Kimbra from The Block

richard freeman for KAREN magazine

It’s been a big year for Kimbra. Two Grammy nominations, five New Zealand Music Awards, three ARIAs, two APRAs, 38million views of her own YouTube channel - not to mention 354million views of her cameo in Somebody That I Used to Know, the global hit penned by her Belgralian buddy Gotye, which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and topped charts in 18 countries – spending eight consecutive weeks at No 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Little wonder the telegenic Kiwi is also rapidly emerging as a fashion star, increasingly visible in magazine features, fashion editorials and of course on all those red carpets. Her latest sartorial sortie is a 14-page spread in the 14th edition of indie quarterly Australian title KAREN, which is due out in a few days. 

Seven minutes with Christine Centenera

You've got to hand it to Christine Centenera. The former fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar Australia, newly-appointed senior fashion editor of Vogue Australia and fashion director of the soon-to-be-unveiled "diffusion brand" Miss Vogue, consultant to Kanye West and Ksubi – not to mention life partner of hotshot Australian designer Josh Goot – is one of the most globally-visible Australian fashion figures. If not the most visible, with her killer personal style religiously documented by the world's fashion media every time she steps out at an international fashion event. And much to her eternal chagrin it seems. Another thing that singles the über stylish, part-Filipino out is her humility. In a world of attention whores, Centenera seems genuinely embarrassed by the attention, barely putting herself out there in social media – with just a recent Instagram account to her name.

Scarf ace - the rise and rise of the hijabista

anoujoum's facebook

Perth’s Zoe Loveland has graced the covers of Frankie, Summer Winter and Karen magazines. Now she is about to add something a little different to her repertoire. In June, Loveland - who is not a Muslim - will become the very first model to be featured on the cover of an Australian magazine wearing a hijab. That's according to Anoujoum, which bills itself as Australia's only English-Arabic magazine and which chose Loveland for the cover of its June 'Modesty' issue. 

Rosemary Smith and Ajak Deng check into V69

Frockwriter recently mentioned that Australian Rosemary Smith would soon be featured in a  new modelling faces story in high profile US fashion title V Magazine. Here she is in the spread (above). Entitled New Vision, New Faces, New Fashion, the story was shot by emerging Paris-based photographic duo Daniele Duella and Iango Henzi, styled by Sabina Schreider and runs over 10 pages in issue #69 which is due out January 13th. It also features Sudanese Australian Ajak Deng (third image on RHS, below). As reported, Deng has already walked for blue chip fashion names such as Lanvin, Givenchy and Chloé, while Smith is yet to set foot on an international runway. Let's hope that is soon to change.

The transvestite issue

brett lloyd for candy via boy lloyd

Frockwriter has little doubt that US Vogue editrix double act Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington have seen more than their fair share of homages in smoky drag dives over the years – notably since the release of R.J Cutler's 2009 frockumentary The September Issue. But thanks to Luis Venegas, editor and publisher of the world’s first so-called “transversal style magazine” Candy, their tranny doppelgängers have made it to print. In the hilarious editorial The Devil Wears Anna in Candy's second edition, Spanish natives Venegas and model/DJ/musician Andrès Borque channel Wintour and Coddington respectively. While elsewhere in the story, other female impersonators take on Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani, teen blogger Tavi Gevinson and others. The images are interspersed with pre-published or –broadcast quotes pulled from sources such as 60 Minutes and Venegas’ own Fanzine 137. Only 1000 copies of each issue of Candy are printed and although this edition was launched in October, the images have only just been uploaded by photographer Brett Lloyd. Thanks to Homotography for spotting them. It's not the first time Venegas and Borque have paid homage to Vogue's editor and creative director. They attended Candy's November 2009 launch party as the duo (see end).

Shadtoto Prasetio: The Jakarta protocol

Over Christmas the US east coast was blanketed by a ferocious snow blizzard, while heavy snow prompted airport closures across Europe. Australia, meanwhile, has been experiencing its wettest summer on record, with thousands in Queensland stranded by floods. Not helping assuage our paranoia that we could be facing a Roland Emmerich-style snowmaggedon: NASA reports that 2010 was the hottest year on record and one meteorologist claims we are inching towards a mini ice age. Emerging Indonesian photographer and filmmaker Shadtoto Prasetio picks up the global warming gauntlet with this haunting editorial called Climate Climax. Starring Juliet Pishnyak, the spread appears in the December edition of new Indonesian fashion magazine Dew (as spotted by Noir Facade). Dew was launched in August by photographer/art director Teuku Ajie who, like Shadtoto, is 24 and based in Jakarta. Shadtoto’s blog has some other work with an equally interesting horror bent, notably the Desperate Housewife and Horrific Beauty stories. Definitely one to watch. 

The dark side: Meghan Collison covers Oyster 90

 

Well it’s not quite Samara Morgan in The Ring. And of course, anything is better than Abbey Lee Kershaw’s October 2008 cover of Dazed & Confused (below), in which Kershaw's face was totally eclipsed by shadow. But interesting choice of image, nonetheless, of Canadian Meghan Collison for the cover of Oyster 90. Shot by Pierre Toussaint, Collison is glancing downwards, her eyes obscured by her bangs and her deathly pallor only accentuated by the use of foundation in the place of lipstick. Given that she looks like a Burberry-clad vampire extra from True Blood, perhaps Oyster is being a little ironic with the coverline "LOVE LIFE". But the sombre cover may well complement the mood of the editorial contents, which include interviews with LA Zombie director Bruce LaBruce and actor Paz de la Huerta, a star of the dark, graphic Prohibition era US drama Boardwalk Empire. Not to mention a "fashion week adventures" diary from Catherine McNeil, whose Spring/Summer 2011 runway season ended in mysterious circumstances midway through the season at London Fashion Week. On sale Friday 10th December.

Rachel Rutt, the face of summer

Who's a popular girl then? One of frockwriter’s favourite models, Sydneysider Rachel Rutt, finally looks to be getting some recognition. In May, we mentioned that Rutt had just scored her second international magazine cover – Dazed & Confused Japan, following one of 12 multicovers of the French Revue de modes in October 2009 – but had yet to make page one of any local titles. Well she more than makes up for it this month by scoring the covers of the summer editions of Australia’s Yen (below) and New Zealand’s No magazine (above), which launched today in NZ. Update 2/12: Although she is not on the actual cover of the December edition of The Australian's luxury magazine Wish, which is out tomorrow, Rutt nevertheless features in its Christmas fashion cover story. Here is a behind-the-scenes video:  

Rio tinto: Martha Streck covers Oyster 89

Oyster’s 89th issue is out tomorrow and here is an exclusive preview. Moving on from their last cover girl Julia Nobis (who just walked 43 shows in her second international show season) is Brazilian native Martha Streck, who stars in the Windy Apple cover story, below, shot by Jolijn Snijders and styled by Imogene Barron. Also in the issue: Zippora Seven in Sam Crawford's NZ, NY story, Tiah Eckhardt in Rene Vaile’s Concrete Jungle, LA porn star and American Apparel model (there's a difference?) Faye Raegan shot by Darren Ankenman and the additional styling talents of Zara Mirkin and TJ Gustave. Interviews include Nick Cave, Vincent Kartheiser, illustrator Hajime Sorayama and Anna Trevelyan, first assistant to Nicola Formichetti  - who was presumably too busy sourcing steak for Lady Gaga and plotting his new creative direction of Thierry Mugler to chat. But Trevelyan no doubt has some interesting beans to spill about the styling supremo.  
 

Andrej Pejic channels Ziggy Stardust for Vogue Paris

Australia’s edgiest new modelling star, Andrej Pejic, was the talk of the town at last month's Paris mens shows. Frockwriter mentioned at the time that he had just worked with a well-known photographic duo for a major international magazine. Well that magazine is the just-launched September edition of Vogue Paris and Pejic features in a 16-page fashion story called 'Rive gauche et libre'. Shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and styled by no less than Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld, the story was inspired by '50s chanteuse Juliette Gréco and '70s gender bender Ziggy Stardust and also includes Malgosia Bela, Daphne Groeneveld and transsexual Givenchy muse Lea T. But make no mistake, Pejic is the star of the story. He not only opens and closes it, but accounts for almost half the images (below). Click here to see the entire spread. And stand by to see what role Pejic may play in the S/S 2011 womens show season, which is about to kick off in New York. Not to mention the November edition of an equally high profile international womens' title, for which he has just been shot by an even bigger name, opposite a top female cast. He also features in an upcoming spread in Arena Homme Plus. 

Too cool for school: Julia Nobis covers Oyster au naturel

Since she first rocketed into fashion orbit back in February, booked as a Calvin Klein New York Fashion Week exclusive, there has been no stopping Julia Nobis. Burberry is the latest major fashion name to be seduced by her edgy, tomboy vibe, for its Fall Burberry Black collection lookbook. Tomorrow, the 18 year-old  lands on her second magazine cover (after last month's cover of another, much smaller, Australian magazine Love/Want): Oyster issue #88. Here is a first look, together with a sample of the 12-page “J for Julia” editorial inside. Shot in lowres and without makeup by Rene Vaile, Nobis posed in and around her childhood Sydney home – that's her poster-plastered bedroom - with her little brother making a cameo. Nobis wears some of her own clothes in the shots including, hilariously, this Rose Bay Secondary College polo shirt, above, complete with Year 12 farewell tributes – signed less than 12 months ago. One tribute reads “You are cooler than cool”, demonstrating that well before she was discovered by RUSSH, Dazed & Confused, i-D, Prada and Australian, British and Italian Vogue, even her schoolmates thought she rocked. 

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.

Catherine McNeil to get her own issue of Vogue Australia

coacd

David Jones will not be the only Australian fashion institution to showcase Catherine McNeil next week. Frockwriter's sources report that McNeil is the cover star of the September 2010 edition of Vogue Australia which is due out August 5. Not only that, McNeil also appears in approximately three (large) editorial spreads within the issue. It's the first time since the Gemma Ward issue of December 2005, our well-placed sources claim, that Vogue Australia has dedicated so much space in one issue - roughly 80percent of the fashion pages - to a single model (with newcomer Codie Young also featuring). One might also recall the Lara Stone-dedicated issue of Paris Vogue in February last year. McNeil of course cracked the cover of Paris Vogue very early on in her career: September 2007. And she is no stranger to Vogue Australia, having previously graced the covers of three other editions. Not only will this be her fourth Vogue Australia cover, it will be her second this year, after the January 2010 edition. UPDATE: Here is the cover, leaked overnight by McNeil's US agency Next on Twitter. And here is a behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot.

The thorn bird

Oh the Good Lord giveth – and sometimes he giveth again. At least in the news sense. Just as the dust is settling on the news that Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom have secretly married, comes news of her latest edgy editorial. Following on from Kerr's naughty nun masterpiece in edition 114 of French mag Numéro, comes a consecutive Numéro editorial with a religious theme – this time, crucifixion. In two images authored by Sebastian Kim that even her fans are calling "blasphemous" (orginals, below - with Kerr's identity confirmed by her publicist), Kerr wears what looks very much like a crown of thorns. In another, she lies prostrate on a grassy knoll, apparently in ecstasy, while a third shot (also below) shows Kerr totally nude - save for a sinister black hood. Kerr isn't the first celebrity to don a crown of thorns this year. In February, Lindsay Lohan - who is currently serving a custodial sentence - sported a crown of thorns on the cover of another French magazine, Purple. 

Jenny Mercian dresses Lara Stone for French Playboy

celebrity69 via fashionising

Jenny Mercian has made a career out of bejewelling bombshells. Since she first set foot on the fashion stage in May 2005, displaying her spectacular crystal body jewellery at a trade show stand at Australian Fashion Week, the Sydney-based jeweller has been a principal supplier to five Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows, outfitting the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Alessandra Ambrosio in increasingly elaborate showpieces (and on Friday, winning the Catwalk Jewels of the Year Award at the UK Jewellery Awards for her runway efforts). Well now Mercian can add Lara Stone to that list. In the June/July issue of Playboy France, the world number one wears Mercian’s dramatic onyx/crystal corset and cuff – and not much else (NSFW). Here is a clearer image of the cuff, below, although it must be said, it’s not one of Stone’s better shots.

Charlotte Rampling, cover girl - at 64

crush via the imagist

We have been talking about older women creeping into high fashion runway shows and advertising campaigns. But as far as frockwriter can recall, fashion magazines are not as yet lining up to put anyone north of 50 on a cover. In fact we can't recall many (if any) that have. Try 64. Not that quarterly US fanzine Crush is a major, or even fashion-dedicated, but interesting nonetheless to see veteran British actor Charlotte Rampling on its latest cover. Below is a short video taken during the shoot. She may no longer be playing the ingénue, but judging by her IMDB page, Rampling is almost as busy now as during her heyday, when she shot to prominence in Georgy Girl, later cementing her position as a major star in The Damned and The Night Porter. The Paris-based grandmother is of course no stranger to the fashion world. Dubbed "the world’s sexiest woman” by British Vogue in 1974, accompanied by a nude Helmut Newton portrait, in September last year Rampling bravely posed nude again opposite models.com’s then world number one Raquel Zimmermann for Juergen Teller and Paradis magazine - and this time full frontal.


crush via the imagist

Rachel Rutt scores her second international cover - so why can't she get a gig downunder?

dazed & confused japan via chic management

In the deluge of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week coverage, frockwriter somehow managed to miss this cover. So congrats are due to one of this blog's faves, Sydney model Rachel Rutt, who scored this month's cover of the Japanese edition of Dazed & Confused. And while sure, it's not as visible as the cover of the UK parent edition (which Rutt's better-established Chic stablemate Abbey Lee Kershaw has cracked twice), it is nevertheless a fantastic get. It represents, moreover, her second international cover - after scoring one of 12 multicovers of the autumn/winter 09/10 edition of French Revue de Modesmade the cover of Dazed & Confused Japan last October, alongside big names including Coco Rocha, Ali Stephens, Karmen Pedaru, Dree Hemingway, Constance Jablonski and Maryna Linchuk. Coincidentally, in February, another Chic-ette, Rutt's great mate Myf Shepherd, scored the cover of Dazed & Confused Japan. So you could say that "MUTT" has this mag covered. 

Master blaster: Indie Kiwi startup asks "WTF has happened to magazines today?"

Last night, frockwriter’s attention was drawn to Master Mouse Patrol, an interesting new, free magazine from New Zealand which describes itself as "sexy, yet polite". Developed by three Kiwis - Sam Williamson, Benny Castles (whose day job is menswear director of Auckland-based fashion brand WORLD) and Richie Wildman - the magazine is edited in Sydney, printed in Auckland and designed in New York. Here is the link to the website, which adds new material on an ongoing basis and also includes a PDF of print edition one: a compendium of musings on New Zealand, Australia, travel, food, the arts, photography and a comic from Kiwi illustrator Jooles Clements. It’s the second magazine to have launched from within the NZ fashion community – after Karen Walker’s travel site, Runaway Now.

But not even Walker’s more illustrious guest contributors in the form of Sir Richard Branson and model Shalom Harlow are a patch on Master Mouse Patrol’s anonymous "fallen drag queen" scribe “Bambi”, who lets rip on a wide variety of topics and, elsewhere in the issue, plays resident Agony Aunt.

With kind permission from Bambi and Master Mouse Patrol, here is her dissertation on the state of contemporary fashion magazines, which frockwriter believes deserves far wider play. Enjoy.




WHAT THE F*** has happened to magazines today?

It’s bad enough the publisher thinks he/she/it is doing us (the reader) a favour by keeping the cover price under $10 (f***ing arseholes) in a genuine and deluded attempt to remain relevant in the market, and to keep competitive so that they can slim up to advertisers and lie that they have a readership! What readership!? Even lithium-fuelled subordinates are turning off magazines by the millions!

DO YOU know why?

Well it’s because they write shit about shit! All they worry about is getting that prestigious tampon or Gatorade advert, coupled with the drug-f***-lust for the freebee! What makes it even worse is that the freebees you are getting are so pathetic and cheap you actually don’t realise that even your advertiser hates you! You lazy Mother F***ers, all you care about is how fat you look in those jeans!! F*** I hate you so much! The reader gets a regurgitated piece of nothing filled with press releases whilst you plump your lips with free arsecream!

You fly around the planet consuming stuff and not really believing in any of it because you are basically the nerd outsider from the schoolyard that everyone hated!

Magazines were once fantasy-filled bibles of style, fashion, modernity! They allowed us, the great unwashed, to dream, to aspire, to want to work harder for a better life… OR was that all an illusion and really the fuckers never ever dreamed for us!?

I loved looking through National Geographic. Reading about exotic travels, looking at bizarre and beautiful people, things, places. Even the advertising was aspiring: Rolls Royce engines, Lufthansa flying to Machu Picchu! Or the Rolex Oyster, how it was made and how good it looked whilst scuba diving in St Tropez, ads telling you of an excellence that you may want to experience or have! Old Vogues, old any magazine were different, you know why? Well they were alive, they had a soul, the writers cared, the photographers cared, the editors cared, everyone actually cared!

It’s so simple - money was not the only frikkin object! The craft of the story, the committment to the photo, this was what mattered, the money came later! That’s why we have iconic publications (only a few), they remain beacons amongst a sea of vile, useless, fat, hideous, mundane magazines that do nothing but kill the planet!

I was recently lucky enough to meet with the Editor At Large for American Vogue, and it struck me how nothing mattered to him except the moment, the creation of the moment and the recording of the moment! Perfect for Vogue! I realised spontaneity, campness and humour all made taste and that really is Vogue. It’s an amazing formula, a recorder of fashion, he made the moment and then recorded it and off he went first class to Sydney and back home to NYC and then Paris! And here lies the thing! It’s that exact free spirit! That powerhouse of character, a career spent seeding a drag aesthetic that makes a magazine great! Remember it’s not war and peace, it’s a frikkin magazine! It is ephemeral, a thing that exists only to record the moment!

Magazines are still extremely important vehicles in connecting our planet, moving culture and society forward away from ignorance, bigotry and hatred towards Prada, Louboutin and Gucci!

But more and more I see a cancer creep into the industry and slowly killing it; this cancer of seriousness, of self-importance - and, unfortunately, there are too many mediocre people fuelled up with degrees, believing that they are the elite, the one that has the god-given right to take the freebee and then basically lie to us all about society today, distorting the truth and assassinating the moment!

I hate you all!

To all the f****ing hideous magazines that I see on the newsstands around the world I dearly hope you all go under or even better you end up under the umbrella of ACP, where your life will be a slow living hell, where even your shit has to be justified to a manager, then quantified by an accountant! I hate you all and you deserve to die!

X Bambi


All artwork supplied by master mouse patrol

Print is dead according to Oyster Magazine - which insists it is very much alive

Frockwriter recently gave you a sneak peek at a Cassi van den Dungen editorial in the new issue of Oyster Magazine, Australia's longest-surviving indie glossy, which continues to hang in there in spite of a spate of recent problems. The new issue (#85) hits today and here is the pretty awesome cover starring Annabella from Priscillas. The issue features fashion editorials from Elvis Di Fazio, Liz Ham and Bec Parsons, styling by Rinney Lennox, Jolyon Mason and Imogene Barron and the first full-length shoot from the recent SOYA award (photography) winner, Nirrimi Hakanson. Jamie Huckbody has an interview with Pierre Cardin and a tribute to Irving Penn and Indigo Clarke has penned a profile on New York DJs. The book is 210 pages (up from 156 last issue, although they did skip one issue) and the new retail price is A$9.95.

Oyster redux

Well that was quick. Back in September frockwriter mentioned that Australia’s longest-surviving indie fashion mag Oyster was having a few problems. An exodus of staff had seen the departure of no less than the magazine’s editor in chief, editor, art director, sales director and several other staff members. This was accompanied by the news that the magazine would be going on hiatus for December/January – prompting publisher Monika Nakata to instruct this blog that a Feb/March edition would definitely be going ahead. Well here is some evidence that that may indeed be the case: an early leaked shot of one of this blog’s faves, Cassi van den Dungen. In fact her first fashion editorial according to her Sydney agency Work. It's an excerpt from a 16-page (multigirl) editorial called 'Teddy Girls' by Liz Ham and Jolyon Mason, with makeup by Sasha Nilsson and hair by Sophie Roberts - the latter apparently a fan of Guido Paulo's Coke can hair for Alexander McQueen's FW0910 show. Who pulled the issue together? A fascinating little creative collective that includes the recently-shafted Harpers Bazaaar Australia editor Jamie Huckbody.

Here's the new masthead:

Editor - Monika Nakata
Creative director - Shane Sakkeus
Editor at large – Jamie Huckbody
Associate editor - Alyx Gorman
New York editor – Indigo Clarke
Sub Editor – Seema Duggal

The magazine has apparently been totally redesigned, including the Oyster logo.

Frockwriter wishes the new Oyster team all the best and we look forward to seeing the fruits of their endeavours, which will be out in the second week of February.