Emma Balfour gives David Lawrence a code red for Autumn/Winter 2012

Happy New Year to frockwriter's readers. New year, new look for Emma Balfour? Behold a first look at a red-headed Balfour in the Autumn/Winter 2012 campaign for David Lawrence, her third consecutive campaign for the Australian sportswear brand. Shot, once again, by Georges Antoni, this season’s DL backdrop is the spectacular Seidler House in Joadja in the NSW Southern Highlands. Built in 1999 by Australia’s most iconic architect, the late, Viennese-born Harry Seidler and now operated as a private hotel, the luxury residence and its 147 acres of natural bushland setting provide a stunning backdrop to the brand’s winter collection, which includes some pretty cool handbags. As a redhead, the fortysomething Australian mother of two - and recent face of Céline - looks a little like a hybrid of Rene Russo and Alice Burdeu. But it’s just a wig apparently.

Wild orchid - Emma Balfour tones it up for David Lawrence Spring/Summer 2011/2012

David Lawrence evidently has a thing for women of a certain age. The 33 year-old Australian sportswear brand has chosen iconic fortysomething Australian model Emma Balfour as its campaign face for the second consecutive season. Herewith an exclusive preview of the Spring/Summer 2011/2012 advertising campaign shot by Australian fashion photographer Georges Antoni at one of the penthouses of Sydney bar/restaurant complex The Ivy. This is the second brand campaign orchestrated by new David Lawrence creative director Anthony Cuthbertson and his first full collection for the brand, which is owned by M Webster Holdings and has 101 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Cuthbertson brings considerable design experience to the job. The UK-born graduate of Leicester's De Montfort University and London’s Royal College of Art has spent a decade working as either creative director or designer at such well-known brands as Max Mara and Sportsmax, Moncler, Daks (creative director 2000-2006), Workers for Freedom, Burlington, Rene Lezard and Amanda Wakeley.

Lawrence of architectura: Emma Balfour tones it down for David Lawrence Autumn/Winter 2011

Adelaide-born Emma Balfour was a very big modelling name in the 1990s. Launching her career at approximately the same time as Kate Moss, Balfour helped co-pioneer modelling's 1990s "waif" trend - which helped shunt the more statuesque 1980s supermodels off their pedestal. Kate Moss went on to become a much bigger name and her career has continued unabated. After taking time off to have children and move back to Australia from London, Balfour pretty much disappeared from the fashion radar. That was until September 2008, when she attempted a career relaunch on the runways of New York Fashion Week, booked for two top ticket shows: Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs. In the two year interim Balfour, now 41, has been clocking up a steady stream of work, including numerous advertising campaigns that girls half her age - and of course their agents - would love to be booking. In Australia, she has fronted campaigns for Willow and Mimco. Here is an exclusive preview of her latest gig: the Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign of Australian fashion chain David Lawrence.