’s out of a job. It could be Tom’s fault. Anna is so worried about hers, she’s been reduced to Christmas shopping in Brooklyn flea markets. Marc’s pissed because some rat bastard leaked his Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011 campaign casting deets. And Tavi still wants to know why he gave her third row at the main line show in September. Like everyone else we imagine, frockwriter has received and seen more than our fair share of animated JibJab Elf Yourself Christmas e-cards over the past couple of years. This season the JibJabbing seems to be in overdrive, so we thought we might as well add to it. Here with a Christmas medley, we give you fashion's latest superband, Botox: Marc on vocals, Anna on drums, with Carine, Tom and Tavi on rhythm, lead and bass guitars. One can only imagine what their hotel room looked like after the gig. Merry Christmas and happy holidays guys. Thanks for your company this year. It's been an honour dishing it up for you. Rock out with your frock out in 2011.  

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld interviews Tom Ford for V Magazine

These shots were just slipped to frockwriter (and no doubt many other blogs, but at this stage we think it may be a first look). It's a preview of V Magazine's issue #69, a spread starring Julia Restoin-Roitfeld modelling Tom Ford's debut womenswear collection - described as "self portraits" so we have to assume she took the shots. And an excerpt from an interview conducted with Ford, by Restoin-Roitfeld, the face of Ford's Black Orchid fragrance campaign. This would have been in the pipeline for some time, but interesting that it falls hot on the heels of last Friday's abrupt resignation by Restoin-Roitfeld's mother, Carine Roitfeld, from Vogue Paris after a 10 year tenure. The official version is that Roitfeld wants to pursue "personal projects". In reality, however, noone leaves a position like that with several weeks notice. Few, if any, have voluntarily resigned from Vogue. There has been much speculation that Roitfeld was pushed by Condé Nast after problems vis-à-vis her ongoing consulting to fashion brands. Yes fashion editors (even in Australia) do paid work on outside ad campaigns and that's bad enough. It is verging on the ludicrous for an editor-in-chief to do so. There has also been speculation that the December issue of Vogue Paris, as edited by Ford, was poorly received by some Vogue advertisers and may have proven the final straw.

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.***

Vogue means never having to say you're seventy

tom ford for vogue paris via fashion_screen

Ah the Tom Ford issue of Vogue Paris. It just keeps on giving. Following the 'Forever Young' editorial in which a blinged-up grey-haired couple is caught by Ford's camera in flagrante delicto - and Ford's proclamation that he has had it with the cult of youth, the stigmatization of wrinkles and all those who "cheat" time - comes an editorial spread starring some of the women who modelled the new Tom Ford womenswear collection at his exclusive media launch at New York Fashion Week in September. And a couple of ringins, including Ali McGraw. (In order below) Betty Catroux, Marisa Berenson and Lauren Hutton look like ultra glamorous 60+ women - although any thinner and Berenson would have been at grave risk of being mistaken for a light stand in Vogue's studio. The Love Story star, however, doesn't look a day over 45. Which is fascinating, since McGraw is in fact 72. Granted, she has been practicing yoga for the past 20 years, but considering that this is what McGraw looked like in 2006 and here she is in an interview with Oprah Winfrey several months ago - looking absolutely fantastic, we must say - is it just a question of good lighting or has she in fact been Photoshopped by Vogue to within an inch of her life? Given Ford's vigorous stance on ageing in the 'Forever Young' editorial, the latter scenario would seem more than a little inconsistent.

Tom Ford recommends a head job with that boob job

tom ford for vogue paris via fashion_screen

In the much-hyped, Tom Ford-edited December 2010 edition of Vogue Paris, which is out tomorrow, Ford tackles the subject of cosmetic surgery with an eight page editorial called La Panthère ose (which translates as “the panther dares” - a play on the French version of the film title The Pink Panther). Starring the world’s most high profile plus size model Crystal Renn, the editorial was shot by Ford and styled by editor in chief Carine Roitfeld. Yes, cosmetic surgery makes an interesting editorial backdrop for any fashion magazine, considering that such magazines stand accused of only ever showcasing unrealistic – and frequently digitally enhanced – images of female “perfection” that prompt feelings of inadequacy in “normal” women and lead them to eating disorders and cosmetic surgery. But it is not the first time this has been done. The July 2005 edition of Vogue Italia featured an 80-page cover story by Steven Meisel called Makeover Madness. Shot inside a medical equipment rental facility and a suite at the St Regis, the story depicted Linda Evangelista and eight other models before, "during" and after staged procedures (complete with fake blood). It's interesting to compare the two editorials. 

Andrej Pejic channels Ziggy Stardust for Vogue Paris

Australia’s edgiest new modelling star, Andrej Pejic, was the talk of the town at last month's Paris mens shows. Frockwriter mentioned at the time that he had just worked with a well-known photographic duo for a major international magazine. Well that magazine is the just-launched September edition of Vogue Paris and Pejic features in a 16-page fashion story called 'Rive gauche et libre'. Shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and styled by no less than Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld, the story was inspired by '50s chanteuse Juliette Gréco and '70s gender bender Ziggy Stardust and also includes Malgosia Bela, Daphne Groeneveld and transsexual Givenchy muse Lea T. But make no mistake, Pejic is the star of the story. He not only opens and closes it, but accounts for almost half the images (below). Click here to see the entire spread. And stand by to see what role Pejic may play in the S/S 2011 womens show season, which is about to kick off in New York. Not to mention the November edition of an equally high profile international womens' title, for which he has just been shot by an even bigger name, opposite a top female cast. He also features in an upcoming spread in Arena Homme Plus. 

Talking dressing your age with ABC Adelaide

I am doing a fortnightly chat on fashion every second Tuesday at 1400 AEST with the ABC Adelaide Afternoons with Carole Whitelock program. This week we talked dressing your age (click the player ^ if you are interested in hearing the show). There have been a few news stories on this subject pinging across the net in recent months. Most, IMHO, pretty dumb. One thing these stories constantly seem to overlook is the fact that we are staring in the face of a generation of older, high-profile women who not only don’t feel the "older" fashion rules personally apply to them and apparently have no fear of ridicule, they are setting the style agenda for others.

Just take fiftysomething celebrities Madonna and Sharon Stone.

The first posed legs akimbo in Louis Vuitton knickers advertising LV handbags.

The second recently posed topless and looking smoking hot for the cover of Paris Match, together with the headline, “J’ai 50 ans….et alors!” (I’m 50, so what!).

American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the star of one of the year's biggest buzz films, The September Issue, is 60.

Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld is in her mid 50s.

And Anna Dello Russo, the flamboyant Vogue Nippon fashion director at large, is pushing 50.

And while you would most likely never see Wintour in a pair of short shorts, leggings or a micromini – unlike Roitfeld and Dello Russo – Wintour has nevertheless been known to make bold fashion choices.

Unlike many other ordinary female consumers their age, these women do not feel forgotten by fashion and "invisible". These women are fashion.

Why do so many of their contemporaries feel out of the loop?








images:

1. sharon stone: paris match via the huffington post
2. anna wintour: perez hilton
3. carine roitfeld: new york magazine
4. anna dello russo: style.com
5. anna dello russo: jak + jil

Carine Roitfeld on CNN Revealed

OK, here's the much-touted CNN doco on Carine Roitfeld which aired this morning at 5.30am AEST. To frockwriter's knowledge Bryanboy was the first to provide a link to am embedded video - which did not appear to work, at least when we checked it earlier this morning, linking solely to CNN's live coverage. Hence our interest to spot that the doco has since been re-loaded to Sethivarova - the same YouTube channel which recently re-broadcast the new Calvin Klein commercial, to which WWD had a preview, but failed to provide embed codes (it was later taken down). On closer inspection, the entire documentary is in fact available on CNN. So if you missed it there, on Bryanboy or elsewhere, enjoy.

Carine to cross the pond?

new york magazine


Is life about to imitate art for Anna Wintour? According to Gawker, the world’s most powerful fashion magazine editor is to be replaced by her Paris Vogue counterpart Carine Roitfeld (^). Fans of The Devil Wears Prada may recall the book’s subplot to replace Runway editor Miranda Priestley – who is loosely based on Wintour herself – with Jacqueline Follet, the editor of Runway’s French edition.

Speculation has been raging since November 18 that Wintour, 59, may be about to depart Vogue after 20 years at its helm.

Although the claims were refuted by Conde Nast, sources told The New York Post that Wintour’s contract is due to expire and that she feels she has “done it all and had enough”.

Recent coverage of Russian Vogue editor Aliona Doletskaya prompted chatter that Doletskaya might one day be a suitable Wintour replacement.

But could Roitfeld, whose English, by her own admission “is not perfect”, realistically helm Condé Nast’s high-profile flagship fashion title, which was launched in the US in 1892?

Roitfeld also came to the editor’s chair of Paris Vogue via a styling background, as distinct from journalism, as was the case with Wintour and Diana Vreeland. That said, in between the latter two US Vogue editors, Grace Mirabella boasted a retail background.

And is Roitfeld's edgy personal and editorial style, moreover, the most obvious fit with the ultimately conservative US marketplace?

UPDATE: Since flatly denied by Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse Jr, Roitfeld's daughter, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld - and now, Roitfeld herself.