Model citizens

julia nobis backstage at yeojin bae SS1112 in sydney

Although some sniffed that that there weren't enough big name international models, the swag of top local girls walking the runways of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2011 did the industry proud in frockwriter's opinion. They included those just returned from carving up the northern hemisphere runway circuit - Julia Nobis (above, backstage at Yeojin Bae), Lauren Brown, Myf Shepherd, Rose Smith, Alice Burdeu, Amanda Ware and Melissa 'MJ' Johannsen - and brand new faces such as Krystal Glynn and Hannah McDougall, who may well soon be heading that way. No, it's not your imagination that more Australian models than ever before are kicking it OS. Various international players have also clocked this antipodian runway trend. The Australian's Wish magazine recently commissioned a feature from me on the subject. It appears in the current May edition. Here's the story:

World number #1 Lara Stone lands triple Calvin Klein exclusive (just don't call her fat)

wwd

Well Lara Stone is certainly having a moment. Womens Wear Daily reports today that Stone has booked a triple exclusive with Calvin Klein, as the advertising and runway face of Calvin Klein Collection, ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Jeans for the upcoming Fall 2010/2011 season. The Dutch native isn’t the only model in the campaigns (Australia’s Abbey Lee Kershaw is one of several others who feature, in Kershaw’s case, in cK Calvin Klein). But according to WWD it’s the first time “in years” that the company has used one model across three brands – and the newspaper suggests this could propel Stone’s career “into the stratosphere”, given that Calvin Klein contracts were pivotal in launching the careers of several other models, including Christy Turlington and Kate Moss. But Stone is already the world number 1 on models.com, having just dethroned Brazil’s Raquel Zimmermann from the top spot. Her success and in particular, the Calvin Klein coup, are interesting for several reasons.

In March (although not screened until early April), in talking about his decision to cast several 30 and 40 plus models in his Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show, Calvin Klein Collection creative director Francisco Costa told Australian current affairs television program Today Tonight that “the 16 year olds are fantastic, they’re fresh...” but that older women “represent some kind of truth”.

Later that month, a New York modelling agent hinted that “Calvin Klein has discontinued their use of the Size 0-2 Models and trade them in for a 2-4 … a sign of the times indeed”.

This must presumably have been around the same time that busty, size 4 Stone was being earmarked for the campaigns.

Where does that leave 16 year old Monika Jagaciak, who had previously booked two back-to-back Calvin Klein campaigns? Without a Calvin Klein campaign this season, that's where. Although Jagaciak did in fact open the FW1011 Calvin Klein womens runway show, which featured plenty of other teenagers, notably Australia’s Julia Nobis, who was booked as a runway exclusive.

So is it a victory for the "older, curvier" woman?

Forty year-old Emma Balfour, who recently returned to modelling after a long break, is tipped as a new face of Céline.

Stone is still just 27. But she has hit the top of her game after being in the business for at least 12 years - perhaps longer. Stone was reportedly scouted at the age of 12.

And her curves do look to have proven problematic in the past.

In the January edition of US Vogue, she spoke of her battles with her weight, which saw her resort at one point to popping pills, which made her "heart race". Stone also talked about a 2009 stint in rehab for alcoholism, but apparently places no blame on the fashion industry.

Stone told the magazine:

“What they say is ‘curvy,’ but you know they mean fat...It’s depressing when the clothes don’t fit and you are always the odd one out....I was on a shoot just last week and the stylist took out this tight corset dress and said, ‘Here, put it on,’ and I was like, ‘Who are you kidding?’ There was no way, so that was very rude of her. It’s like, come on, she’s a woman; whether you’re buying jeans at the mall or wearing couture, you know what it’s like for clothes not to fit. It’s not an easy kind of rejection, because it’s very personal. It’s you, your body. You take it to heart.”

With lucrative advertising contracts piling up and recently wed to Little Britain star David Walliams, who’s having the last laugh now?

Today Tonight goes backstage at Calvin Klein

This story went to air on tonight's show. With Calvin Klein Collection womenswear director Francisco Costa and executive vice president global communications Malcolm Carfrae both due to speak at last month's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to show both in context in New York. After quite some negotiation, a freelance New York crew was booked and they shot at the February 18th shows (Calvin Klein has two, back-to-back - one for press, the other buyers). New York Fashion Week regulars would be aware that although the backstage areas at many shows are often crawling with camera crews, a couple of shows tend to be like Fort Knox. Calvin Klein arguably at the top of that list. I did the master interviews in Melbourne, just prior to the LMFF launch. Sadly the story did not get to run in the LMFF leadup.

I had no idea that Julia Nobis was even in the show until after it finished, otherwise I would have asked the crew to talk to her. And FYI "Yag-a-chiak" is the correct pronunciation of Jac's surname. I checked with Australia's Polish Chamber of Commerce.

I produced/wrote the story. Sally Obermeder reported and Damian Moncrieff edited.

Just a word on the intro and plasma screen graphics.

Producers are required to provide a sample intro for the anchor to read prior to each story, which is often tweaked further up the line.

Mine did mention all the Australian connections, ie in PR, the models and also the celebrities (Naomi Watts and Isobel Lucas were in the front row at the first show, with Melissa George turning up at the afterparty). Somehow, by the time the intro got to air, it had managed to morph into "Australian chiefs" being the "driving force" behind the company.

Unless Calvin Klein Inc president Tom Murry happens to have some antipodian ancestry, this will of course be news to Phillips Van Heusen.

But look, any more Australians on board and there could be a takeover.

Calvin Klein's ice breaker

Just got back from a second Calvin Klein dinner in almost as many days. Downunder to talk at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival's Business Seminar on Friday, Calvin Klein Collection women's creative director Francisco Costa (above) and the company's executive vice president global communications, Sydney-bred Malcolm Carfrae, have been busy entertaining. First there was Sunday night's dinner down in Melbourne (here is WWD's report - FYI it was Marie Claire Australia editor Jackie Frank leading the "skull!" chorus). Then last night's dinner at Sydney's Coco Republic to launch Calvin Klein Home furniture, with Calvin Klein Home creative director Amy Mellen. Earlier in the day, the trio chilled out at Bondi, lunching at the iconic Icebergs restaurant, before taking a dip in the ocean, during which they were joined by a pod of dolphins. Costa reports he wore boardshorts - and not the budgie smugglers that he purchased on the weekend at the Middle Brighton Baths just outside Melbourne. Costa chose a pair with the word "ICEBERGERS" emblazoned across the derrière, named after the sea baths' year-round "Icebergers" swimming club. Not to be confused with Bondi's near century-old Icebergs swimming club over which the Icebergs restaurant was built.

Women are from Venus, Sonny Vandevelde to show at Mars

There are lots of reasons to check out the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which runs from March 14-21 at venues around Melbourne. Listening to Calvin Klein creative director Francisco Costa and Calvin Klein Inc's Executive Vice President of Global Communications (and Sydney expat) Malcolm Carfrae wax lyrical on helming a fashion superbrand at the Business Seminar on March 19 is one of them. As is checking in to see the sophomore exhibition of Belgralian backstage ace Sonny Vandevelde at Mars Gallery from March 13-28. Currently snapping the New York shows, the Sunster will just manage to make the opening after the FW1011 season wraps in Paris on March 10. Above is the flyer.

Grey power: Francisco Costa keeps his end up at Calvin Klein

An antiemitic should be de rigueur in the handbag of anyone contemplating covering a fashion season. But not solely due to the fact that an inevitable percentage of the clothes that they will see are bound to make them feel sick. Being large, contained gatherings, fashion shows tend to work like petri dishes for bugs, a particularly bad situation of course in winter and notably, in weather as cold as it has been in New York. After standing around in the week's freezing temperatures many showgoers - and show workers - were bound to get sick by week's end. In the early AM of Thursday, in spite of 3000mgs of vitamin C a day, I joined their ranks - and lost 24 hours (and a day's shows) recovering.

I have since learned that a gastric flu had been circulating around late January's haute couture shows in Paris. Assuming at first that it food poisoning, I pressed-on (and no doubt, further circulated the bug). In my dazed state on Thursday, I had to ditch the first Calvin Klein press showing to head back to my hotel at one stage, but managed to make it to the second - which is mostly for buyers. I did not want to miss this show - and am glad that I didn't because it proved one of the highlights of New York fashion week.

Like some of the week's best collections, the Calvin Klein FW0708 show has a distinctly "urban" feel.

Designed by Brazilian-born creative director Francisco Costa, it's delivered in a near all-grey palette shot with flashes of azure blue - one of the most striking dresses, a skintight, bustier dress with moulded, scooped bodice.

The show notes are littered with the word "molded" and it applies to a litany of seamwork that contours Costa's jackets, dresses and tunics, defining the silhouette.

One sleeveless slate grey wool dress looks almost moulded to the body.

There is also much of this 'triple-spliced' torso that we're seeing in a few collections - delivered via three layers and usually involving some kind of cropped jacket or coat. In Costa's case it's either a cropped, funnel-necked bolero - or funnel-necked, chunky cable knit sweater - layered over a longer tunic, jacket or shirt and either trousers or a pencil skirt. If the next New York winter is as cold as the current one, Costa's hip-hugging silk knit pencil skirts won't be warm - but they'll look chic.

Trousers are gently tapered, yet full-legged, with a sharp knife pleat - one pair in a shiny, metal-look silk-wool pique with stirrup at the foot The stirrup pant is a nod to retro ski gear - and pops up quite a bit throughout the week.

A lean, clean, minimalist machine, the collection is so good you can't help wishing that Costa didn't have a far greater design hand on all the various Calvin Klein brand extensions. Fact is, Costa is just a hired gun to helm the women's collection, with separate designers for menswear and the plethora of licensees.

We had a quick chat right after the show:

So, tell me about the starting point of the collection?
Francisco Costa: I wanted something very New York. I wanted to create a much more 'woman' silhouette.

What do you mean by very 'New York'?
Much more sporty, perhaps a little more practical, a little more career, urban... all those things. And then (the 1960 film) Butterfield 8 was kind of the essence of who this person was. But of course not literally, right? You can imagine this type of woman going to work, very sexy, put together, but also looking through a window and imagining herself in different situations, being this and being that. But very controlled.

There was a lot of moulding, which was also in fact in your summer collection, with all the contoured seamwork. In a way it was almost medieval.
There was a sporty, active sort of feel to it. I was very inspired by sort of '40s skiing outfits.

That's interesting - so was Narciso Rodriguez.
The fabric was so much part of it. The fabric was so like the essence of that.

Is Calvin Klein [who sold the company] a hard act to follow?
Yeah, the legacy is hard but...

Especially considering he's still alive.
Right, yeah, I mean, I just hope I never disappoint him.

Really?
Yeah, because it's like, you know, it's a great house, it's a great name. I have to keep up the standards.

It's an interesting time in fashion, with some designers obviously happy to work for existing brand names and others who are saying no to big design roles within large companies. Are you ever planning to do your own line?
I have no plans.

What is the biggest challenge for a designer working inside a large corporate structure such as Calvin Klein, where it's not actually your company but it has your name on the collection?
I think we have passed a lot of challenges. I think it's much more of... it's just to keep it up really. But I think every designer has that challenge.

Although I note you are billed as creative director, you in fact have no creative control over the other myriad brand extensions of the Calvin Klein name. Is that not confusing?
Yeah... it's how our company is operated. I'm not a power freak.

You're not a Tom Ford you mean?
No, I think it's like... you know, I do what I do. I do [it in] such a way and I'm comfortable with it and that's how the company operates.

You don't think that design control is essential to brand DNA?
I think, you know, [there are] different areas of companies, different sorts of control, different sorts of power. I think I lead quite a lot. I set up the standards and everything sort of gets referred to what I do but I don't have the need to be [in] every single bit of control, because there are other people who can do that better than I do.

In Australia for example, Calvin Klein womens underwear is very successful, but it's very bright, very lacy. I imagine that the kind of womens underwear that you would design, would be rather different.
Yeah, absolutely, but also we wanted to look for the markets. This is a brand, it's a brand house, and you look for the market. If you want to buy yellow... we're going to sell yellow to you. And it's an American thing. There's an Americanism to it. It's the modernity of ... really great business because that's the essence of it. You know what I mean? So, that's pretty much what it is. It's business. It's a great setup the way it is.

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