Ksubi paid its MBFWA models in cash - with a 'trade' bonus

nicole pollard backstage at ksubi SS1213

Couldn’t help noticing a tweet from top Australian model Melissa Johannsen this morning, thanking Ksubi for a AUD 500 gift voucher which had just arrived. “Oh yea! thanks @Ksubi...such an awesome show!” read the accompanying caption on Johannsen’s Instagram shot of the voucher (below). Knowing how endemic the practice of payment “in trade” has become in the modelling business - i.e. designers offering clothes and accessories instead of cash - we assumed the voucher might have been Johannsen’s fee for the Ksubi show at Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week on April 30th. Not so, responded Johannsen, who told us that she never works for trade – at least not in Australia.

Codie Young is the face of Marc Jacobs' latest fragrance

via wwd

Congratulations are due to Codie Young on the occasion of her first fragrance campaign. The Sunshine Coast model is the face of Marc Jacobs' third womens' fragrance, 'Dot', which is due to be released in the US and UK in July according to a story in the April 6 edition of WWD, which also reports a projected global first year retail sales estimate of US$100million. With this campaign under her belt, 19 year-old Young - who has been modelling for under two years - has entered the ranks of Australia's highest earning models. How many other Australians have scored international fragrance deals? They include Alyssa Sutherland (Bulgari), Gemma Ward (Calvin Klein), Abbey Lee Kershaw (Gucci), Andrej Pejic (Jean Paul Gaultier), Catherine McNeil (Narciso Rodriguez), Skye Stracke (Cacharel), Sarah Stephens (Lacoste) and Juliana Forge (Ralph Lauren). 

ANZAC day at Marc Jacobs

Frockwriter mentioned that a larger-than-usual contingent of Australian models was heading to New York Fashion Week this season. And that after day one, some of them were off to a cracking start. We have previously talked about upwardly-mobile New Zealand faces, notably Jessica Clarke, who was spotted by a Calvin Klein rep in Sydney two years ago and then in September 2010, walked a Calvin Klein Collection exclusive in New York. Another Kiwi has just emerged from left-of-field to become one of the most buzzed-about models of the season: Emily Baker. Modelling for just six months, Baker has a smouldering, sunkissed beauty that is reminiscent of 1970s American modelling icons Cheryl Tiegs and Patti Hansen, blended with a little modern Lara Stone moxie. This morning Baker added Marc Jacobs to her bulging top show list. And she was joined by three upwardly mobile Australians: Julia Nobis, now in her third international season after her own Calvin Klein exclusive this time last year and Codie Young and Dempsey Stewart, both of whom are working in New York for the first time. You could say the antipodians are having a bumper season. And waiting in the wings behind them on some interesting options are several other new Aussie girls... 

Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011 by Juergen Teller - the campaign

We've seen a preview of Marc by Marc Jacobs' Spring/Summer 2011 advertising imagery, lensed by Juergen Teller. But now, on his website, Jacobs has just unveiled much more of the campaign. It stars Latvian Ginta Lapina, Serbian Australian Andrej Pejic and, it now emerges, a third model: androgynous Dutchman Jaco van den Hoven, the only brunette amongst the three. Shot in Marrakech just before Christmas, the campaign illustrates Pejic's unique versatility: he's not just the dude in the dress, but can also rock the sexy surfer boy look in straight menswear.

Andrej Pejic and Ginta Lapina rock the casbah for Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011

trisiantomike via TFS

So Marc Jacobs went the guess-the-gender route for his Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2011 advertising campaign? That was the theory, following the news that he had cast androgynous Australian model Andrej Pejic opposite lookalike Latvian Ginta Lapina. Judging by this first look at the campaign that was recently shot by Juergen Teller in Marrakech, as just scanned from Teen Vogue’s February 2011 issue (and which is an exact match with some out-takes from the shoot that were posted by Pejic on Facebook) Pejic looks more like a cute Australian surfer boy. More shots to come.

Andrej Pejic nabs Marc by Marc Jacobs to boot

armin morbach for tush via fashion gone rogue

 
Ah the Andrej Pejic story. There's just no end to the updates. So after mesmerising the Paris Spring/Summer 2011 mens runways in June, booking editorials with, among others, Vogue Paris and Vogue Italia, not to mention Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 ad campaign, WWD reported an hour ago in Monday's Fashion Scoops column (here) that Pejic has just shot the Marc by Marc Jacobs SS11 campaign (confirming previous reports on frockwriter that he had booked a second campaign). Last week Pejic debuted at No 40 on models.com's Top 50 Male Models. Notes MDC: "Andrej, in a few short months has become the face of a new sort of male beauty, the kind that sparks comments, controversies and intense scrutiny... look for Andrej's stock to rise even higher in 2011". You can count on it.