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”.

Paris is burning - Fall/Winter 2013/2014

april tiplady closes junya watanabe FW1314 via wwd.com

Frockwriter was out at dinner last night when we received a call from Brigette Mitchell, director of Adelaide's Finesse Models, direct from a "freezing" Paris. "April just did her very first fashion show" said Mitchell proudly. "She hasn't even walked in a fashion show in Adelaide, but she just closed Junya Watanabe". April Tiplady - that's the 16 year old whose grandmother paid for a grooming course at the same agency two years earlier in the hope of boosting the confidence of her gangly grand-daughter. Last November, literally just signed to Finesse and with no modelling experience, Tiplady was signed by IMG Models worldwide (i.e. all its international agencies). Now she is a card-carrying member of the Australian model delegation at the Fall/Winter 2013/2014 show season. 

New faces: Sinead Ann

thom kerr

The Fall/Winter 2013/2014 shows rolled on to Paris this week and Australia's modelling delegation continues its assault on the season. Brisbane's Nicole Pollard nabbed the biggest show of the week - Balenciaga - while comeback queen Catherine McNeil added Dries van Noten, Balmain, Lanvin, Nina Ricci and Barbara Bui to her show list - opening and closing the latter two. Australians remain very much on the radar of international casting directors and it seems that everybody wants to know who the new girls are. The Agency Models in Sydney has a new name to throw into the ring in a couple of seasons' time: Sinead Ann.

Major Duomo

nicole pollard backstage at gucci FW1314 via stylebistro.com

And so to the mid-way point of the Fall/Winter 2013/2014 show season: Milan. Top designers notwithstanding, it’s not that hard to book a show or presentation in New York, where around 300 usually take place each season. London is a great fashion week, but even Julia Nobis skipped it altogether this season. Milan and Paris, however, are the money cities where the biggest luxury brands and opportunities lie. And on day one of Milan Fashion Week three Australian models were spotted in shows: Nobis, Catherine McNeil and Nicole Pollard. Just a reminder that Pollard had barely registered on the international circuit this time last year (she did 10 low profile shows at New York Fashion Week in September 2011). But after a prestigious haute couture debut walking for Christian Dior last July, followed by all of Dior’s subsequent shows, Dior’s Spring/Summer 2013 advertising campaign and some top shows in New York two weeks ago, there was Pollard in Gucci’s all-star model cast overnight - alongside Nobis and the world numbers 1 and 2 Joan Smalls and Karlie Kloss. In less than 18 months, Pollard has become one of the big girls. UPDATE 22/02: She can now add Fendi to her show list. And Catherine McNeil can add Prada to hers. 

Citizens Kane

christophe kane FW1314 via wwd.com

First Gabby Dover was 'blessed by Victoria Beckham', making her international runway debut at Beckham's Victoria, Victoria Beckham show at New York Fashion Week last week, a matter of mere weeks after signing up with Sydney model agency Priscillas. Now Dover has been booked as a London Fashion Week exclusive by one of that city's hottest new designers, Christopher Kane. Only increasing the buzz factor of Kane's camo de luxe show overnight was the fact that last month, he sold a 51 percent stake of his company to French luxury goods conglomerate PPR, the parent of, among other brands, Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. But there is a connection between the Beckham and Kane shows which could mean even bigger things for Dover - not to mention the four other Australians cast in Kane's show. 

Comeback queens - London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013/2014

cassi van den dungen backstage at giles FW1314 via style.com

London Fashion Week is in full swing and the ranks of the Aussie model posse have swollen – from 15 at the New York shows to at least 20 22 23 24 by our count. Who’s on deck? New to the circuit this season are Jess Gold, Eva Downey, Amanda Ware, Kye d’Arcy, Stephanie Carta, Rhianna Porter, Kaila Hart, Lola van Vorst and, perhaps the biggest surprise of all, Cassi van den Dungen, who is finally making her move on the international runways (and who changed her original plans to head straight from London to Paris on Monday after a callback from Love magazine editor - and Giles Deacon stylist -  Katie Grand). Carta, meanwhile, a Balenciaga fave five years ago, has been out of action for so long her Fashion Spot thread has not been updated in 14 months. In addition to Saturday night’s International Woolmark Prize show, she has popped up in a number of top shows, including Richard Nicoll, Antonio Berardi and L’Wren Scott. 

The snow must go on - New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013/2014

catherine mcneil walks jason wu FW1314 via style.com

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers" goes the creed of the United States Postal Service. With 4700 flights cancelled in anticipation of Winter Storm Nemo - a blizzard of potentially historic proportions that is currently bearing down on the northeastern US - that remains to be seen. Although Marc Jacobs has had to postpone his show until next Thursday, New York Fashion Week rolls on regardless. Among those turning up for duty is a swag of Aussie models. So far we've counted eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen, but there are no doubt more to come, including new faces Gabby Dover and Jordan Cohayney. Of note, Catherine McNeil, who is looking better than ever and was third out at the high profile Jason Wu show on day two yesterday, also closing Kenneth Cole. Here are her catwalk compatriots thus far.

The circuiteers - Australian models at the Spring/Summer 2013 shows

Julia Nobis is currently enjoying something that she likes to call “fat month” – the period immediately following the gruelling ready-to-wear show season, when she winds down. Show seasons are hard work for leading models such as Nobis, who was the season’s top runway face for two consecutive seasons up until the latest shows round that finished a few weeks ago in Paris, walking in more shows than any other model. This season Nobis lost that crown - she walked in 62 shows, making her Spring/Summer 2013's third busiest showgirl, in terms of show numbers, after Tilda Lindstam (69 shows) and Ava Smith, Erjona Ala and Tian Yi (64 shows each) according to the modelwatchers at The Fashion Spot (and many thanks to TFS for its painstaking show-combing). But that's still an impressive tally. How many Australians followed in her footsteps this season? Nineteen by our calculations. And if you have been tracking the progress of Australian models on the world’s runways for the past four years via frockwriter, you’d be right in thinking that that sounds like a steep dive in numbers on the previous Spring/Summer season – a 50percent drop in fact.

Catherine McNeil covers Vogue Australia (again)

vogue australia via chic management

Well we did say last month that Catherine McNeil looks to be enjoying a brand new lease of life, with a new love interest in the form of 21 year-old British model Miles Langdon. And now her great 2012 run with the Vogue brand - which has seen three spreads in the Australian, French and Chinese editions so far this year - continues next month with the November cover of Vogue Australia. Believe it or not, this is McNeil's sixth cover of the Australian edition. The last being in February 2011.  

In Vogue: Catherine McNeil and Miles Langford

catherine mcneil's instagram

And in news just in, Catherine McNeil has a new love interest: British model Miles Langford. But far more newsworthy, we feel, than the fact that McNeil is taking a break from the laydees (prompting some minor kvetching from lesbian forums such as The L Chat) is the birth of a cool new modelling It couple. After McBeha - the hybrid nickname for McNeil and former gf, Danish model Freja Beha Erichsen - and McNeil’s brief engagement to Australian model-turned MTV VJ-turned DJ Ruby Rose, we give you MiCat. Well, that's what we're calling them. 

Couture Chic

Australian agency Chic Management might be girding its loins for the imminent touchdown of IMG Models in Sydney and a potential run for its money as the toughest model negotiator in town, but when it came to the crème de la crème of world fashion events – the Paris haute couture shows, which wrapped yesterday – it had a clear monopoly. In the biggest Australian haute couture season that frockwriter can certainly recall, a total of nine antipodians worked the runways, seven of them repped in Australia by Chic: Montana Cox, Chrystal Copland, Nicole Pollard, Jemma Baines, Alexandra Agoston, Catherine McNeil and Ajak Deng (Deng is represented in Sydney only; her mother agent/personal manager is Stephen Bucknall from FRM Management in Melbourne). While it was the first haute couture season for Cox, Copland, Pollard and Baines, interesting to see McNeil and Agoston back at the couture for the first time in, by our estimate, three years.

Summer of the thirty-eighth doll

dempsey stewart at louis vuitton SS12/getty via daylife

Take a bow ladies - and gentlemen. Thirty-eight Australian models have just helped wrap up the Spring/Summer 2012 ready-to-wear runway season in New York, London, Milan and Paris - by frockwriter's estimate, a 35percent increase in numbers from the previous season. And what a season it has been, culminating over this past week in Paris, where the 18-strong Australian contingent included Miranda Kerr. No Balenciaga exclusive for Kerr, for the first time in four seasons. But after making her name as one of the world's highest-paid models, thanks to a lucrative contract with lingerie giant Victoria's Secret, how fantastic to see Kerr take her place alongside the world's top high fashion girls in a string of other blue chip brand shows, from Christian Dior to Lanvin and Chanel. Flanked by Abbey Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil, who is looking better than ever after a year's break from the shows, it was like the holy triumvirate of Australian modelling reunited. They were joined by Julia Nobis who walked in, wait for it, 72 shows, opening six. This may well make Nobis the busiest model - of any nationality - of the SS12 season by show numbers. Oddly, Nobis has yet to even be accorded a ranking on models.com's Top 50 Women list. One assumes this may soon change.   

Time out London

abbey lee kershaw backstage at burberry SS12/burberry's twitpic

The Spring/Summer 2012 shows rolled on at London Fashion Week, traditionally a bit of a breather between the far bigger and busier New York and Milan schedules. The latter put further than usual strain on the London event this season, with Marc Jacobs pushing his show back by three days, prompting many models to miss LFW's first day. Further demands were made by Gucci - whose show is today - dragging many girls to Milan at the end of the week. Nevertheless, 14 Australian models did the London shows, with Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil and Bambi Northwood-Blyth touching down in the SS12 season for the first time. Contrary to reports that McNeil had not done a runway show for two and a half years, in fact September 2010 was the last time we saw her on the circuit. Expect to see more antipodians in Milan and Paris, where many are already positioned attending castings and fittings.

LOVE in the time of dysmorphia

Frockwriter thought it seemed a little odd that Britain's Love magazine removed last Tuesday's shot of Australasian model Catherine McNeil from its Twitter feed. Originally published on the Condé Nast-owned magazine's TwitPic account (a photo hosting service connected to Twitter), together with the caption "Catherine McNeil is back!", the Tweet was nowhere to be found on Thursday. Coincidentally, earlier that day, we had published the original - apparently unretouched - series of digital shots of McNeil that were taken by McNeil's New York agency, Ford Models - and which had been supplied to Love earlier in the week. But while the shot slipped off Love's Twitter feed, the image had already been reposted by several web forums and blogs, including frockwriter and remains cached on Google images. Oh, and Love also neglected to remove it from the magazine's separate TwitPic feed. What's problematic about this shot? Could it have anything to do with the fact that a quick comparison of the two images suggests some Photoshop magic has been worked on McNeil's left arm? The version published by Love is on the left, above, with the original on the right. 

"Catherine McNeil is iconic for her generation" - Doll Wright

ford models

Well at least one mystery has been solved regarding Catherine McNeil - one of Australia's best-known modelling exports who has been on a bit of a self-imposed career hiatus for much of the past year and who, as it now emerges, also boasts New Zealand citizenship and travels on a Kiwi passport. The photo of McNeil that was Tweeted two days ago by Britain's Love magazine, together with the caption "Catherine McNeil is back!", was not part of any upcoming photoshoot for the magazine, but one of a handful of new digital shots of McNeil that have just been taken by McNeil's new New York management, Ford Models (curiously, the shot appears to have now been removed by Love). Here are the rest, supplied by Ford, which contacted us overnight for a little damage control, presumably not terribly happy with Timo Weiland's unfortunate Twitter shot of McNeil that we published yesterday. But while Love has yet to book her, newly-minted Ford Models agent Doll Wright tells frockwriter that McNeil has just shot 25 pages with a major photographer for a major international fashion title. 

Catherine McNeil is a Kiwi

timo weiland's twitter

Catherine McNeil is one of Australia's best-known modelling exports. The winner of the 2003 Girlfriend Model Search, at age 14, McNeil debuted on models.com's prestigious Top 50 Women list at number 26 in early 2007, the year her international career was springboarded via covers of both Vogue Paris and the American V Magazine. But who knew McNeil also had New Zealand citizenship? Apparently not even some in her Australian mother agency, Chic Management, until frockwriter's phone call this afternoon enquiring about an image of McNeil that was just taken by New York-based designer Timo Weiland and published on Twitter. In the rather unflattering shot, a cigarette dangling from her lips, McNeil is holding what looks to be a bottle of Corona beer in one hand and a New Zealand passport in the other. The Brisbane suburb of Coopers Plains is clearly stated as her place of birth, which would give McNeil automatic Australian citizenship by birthright - although that said, due to changes to Australia's citizenship legislation in 1986, only if one parent was an Australian citizen or had permanent residency. According to Chic Management, McNeil's maternal grandmother is a Kiwi and McNeil's mother spent many years living in New Zealand. We await further information.  

Model citizens

julia nobis backstage at yeojin bae SS1112 in sydney

Although some sniffed that that there weren't enough big name international models, the swag of top local girls walking the runways of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2011 did the industry proud in frockwriter's opinion. They included those just returned from carving up the northern hemisphere runway circuit - Julia Nobis (above, backstage at Yeojin Bae), Lauren Brown, Myf Shepherd, Rose Smith, Alice Burdeu, Amanda Ware and Melissa 'MJ' Johannsen - and brand new faces such as Krystal Glynn and Hannah McDougall, who may well soon be heading that way. No, it's not your imagination that more Australian models than ever before are kicking it OS. Various international players have also clocked this antipodian runway trend. The Australian's Wish magazine recently commissioned a feature from me on the subject. It appears in the current May edition. Here's the story:

What Catherine did Next

christian dior RTW FW0809/sonny vandevelde via TFS

Catherine McNeil might still be listed as the world number 24 on models.com’s Top 50 Women list, but we have not seen much work from her of late. In fact a Vogue Australia cover in February this year, her fifth Vogue Australia cover, appears to be the highlight of her 2011 portfolio so far – after a stellar 2010 that saw McNeil book, among many other jobs, four advertising campaigns: Givenchy Fall/Winter 2010 ready to wear and Narciso Rodriguez, Carolina Herrera and Lanca fragrances. And all of this in spite of the fact that she had skipped several international show seasons. But there has been some movement on McNeil’s models.com profile. Her New York agency is now listed as Ford, as opposed to Next Model Management, which is the agency that launched McNeil's international career in 2006. Although models.com still has McNeil listed with Next’s affiliate agencies in London, Milan and Paris, Stephen Lee, McNeil’s former agent at Next, told frockwriter that, as of yesterday, Next no longer represented McNeil in any market. “We wish Catherine all the best for the future both personally and professionally” is all tight-lipped Lee would say. So, did she jump or was she pushed?  

Cat gets the Tweety Bird

Since The Daily Telegraph published (this) image of Catherine McNeil at the annual Bondi Icebergs New Year's Day party, McNeil's usually supportive fan base has been in overdrive on the haterade. "Bogan" sniped one fan on McNeil's discussion thread on The Fashion Spot web forum. "She just needs to lay off the booze, the salt and sugar for a while is all" noted another. It wasn't the first time McNeil's new short black bob had seen the light of day - frockwriter first mentioned it in October - but together with a new facial piercing and the unflattering angle, shot while McNeil looked to be dancing with Daniella Rech, the photographer wife of expat Sydney show producer Kannon Rajah, it wasn't really the clearest image. Thanks to what is either McNeil's new Twitter feed, or else an elaborate fake using her happy snaps, here are a few other recent shots that demonstrate the new 'do, which has been cut shorter still - two featuring McNeil's great mate, Sydney model Stephanie Carta. 

Catherine McNeil scores her fifth Vogue Australia cover

vogue australia via TFS

It seems Vogue Australia just can't get enough of Catherine McNeil. Just five months after her last Vogue Australia cover, an edition which also included multiple McNeil editorials, here she is on the cover of the magazine's February 2011 issue. According to McNeil's mother agency Chic Management, the cover was shot by Max Doyle in Sydney "several months ago" - before McNeil cut her hair into a short bob and died it black (and was quite possibly shot in August, when she was in town for the David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show). This is McNeil's fifth Vogue Australia cover. Currently at home enjoying the Christmas-New Year break with her family and friends, McNeil is soon due to return to the work in the northern hemisphere.