Juliana Forge often gets compared to Abbey Lee Kershaw

Tuesday's Kookai show looked like a million dollars thanks to a great cast headed up by the brand's current advertising face in Australia, Juliana Forge. Nineteen year-old Forge could be the next antipodian to clean up at the international show circuit, once she finally makes a serious move offshore. She has just returned from a shoot for Greek Vogue which could be a harbinger of big things to come. Here is a quick iv frockwriter grabbed with Forge backstage before the show, in which she mentions that people frequently bring up her resemblance to fellow Melburnite Abbey Lee Kershaw, now the world number five model.
   

Casting clout: Kannon Rajah carves up the show circuit, from Karl to Ksubi

Frockwriter has mentioned Sydney expat Kannon Rajah on several previous occasions. During 2008’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – on which he has worked in casting and show production since 2006 – and last year’s VS show, which we profiled in a tv story on Today Tonight. We caught up with the casting dynamo yesterday down in Bondi. Rajah, who now lives in New York with his Australian wife and son, returned to work on Ksubi’s show which closed RAFW. It was a bit of a homecoming for Rajah who started his career working for the then Mercedes Australian Fashion Week from 2001-2005, initially as a runner and eventually designer relations director and show producer. Victoria’s Secret isn’t Rajah’s only coup – in February he became the casting director for Italian luxurygoods maker Fendi, the latest in an expanding roster of personal clients, which also includes Gareth Pugh, Pedro Lourenco and Willow.

Juliana forges ahead

Frockwriter mentioned that Chic Management’s new star Juliana Forge walked in 21 shows at her first Rosemount Australian Fashion Week earlier this month. We were sworn to secrecy over Forge’s recent Ralph Lauren Rugby campaign, because, well, sometimes models shoot and are paid for campaigns, only to wind up on the cutting room floor. But in the case of the 18 year-old Victorian, that's not the case, because here she is in the Ralph Lauren campaign. And now here is a sneak peek at two Max Doyle images from Forge's upcoming Seafolly Limited Edition campaign – that’s the new high-end line from the 35 year-old Australian swimwear brand. It’s a pretty great get for a new model, especially considering the established names who have previously been cast: Alyssa Sutherland for the inaugural Seafolly Limited Edition campaign, with everyone from Miranda Kerr to Catherine McNeil and Jessica Hart modelling for Seafolly proper.

Add to this a multigirl Harpers Bazaar Australia cover, together with campaigns for Just Jeans and Red Earth, and Forge appears to be well en route. If not to be the next Miranda Kerr, as Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported yesterday, then at least certainly Australia's latest rising Australian modelling star.

Some of the information in the SH story is inaccurate, at least according to Chic Management, which reports that there was interest in Forge from German Vogue at one point, which however came to nought. There is no second Ralph Lauren Rugby campaign. And Forge does not leave for New York this week.

According to Chic, Forge is heading to New York in June, where there may well be a go-see with Victoria's Secret, as reported.

Chic Management and its New York affiliate Next do of course have a knack for getting their models into the VS show, so let's wait and see.

Lingerie was however apparently far from Forge's mind in 2008, when she was a Melbourne schoolgirl modelling part-time and repped by Melbourne's Camerons agency. In August that year she told The Age's Janice Breen Burns:

"I have a say in what jobs I do too - like, I won't do underwear. And I wouldn't be pressured into being really skinny".

At the time Forge also reportedly described catalogue gigs as "cheesy". But that doesn't appear to have precluded her recently doing what looks very much like an online lingerie catalogue gig for Bloomingdales.



both images: max doyle for seafolly, courtesy seafolly