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.

Jessica Clarke, Calvin Klein's new exclusive - Spring/Summer 2011

calvin klein SS11 backstage/sonny vandevelde

In December 2008, after modelling for just one month, New Zealand schoolgirl Jessica Clarke so charmed New York-based ck Calvin Klein creative director Kevin Carrigan in a home movie shot by her mother agency, that he flew her to Sydney and cast her in the brand’s big bucks party on Cockatoo Island that month. Minutes ago, in what is very big news for New Zealand, the 17 year-old scored an enormous coup: a New York Fashion Week exclusive with the same company’s marquee womenswear brand, Calvin Klein Collection. Heading into the season, Clarke was tipped by top US casting director Ashley Brokaw as a face to watch. But Calvin Klein is one of the most prestigious shows on the circuit and Clarke's coup will undoubtedly provide a brilliant springboard for her international career, just as it did for Sydney’s Julia Nobis last season. 

Get shorty: The personality girls of Spring/Summer 2011

bambi northwood-blyth/aje AW2011 via sportsgirl

The Spring/Summer 2011 show season kicks off in New York next Thursday and it’s time to ask, once again, which antipodians will make their marks on the international runways? We mentioned FRM Model Management’s Ajak Deng yesterday. Chic Management’s Abbey Lee Kershaw is of course tipped to continue her climb to the top. Already at #5 on models.com, could this show season help her make it to #1? Other veterans either already in New York or en route include Viviens’ Skye Stracke. Priscillas’ hot new girls Lauren Brown and of course, Julia Nobis, who first emerged on the radar in February with a Calvin Klein exclusive, will be there. Joining them will be some brand new Australasian faces. Interestingly, unlike Nobis, Kershaw, Deng and co, three are under the standard runway height requirement of 5’10”.

Calvin Klein's latest obsession?

frankie

Meet Jessica Clarke. She’s a 15 year-old Kiwi, has been modelling for a mere month and says she already has an upcoming cover of Australia’s Frankie magazine in the bag (UPDATE 17/12 3.20pm: the Jan/Feb 09 issue, which came out today, funnily enough). Well it seems there's a chance Clarke might find herself with something a little bigger than Frankie on her agenda. Like, say, Calvin. That’s if rave reviews by Kevin Carrigan, the creative director of Calvin Klein, ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Jeans, are anything to go by.



clyne models

New York-based, Carrigan was in town for last night’s Calvin Klein party on Cockatoo Island, on Sydney Harbour.

After a two-day casting session, Carrigan flew Clarke to Sydney, booking her as one of 40 Australian and NZ models to take part in a static presentation within the party venue.

Wearing CK Calvin Klein collection, jeans, lingerie and eyewear, the models – who included Australians Stephanie Carta and Tallulah Morton - were positioned in and around three quite spectacular ‘lightscapes’, created by Australian Aboriginal artist Jonathan Jones.

Frockwriter had a quick chat with Clarke at the party afterwards.


clyne models

But here is what Carrigan had to say about her in an interview I did with him earlier in the afternoon.

Carrigan was talking about the casting session and what the company was specifically looking for.

“I was looking for more fresh faces. I think that’s what we’re about as a house as well. I think that we’re always about trying to discover somebody. And there’s one girl in particular... I feel we might have. I hadn’t seen her before we flew her in and there was this little video [made by her agency, Clyne Models] and she was literally walking in a backyard. It was so cool. To see like a runway showreel. She’s only been modelling a month, this was kind of like her second job. Because I liked the reel and I thought also, you get fresh, beautiful, just really... lots of energy too she has, which is really nice. It’s also about personality, especially with jeans - it’s denim”.

The CK Calvin Klein womens collection is due to be showcased in Milan in March.

Let's wait and see what transpires...

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