Hanne Gaby Odiele for JASU

Hanne Gaby Odiele made a whistle stop tour of Sydney for last month's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, walking exclusively for Kym Ellery's show. The top Belgian model - who is ranked world number 34 by models.com - also shot this Australian autumn/winter 2013 lookbook campaign for the event's e-tail partner JASU. JASU specialises in Australian designers and live streamed all of MBFWA's on-site shows. Here's a first look. 

Birthday girl - David Jones Autumn/Winter 2013

Australia’s David Jones celebrates its 175^th birthday this year, making it the oldest department in the world to be operating under its original name. Last night in Sydney, DJs staged its Autumn/Winter 2013 fashion showcase. Thanks to a dramatic expansion of the backstage area - 250sqm of it in fact, over double the space allocated for the previous two seasons - there was so much more room for the media in attendance, from DJs’ outside broadcast camera crew, who were shooting for the live stream, to all the photographers and social media chroniclers on deck (see our backstage portfolio, below). The latter included many of the models themselves, who were happy-snapping and Instagramming in the lineup in their first looks.

The producers: Mark Vassallo - MBFWA SS 12/13

backstage at josh goot SS1112/sydney may 2011

Sydney-born, but now "globally"-based  (or so he says on his new website), Mark Vassallo has had a hand in some of Australian Fashion Week’s biggest fashion ‘moments’ of recent years. He has played the roles of independent publisher (Mark and Petit Mal), editor (Follow), fashion director (Harpers Bazaar Australia), creative director, casting director and stylist. He launched the career of Gemma Ward, among others. And he has helmed a number of memorable  runway presentations, for designers such as Josh Goot, Dion Lee and Romance Was Born. As part of frockwriter’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia SS1213 series, we thought we should give it up for - and pick the brains of - some of the hardest-working, least-visible players of the fashion week pack – the producers. First up: Vassallo. 

Deep in Vogue - LMFF 2011

Second up on the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival's main runway schedule was the Vogue Australia showcase, featuring the finalists of LMFF's 2011 Designer Award: Melvin Tanaya's and Lyna Ty's three seasons old menswear brand Song for the Mute, which won the award, plus Arnsdorf, Bassike, Dress Up, Ellery, From Britten, Laurence Pasquier and Lui Hon. Styled by Vogue's Trevor Stones, it was an edgy showcase of exciting, emerging Australian design talent. And it wasn't only the new brands that attracted frockwriter's attention. Rachel Grasso (above) was also a standout. Modelling for four years and repped in Sydney by Priscilla's, the 20 year-old Perth native of Irish/Italian ancestry must have walked in front of our camera on more than one previous occasion. For some reason, we really noticed her this week.

Cassi van den Dungen and Olivia Thornton haunt Ellery's Spring/Summer 2010/2011 'Horreurscope' campaign

All’s been quiet on the Cassi van den Dungen front for months. At least on the publicity side, which is probably the way van den Dungen’s managament likes it, given how many dramas there have been since she was crowned runnerup of Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 in July 2009. Of course there was this Daily Telegraph story on August 6th – which frockwriter has on good authority came about after the paper was knocked back for an interview with the 18 year-old and then just simply did what’s known in the tabloid world as a “doorstop”: turned up regardless at her front door, camera in tow. On the work front, however, van den Dungen has been head down, booked almost every day of the week according to her mother agency Work Agency (which is now van den Dungen’s only Australian representation, having recently left Camerons in Melbourne).