Gemma love

vogue italia via models.com

It's been a big week in the Australian modelling business. As revealed by frockwriter, Gemma Ward signed with IMG Models Australia and plans to come out of retirement. Abbey Lee Kershaw parted ways with Chic Management, the Australian 'mother' agency that launched her career and remains off the agency grid down under (but still, nevertheless, appears on the Next Models boards in New York, Milan and London, contrary to speculation). And bookending a week that's been very much dominated by IMG Models news, it emerged yesterday that the world's biggest model agency has stitched up a deal with Australia's Next Top Model to become the official model agency affiliate for the popular Foxtel show – giving incumbent Chic Management the flick. Needless to say it's not been the best of weeks for Chic. However it's been a great week for Gemma Ward, who should be thrilled with the reaction to the news of her comeback. Here's a sample of the coverage. Many thanks to each for the links. 

Kirstie Clements' Vogue Factor

vogue australia september 2011 - via fashionmodeldirectory.com

Judging by the response to Frockwriter’s Salute to Kirstie Clements tribute last May – one of our top 10 posts of 2012 – there is a huge amount of interest in, and goodwill towards, the former Vogue Australia editor. Her shock axing last year, followed by the dismantling of pretty much the entire Vogue Australia team she worked with, had the Australian fashion industry abuzz. But Clements fell on her feet quickly, snapped up by Melbourne University Press to pen an autobiography about her 25 year career – nearly all of it spent at Vogue, starting as a receptionist in the 1980s. The book, called The Vogue Factor, is due out February 28th (you can pre-order it here). We caught up with Clements to learn a little more about her fashion “tell-all” and what she’s up to. Incidentally, you’ll never guess who she was about to put on the cover at the time of her departure.

Frockwriter's Top 10 posts of 2012

We usually flag the top posts of the previous 12 months on Frockwriter’s July 4 birthday each year. This year we opted instead to focus on some of the challenges – and frustrations - of trying to maintain an independent news blog, whilst avoiding getting sucked into the vortex of the blogger gravy train. So here is a list of our top stories for 2012, rated by traffic. The year’s number one post, Close encounters of the KL kind – which attracted over 20,000 hits - is incidentally also one of the top posts in this blog's four and a half year history. It's also a story on which we personally received considerable feedback, from people who contacted us to say how much they enjoyed reading it. Not bad for a post that we originally hesitated publishing at all, because of its length and potential TLDR factor – “too long didn’t read” being the mantra of many when confronted with longform pieces on the net.

A salute to Kirstie Clements

vogue.com.au

The Australian fashion industry had a reality check yesterday, with the announcement that Kirstie Clements had been unceremoniously dethroned as editor of Vogue Australia. Unceremoniously is putting it kindly. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Clements - up until yesterday the second longest-serving editor of the current Australian mainstream fashion magazine pack after Marie Claire's Jackie Frank - was escorted from the premises by security, with her phone confiscated [update 19/05: although Clements made no effort on Thursday or Friday on Twitter to correct this version of events - which we understand were witnessed by third parties - she has since denied to the SMH that her phone was confiscated or that she was escorted from the building]. The axing of two other senior NewsLifeMedia editorial executives at the same moment might have helped assuage the humiliation. This was business, after all, for News Limited, nothing personal. Given the accompanying press release, it was pretty clear that new News Limited ceo Kim Williams and his axe-woman, new NewsLifeMedia ceo Nicole Sheffield, had no idea just how personal a matter it would have been for Clements. They stated she had been Vogue's editor for 10 years, out of a total 13 years with the magazine. In fact, Clements was Vogue's editor for 13 years - but she originally joined the title in 1985 as a receptionist, before moving up through the ranks and briefly defecting to the newly-relaunched Harper's Bazaar in 1998. Some thank-you for almost 30 years of service to one of the world's greatest publishing brands.

Was Marion Hume fired from Vogue Australia for putting a black woman on the cover?

Naomi Campbell is never far from the headlines. On Sunday she managed to inadvertently embroil an Australian publisher in one. In a story headlined 'Editor sacked in racism row', Campbell told the UK Telegraph, "One time, I went to Australia. The editor-in-chief of a magazine there told me that she got fired for putting me on the cover. I do remember going there and saying, 'Where's the Aboriginal model? There should be one. They're beautiful women.'" No names are mentioned. But coincidentally, another Brit by the name of Marion Hume edited Vogue Australia for 18 months in the late 1990s, during which time she commissioned Peter Lindbergh to shoot Campbell for the June 1997 cover, above. In 1998 Hume was fired, following a controversial tenure, during which, it should be noted, she did not manage to stem the erosion of circulation and advertising that had begun prior to her appointment with the arrival of marie claire in 1995 and continued with the 1998 rebirth of Harpers Bazaar Australia. From 1995-1999 Vogue lost almost a quarter of its readers and two-thirds of its ad share. In 2002, Conde Nast withdrew from Australian publishing, selling the Vogue license to FPC Magazines, which in turn was acquired by News Limited in November 2006. 

Codie Young cracks the cover of Vogue

thom kerr

Well it seems a Vogue exclusive is not Codie Young’s only coup. The 17 year-old Sunshine Coast schoolgirl, who has been modelling for just four months and is currently appearing in a series of editorials exclusive to Vogue Australia, is due to appear on the cover of the October 2010 edition. That's what frockwriter's sources report editor Kirstie Clements told "20-30" people, including Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, at the Valentino retrospective launch at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art on Friday night as she introduced Young to the room. Young was Clements' special guest at the event. No response yet back from Vogue's rep Now confirmed by Vogue. Young’s Gold Coast-based mother agent Summer Fisher from Busy Models says she knew she had a potential star on her hands when she spotted Young en route to the movies at Maroochydore’s Sunshine Plaza in April and hooked her up with New York model agency DNA (and Viva in Paris/London), before even signing Young herself.