April Tiplady covers L'Officiel Singapore

She just walked her first runway - closing the Paris Fashion Week show of edgy Japanese designer Junya Watanabe on Saturday. Now April Tiplady has scored her first cover.

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.  

Andrej Pejic is shooting a reality television show

vestal magazine via models.com

It was only a matter of time, surely, before Andrej Pejic scored his very own reality television show. In July last year, in fact, he hinted there had been an approach, when he put the question to his Twitter followers “Should I do a reality tv show? I mean what would I have…. to say”.

Andrej Pejic covers i-D

matt jones/i-D via models.com

Andrej Pejic's star continues to rise, with the publication of his 10th international magazine cover in just over a year. This time it's a pretty big deal: i-D magazine. One of seven Summer 2012 covers of the British pop culture bible, Pejic was shot by Matt Jones and co-stars with model Dree Hemingway. The other covers feature a phalanx of "It" folk, from actors Léa Seydoux and Andrew Garfield to models Arizona Muse and Agyness Dean, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and newly-crowned Christian Dior creative director Raf Simons. Pejic joins a handful of other Australians who can claim "of the moment" status via an i-D cover: Emma Balfour, Miranda Kerr, Gemma Ward, Ajak Deng and Abbey Lee Kershaw. And i-D isn't the only magazine Pejic is fronting this month - he also appears on the May cover of New Zealand's Black. With his Jean Paul Gaultier Kokorico fragrance campaign due to bow soon, stand by to see what else might be in the pipeline. Here is a gallery of his recent covers:

In Vogue: Chrystal Copland

theotherfashion via TFS

Another week, another Perth model lands a magazine cover. First, Tom Bull cracks his first cover with The Australian's Wish magazine, for April. And now Chrystal Copland has landed her first international cover - no less than Vogue Italia, also for April. Copland is part of an ensemble cast posing in the magazine's 'Prom Night' cover story, shot, as always, by the inimitable Steven Meisel. There are two covers; one, complete with freakish masks. So far no good highres versions have appeared, but above is an out-take and below are both versions of the final cover in lowres. And Australia's other Vogue Italia covergirls. 

Karl Lagerfeld gets a little nip/tuck from i-D

You've got to hand it to Karl Lagerfeld. At the age of, officially, 73 - or according to baptism records and one relative, 78 - he is a fashion phenomenon who has not only outlasted and outlived many of his contemporaries, he has more energy, drive and ideas than some half his age. The creative king of Chanel and Fendi and master of a myriad collaborations and startups - which currently include Hogan, Macy's, S.T. Dupont and his new upscale Karl Lagerfeld Paris and 'masstige' Karl lines - Lagerfeld is like an indefatigable fashion Terminator. While his creativity might seem unstoppable, however, unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg, Lagerfeld the man is made of flesh. But beyond concealing himself behind his trademark sunglasses and neck-high starched collars, Lagerfeld has made some effort in interviews to distance himself from the subject of cosmetic surgery.

Lanvin's Lucas Ossendrijver covers the launch issue of Manuscript

Sydney-based freelance fashion journo Mitchell Oakley-Smith isn’t one for resting on his laurels. Already the author of one coffee table book through Thames & Hudson Australia – Fashion: Australian and New Zealand designers – T&H Australia has just released a second collection of his designer vignettes, Interiors: Australian and New Zealand designers. And he’s just signed a third contract, this time with the Thames & Hudson mothership in London for another, slightly more complex tome that is due for release in late 2013 and is to be co-authored with Australian art curator and writer Alison Kubler. All under the age of 25. But that’s not all. Behold a preview of the first cover of a new menswear magazine called Manuscript, Oakley-Smith’s first effort as a publisher, which is out on Friday. Lensed by London-based Australian Paul Scala at the Lanvin headquarters in Paris, it stars Lanvin’s menswear director Lucas Ossendrijver, an extensive profile of whom features inside the issue. 

Chloe Sevigny covers Candy as Terry Richardson

screen cap/luis venegas's vimeo

Candy, the world’s “first transversal style magazine”, frocked up model Luke Worrall and actor James Franco as women for the covers of its first and second issues. For its just-launched third issue, Candy has transformed actor Chloe Sevigny into a drag king – and in fact, in character as photographer Terry Richardson, with his trademark flannel shirt, glasses, sideburns and thumbs up. Having shot both the Worrall and Franco covers, presumably Richardson shot this one as well. Sevigny has more than a passing interest in the subject of transsexuality. She earned an Academy Award nomination as Lana Tisdel, the girlfriend of murdered transgender man Brandon Teena, in Kimberley Pierce’s 1999 film Boy’s Don’t Cry. She voiced the role of Andy Warhol’s male-to-female superstar Candy Darling in James Rasin’s 2010 documentary Beautiful Darling. And she recently shot a British television series called Hit & Miss, in which she plays a transgender Irish assassin. She also has some commonality with the controversial Richardson. Sevigny is in a minority of mainstream actors to have engaged in an unsimulated sex act in a film – Vincent Gallo’s 2003 Brown Bunny, in which she performed fellatio on co-star Gallo. Richardson has pushed the boundaries of pornography like no other in fashion - coming under fire for the alleged exploitation and degradation of some of his models in the process - and his personal work features a high volume of imagery of himself engaging in unsimulated sexual acts. Sevigny copped a lot of flak herself over Brown Bunny. So, lots to chat about during the cover shoot.

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?

Amanda Ware and Jordan Coulter cover Wish

We might not have seen Amanda Ware at any Milan Fashion Week shows this week, but she booked a solid showlist at this month's New York and London Fashion Weeks. And the Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 6 winner is about to score her second cover in four months of The Australian's luxury magazine Wish - alongside Jordan Coulter, another rising local star. Here is an exclusive preview of the October Wish cover and accompanying editorial which showcases brands including Burberry, Prada and Louis Vuitton. Lensed by Pierre Toussaint, with styling by Ken Thompson. On newsstands October 7th. 

What does Andrej Pejic have to do to make the cover of Vogue Australia?

gazelle paulo/freak chic

Andrej Pejic’s first modelling job was a cover shoot – for Oyster’s 77th edition, back in 2008, flanked by a phalanx of male and female models. And while many cover tries never make it to page one, one of Pejic’s Oyster shots did, together with two of the women. It’s fair to say, however, that very few in the Australian industry knew who he was at this time and he was by no means the sole focus of the story. Fast track to August 2011 and Pejic has appeared on no less than eight international magazine covers in the space of six months: Zeit Magazin (February), Photo (March), Dossier Journal (Spring 2011), Citizen K (Spring 2011), Carbon Copy (Spring 2011), L’Officiel Ukraine (June 2011), Follow #5 and just this week, the very high-profile New York magazine, as one of four covers of the magazine’s Fall 2011 fashion special. Here is a photo gallery of all nine covers (best viewed on the blog): 

Robyn Lawley covers ELLE France

One of the strengths of the Australian modelling industry, say industry insiders in New York, is its extraordinary versatility. "You cross every section - you have sexy, you have edgy, you have androgynous, you have it all” Elite Model Management's Doll Wright tells frockwriter. Add curvy to that list. Twenty-one year-old Robyn Lawley has just pulled off what no other plus-size Australian model has thus far managed to do: score the cover of an international fashion title. Here is Lawley on the cover of French ELLE’s ‘Spécial Rondes’ issue, which has just hit the newsstands. She also appears on 10 other pages inside the issue. Even more exciting: on Monday and Tuesday this week in New York, we can reveal that Lawley, an Australian size 14, shot an editorial and cover try for the June issue of far more prestigious European fashion title, with one of fashion's biggest photographic names. Yes, the shoot was for a plus-size story. But give her time.

Sunday rose: Abbey Lee Kershaw covers Sunday Magazine's fashion issue

Can't get enough of Australian supermod Abbey Lee Kershaw? Then you'll be pleased to know she is the cover story of tomorrow's Sunday Magazine inside Sydney's Sunday Telegraph and Melbourne's Herald Sun newspapers. Here is an exclusive preview of the cover, part of an editorial spread that was recently photographed by the mag in Sydney while Kershaw was shooting the Portmans campaign. This issue is a fashion special, timed to coincide with next week's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Frockwriter didn't do the Kershaw profile, but we did write the 'style dynasties' story: a profile of three Australian families which have passed the fashion torch down the line to subsequent generations.  

Andrej Pejic on the cover of ZEIT magazin

zeit magazin's facebook

Andrej Pejic's first modelling job was a cover: issue #77 of Australia's Oyster magazine, in 2008, together with two female models. Given Pejic's profile today, that was extraordinarily good foresight on Oyster's part. What is surprising, perhaps, is that it has taken this long for Pejic to land a solo cover. Germany's ZEIT magazin is the first cab off what frockwriter understands is a rapidly lengthening cover rank for Pejic, with two other European covers shot in the past two weeks - one of them, quite a big deal in fashion terms. ZEIT magazin is the arts/culture supplement to German newspaper Die Zeit. Founded in 1970, the magazine describes itself as the paper's "emotional section" and its numerous investigations and scoops over the years include having tracked down, in Buenos Aires, the long-lost original version of Fritz Lang's 1927 German Expressionist masterpiece Metropolis, which then premiered at last year's Berlin International Film Festival.

Oyster sells out with Lara Bingle

Australia's longest-surviving indie fashion mag a sellout? Well, newsstand-wise, that could be the end result vis-à-vis Oyster's hot 91st edition which is out on Friday. Here is a first look at its double trouble cover of Shire babe and scandal magnet Lara Bingle, shot by Georges Antoni (above) and Stephen Ward (below). Also up in issue #91: profiles and photoshoots on/featuring Fashion East's Lulu Kennedy, Ryan McGinley, Andrej Pejic, Emma Balfour, Myf Shepherd, Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino, Ohne Titel and Max Blagg. Looking good.

Sasha Knezevic popped the question to Anja Rubik after a vampire musical

the rocks, december 31st 2010/stephen lee

Anja Rubik and fiancé Sasha Knezevic were among out-of-towners who rang in 2011 in Sydney. Confirming an earlier report by frockwriter that the world number 3 ranked model was en route downunder to shoot for Vogue Australia, the duo arrived on the morning of the 31st and spent the day sightseeing with Stephen Lee, who heads up Rubik’s New York agency Next Model Management, including lunch at iconic Watson’s Bay seafood restaurant Doyles. And at midnight? Joining an estimated 1.5million who assembled to watch the city’s NYE fireworks from the harbour foreshore, Polish native Rubik and Serbian Knezevic, a former pro basketballer-turned-model (who also jointly edits Viennese fashion magazine 25 with Rubik), braved the hustle and bustle of The Rocks (where the above shot was taken). But as Rubik explains in this interview I recorded on New Year’s Day, the model duo loved it. Rubik, whose career highlights include multiple campaigns for Fendi and Chloé and 10 Vogue covers, dishes on her engagement deets, the Vogue Australia shoot and Karl Lagerfeld’s 2011 Pirelli calendar, with one fascinating revelation. She turned down the opportunity to shoot the world’s best-known calendar in 2009 for one reason - because Terry Richardson was shooting it.

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.  

A supermodel New Year

vogue paris june/july 2009 via style frizz

Some parts of the world might be winding down for the holidays but of course, fashion never sleeps. Frockwriter has it on good authority that Polish supermodel Anja Rubik (above)  – who is ranked as the world No 3 by models.com – will be winging her way downunder to shoot for Vogue Australia, in time for New Year’s Eve. With 11 international Vogue covers to her credit, six of them in 2010, one could only speculate that if Rubik was going to be featured anywhere in an upcoming edition of Vogue Australia, surely it would be the cover? If that’s the case, then good to see our Vogue finally shooting more of its own material, after many years of rehashing covers from international editions. Sure, plenty of other international and local titles do this, however all the publicity and accolades regarding Vogue Australia’s original covers over the past year, from Cate Blanchett to Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil and Miranda Kerr, can’t have hurt push the idea along. But we understand that Rubik might not be the only supermod in town over the New Year. 

The dark side: Meghan Collison covers Oyster 90

 

Well it’s not quite Samara Morgan in The Ring. And of course, anything is better than Abbey Lee Kershaw’s October 2008 cover of Dazed & Confused (below), in which Kershaw's face was totally eclipsed by shadow. But interesting choice of image, nonetheless, of Canadian Meghan Collison for the cover of Oyster 90. Shot by Pierre Toussaint, Collison is glancing downwards, her eyes obscured by her bangs and her deathly pallor only accentuated by the use of foundation in the place of lipstick. Given that she looks like a Burberry-clad vampire extra from True Blood, perhaps Oyster is being a little ironic with the coverline "LOVE LIFE". But the sombre cover may well complement the mood of the editorial contents, which include interviews with LA Zombie director Bruce LaBruce and actor Paz de la Huerta, a star of the dark, graphic Prohibition era US drama Boardwalk Empire. Not to mention a "fashion week adventures" diary from Catherine McNeil, whose Spring/Summer 2011 runway season ended in mysterious circumstances midway through the season at London Fashion Week. On sale Friday 10th December.

Rachel Rutt, the face of summer

Who's a popular girl then? One of frockwriter’s favourite models, Sydneysider Rachel Rutt, finally looks to be getting some recognition. In May, we mentioned that Rutt had just scored her second international magazine cover – Dazed & Confused Japan, following one of 12 multicovers of the French Revue de modes in October 2009 – but had yet to make page one of any local titles. Well she more than makes up for it this month by scoring the covers of the summer editions of Australia’s Yen (below) and New Zealand’s No magazine (above), which launched today in NZ. Update 2/12: Although she is not on the actual cover of the December edition of The Australian's luxury magazine Wish, which is out tomorrow, Rutt nevertheless features in its Christmas fashion cover story. Here is a behind-the-scenes video: