The showgirls: Priscillas Model Management - MBFWA SS 12/13

amelia zadro/tommy clark via priscillas

Sadly, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia 2012 will be Nobis-less. That is, without Julia Nobis, one of the world's busiest showgirls, who is currently otherwise occupied with far more pressing matters in Europe. Regular readers will recall that Nobis broke her own show record in March, by walking in 73 shows from New York to Paris for the Fall/Winter 2012/2013 season. But the Nobis mothership - Priscillas Model Management - does have a posse of some 30 showgirls for MBFWA, including big local names such as Emma Balfour, Alice Burdeu, Ruby Jean Wilson, Lauren Brown, Bambi Northwood-Blyth and Amanda Ware; exciting new girls like Amelia Zadro (above) and some cool internationals.  

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.

"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. 

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.

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. 

Yes, Emma Balfour did shoot Céline's Fall/Winter 2010/2011 advertising campaign

212 @ modernparty.cn via the fashion spot

On June 1, frockwriter mentioned that our well-placed sources had spotted veteran Australian model Emma Balfour shooting the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign for French luxury brand Céline in New York alongside at least one other model. The first images of the Juergen Teller-lensed campaign have just surfaced and voilà Balfour, together with Martiniquais/French model Sigrid Agren (below). This is a huge coup for Balfour, who popped back up on the modelling radar in September 2008 during New York Fashion Week in the Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang shows. Pushing 40, she was old enough to be the mother of her teen runway colleagues. By the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season in February/March this year, which boasted Stella Tennant, Kristen McMenamy and Elle Macpherson, among others, Nineties modelling faces had made a small, yet significant, return to the runways - not to mention the ad pages. Here is 39 year-old Tennant in Balenciaga's FW1011 campaign.

Emma Balfour shoots Willow... and Céline?

Here is a sneak peek at Australian modelling veteran Emma Balfour in Willow’s Resort 2010/2011 collection. The lookbook was shot yesterday by Max Doyle at designer Kit Willow’s Sydney headquarters and it was styled by Melanie Huynh. A stylist at Paris Vogue for five years and a former assistant to editor Carine Roitfeld, the now freelance Huynh flew out from her Paris base on Friday specifically for this job. It’s not the first time that Kit Willow and Huynh have worked together. Huynh styled Willow's 'Eclipse' Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show in New York in February (she also styled Joseph Altuzarra’s FW1011 show). Willow's Resort collection, entitled 'Bachelor Girl', will begin dropping into stores here in September and overseas, from October. Balfour was once a very big modelling name, who emerged in London in the early 1990s as part of the so-called “waif” brigade, that was spearheaded by Kate Moss. Balfour only recently returned to the business and frockwriter hears that she could be in for a major career boost - courtesy one very high profile French luxury brand.

"F***ing irresponsible" - Emma Balfour weighs in on fashion's heroin chic enablers

priscillas

Frockwriter told you about Emma Balfour’s runway comeback in September at Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang. Her appearances at RAFW in May. And her Bondi backyard. So it was with some interest that we spotted her throwing down in this interview from Sunday's The Sun Herald which has just gone online. Balfour dismisses vogue.com.au’s recent glib portrayal of her as “the face of heroin chic in the 1990s” as "boring", before telling the paper, “You know, there were girls who were junkies. And they were being propped up, and people loved their out-of-it, glazed-over thing that was happening, and it was just f---in' irresponsible. People used to find it hilarious because I was the only girl who had never tried cocaine, let alone anything else. It ... didn't apply to me. But I was thin and overworked. I know lots of people who, when they get busy, just drop weight and that's just what I was like, for more natural reasons than having a heroin habit." In handing the smack chic crown to Balfour, vogue.com.au overlooked several other '90s "superwaifs", notably Kate Moss - who, of course, is no stranger to cocaine. Balfour says that Moss has “always been quite emotionally fragile and I don't think she's been really looked after well enough, especially by herself." As for Balfour's return to the business at the age of 40, she notes: "Once the economy goes down, you need to do as many different demographics as you can and bring the old birds in who people are familiar with."

Model family

the selby


Just-posted on US home style blog The Selby: a glimpse into the Bondi backyard and life of Renaissance waif Emma Balfour, who recently reignited her modelling career at 40. And given the photogenic progeny produced by Ward and Andrew Cowen - their sons Bruno and Elliot - you have to ask if it's just a matter of time before we see a second generation of Balfours on the runway.

Paper, Castle, Runway... RAFW SS0910, the season of the comeback queens

toni maticevski backstage/sonny vandevelde

Well, well, well, Emma Balfour isn’t the only one making a runway comeback. As frockwriter Tweeted last night after Toni Maticevski's show, you can add Sophie Ward to the mix as well (UPDATE 23/04: and apparently also Alyssa Sutherland). But while 39 year-old Balfour has been working on her comeback for seven months – first popping up at the SS09 New York Fashion Week shows (and will open Friedrich Gray on Sunday) – to frockwriter’s knowledge, last night’s show was 23 year-old Ward’s first fashion gig in two years. Ward is currently being promoted for RAFW – and according to Viviens, is attending castings, with Romance Was Born already confirmed. Last week, Ward made mention of her runway return on her blog. As we recently reported, Ward, a professional writer, has been busy over the past 12-18 months establishing her own publishing company, Paper Castle Press. No word yet on the publication date of the imprint’s first titles (one a childrens book called The Ginger Marmalade Toastmeister, with illustrations by Ward’s mate, the talented American illustrator Danny Roberts). Modelling is not the easiest of professions - the older you are, the harder it gets to compete with reed-thin adolescents. As the Ward family is already well aware, it is particularly hard when you have been out of the game for a while. The big question is will both Ward sisters return to the runway in 2009?