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”.

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.

The showgirls and boys: Clyne Models - NZFW Autumn/Winter 2013

cait kneller by megan christiansen

Next in our series of New Zealand Fashion Week 2012 showcards from the key Kiwi agencies comes Clyne Models. With more focus than ever before on the Australasian modelling market right now, the ante has most definitely been upped in New Zealand, with Clyne Models at the head of the pack. This is the agency that launched Jessica Clarke, Emily Baker and newcomer Ella Verberne. While Verberne is getting her bearings overseas, Clarke has walked for Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret. And Baker, of course, emerged out of nowhere to become one of the most talked-about new faces of Fall/Winter 2011/2012, walking in no less than 60 shows in her first international show season last year, immediately nabbing a spot on models.com's hard-to-crack Top 50 Women list - which is almost unheard-of.

Six Australians and a Kiwi walked into a show....

richard chai SS12 backstage/sonny vandevelde

So New York Fashion Week is up and running and the so-called ‘Australasian invasion’ of its runways got off to a cracking start again on Thursday, the week's official kickoff. Six Australian models walked the Richard Chai show which, as some may recall, was opened by Aussie newbie Dempsey Stewart last season. Stewart walked Chai’s runway for the second consecutive season, flanked on this occasion by Julia Nobis, Codie Young, Ajak Deng, Rose Smith and Krystal Glynn, in her international runway debut. Joining them was New Zealand modelling sensation Emily Baker, the breakout star of the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 shows. With 26 models in the show, that's almost one third of Chai's cast hailing from the antipodes. 

Emily Baker, the girl who would be queen

After an unknown 17 year-old Kiwi called Emily Baker emerged at New York Fashion Week, we mentioned that New Zealand had a potential new superstar on its hands. Modelling for just six months, Baker, who hails from Matamata on NZ's north island, certainly grabbed the attention of New York casting directors, who placed her in the week's top shows. Not to mention that of modelling authority models.com, which makes a Top 10 New Faces list every season and dedicated its first slot for Fall/Winter 2011/2012 to Baker. At the conclusion of the season, in which she walked 60 shows, including almost every major name, some believe Baker could be fashion's Next Big Thing. Here's what MDC's editorial director Wayne Sterling told frockwriter, regarding this season's rush of Australasian models - with downunder, according to Sterling, emerging as a top 3 casting market after Russia and Holland. Noted Sterling, "As an editor though I think a great model transcends any trend. My training is not to fixate on a group of girls but to home in on an extraordinary new face with long distance potential. For me the girl poised to nab everything is Emily Baker. In the modeling sweepstakes she is THE sensation. There is a reason why she nabbed the first Top 10 newcomer slot. She is... rare, rare rare".

Gotham pretty

Abbey Lee Kershaw might have skipped New York Fashion Week this season, but rising up in her wake was no shortage of antipodian runway talent. If international casting directors did not already have Australian and New Zealand model agencies on speed dial, they will do from now on. Australia had at least 18 models at New York Fashion Week, seven of them brand new to the event and among those, several models with less than six months experience who scored some big shows. New Zealand now has its own potential modelling superstar. For the second consecutive season  - and from the same agency, Auckland's Clyne Management - the Land of the Long White Cloud delivered a face to watch. And then some. After Jessica Clarke nabbed a Calvin Klein exclusive last season, a 17 year-old total unknown Kiwi by the name of Emily Baker walked in pretty much every major show of the week, prompting models.com to declare her its first Top 10 Newcomer of Fall/Winter 2011/2012 - and noting that Baker is now “on the watch list of every major casting director, photographer and editor in the trade”. 

ANZAC day at Marc Jacobs

Frockwriter mentioned that a larger-than-usual contingent of Australian models was heading to New York Fashion Week this season. And that after day one, some of them were off to a cracking start. We have previously talked about upwardly-mobile New Zealand faces, notably Jessica Clarke, who was spotted by a Calvin Klein rep in Sydney two years ago and then in September 2010, walked a Calvin Klein Collection exclusive in New York. Another Kiwi has just emerged from left-of-field to become one of the most buzzed-about models of the season: Emily Baker. Modelling for just six months, Baker has a smouldering, sunkissed beauty that is reminiscent of 1970s American modelling icons Cheryl Tiegs and Patti Hansen, blended with a little modern Lara Stone moxie. This morning Baker added Marc Jacobs to her bulging top show list. And she was joined by three upwardly mobile Australians: Julia Nobis, now in her third international season after her own Calvin Klein exclusive this time last year and Codie Young and Dempsey Stewart, both of whom are working in New York for the first time. You could say the antipodians are having a bumper season. And waiting in the wings behind them on some interesting options are several other new Aussie girls...