The great Gatenby - Menswear Spring/Summer 2014

james gatenby walks fendi SS14 via style.com

The Spring/Summer 2014 menswear shows are underway in Milan, with the second London Collections: Men and Pitti Uomo events just wrapped in London and Florence, respectively. The season's Paris leg starts on Wednesday. By frockwriter’s count 11 Australian men walked the Fall/Winter 2013/2014 runways in February and March this year, including several new faces such as Nathaniel Visser, Elijah Tyedmers, Saint Laurent fave Reuben Ramacher and of course James Gatenby, the Sydney Uni science major who made his international debut opening Louis Vuitton as an exclusive. So far this season, we have spotted eight ten twelve thirteen. Not to mention one Kiwi woman - frockwriter fave Holly Rose Emery, on no less than Prada's runway, in one of a handful of women's Resort 2014 looks that were thrown into the show.

New faces: Rui Dalton

thom kerr

Holly Rose Emery and Andrej Pejic are not the only intriguing models to hail, respectively, from The Land of The Long White Cloud and the Balkans. Meet 17 year-old surfer/skater/base jumper Rui Dalton. 

Showcards: eMg Models (men) - MBFWA SS 13/14

mackenzie baker via emg models

There is really only a handful of shows that will either star or feature menswear at next month’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (including Emma Mulholland, Vanishing Elephant, Zambesi, Han and Romance Was Born). But that hasn’t stopped Australian model agencies from putting a swag of their best new male recruits forward for castings over the next fortnight. Of note, eMg Models and its mens show pack, which includes some intriguing new faces.

Reuben Ramacher rocks Saint Laurent Paris

saint laurent paris FW1314 via style.com

As it emerges, Julia Nobis wasn't the only Australian in Hedi Slimane's must-anticipated menswear show in Paris overnight. Joining her and a cast of real world rockers: brand new face Reuben Ramacher. Who apparently has even bigger things ahead of him. 

Hedi Slimane unplugged

saint laurent paris FW1314 via style.com

Julia Nobis just cemented her position as fashion's coolest girl by closing Hedi Slimane's much-anticipated menswear runway debut for Saint Laurent Paris. She wasn't the only woman on this season's menswear runways – nor the only woman in the Saint Laurent show – but the brand's new creative director Hedi Slimane obviously has a soft spot for the Australian tomboy, casting her in his womenswear and menswear show debuts for the storied Paris maison, as well as the Spring/Summer 2013 womenswear campaign. And the feeling is, evidently, mutual. "Awesome" is the word Nobis used to describe working with Slimane when we caught up with her at last month's Australian Fashion Foundation party in Sydney. 

Science major

louis vuitton FW1314 via style.com

Another day, another new Australian male modelling face pops up at the Fall/Winter 2013/2014 menswear shows - and like so many others, this one also has university affiliations. Overnight in Paris Priscillas' James Gatenby made his international runway debut opening the Louis Vuitton show.

Six degrees

The Fall/Winter 2013/2014 menswear season is in full swing in Europe and our new face from Friday Nathaniel Visser did indeed, as predicted, make his international runway debut at Sunday's Calvin Klein Collection show - joined by Brisbane native Joel Meacock. So far we have counted twelve Australians on the menswear runways in London, Florence, Milan and Paris. Joining Visser as a new face of the season is Elijah Tyedmers - an 18 year-old Sydney University medical student who was scouted last year by Sydney's eMg Models in line buying popcorn at a Hoyts cinema. Canadian-born, but an Australian citizen (his father is Australian), Tyedmers is not spending his summer holidays lazing on a beach in Oz or Vanuatu for that matter, where his parents are based - but rather, rugged up in furs and flannels walking for the likes of Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Z Zegna and Joseph Abboud. 

New faces: Nathaniel Visser

via eMg models

Long time, no noobs. So herewith the first in frockwriter's new modelling faces series for 2013: Nathaniel Visser. 

New faces: Henry Payten

justin smith via the agency models

And now for the boys. Third up in frockwriter's new series about new modelling faces from down under is Henry Payten, who was recently signed to Sydney's The Agency Models. 

MGM/Columbia/Sony and Tom Ford take product placement to a new level at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony

machdwallpapers.com via skyfall official/sony pictures

The pièce de résistance of the just-wrapped, Danny Boyle-directed London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony was undoubtedly the pre-taped scene in which British actor Daniel Craig, in character as James Bond 007, got to live out his 'On her Majesty's secret service' mandate by meeting real-life Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. After a few corgi cameos, the  duo then embarked on an amusing, mocked-up chopper ride and paraglider "drop" into the Olympic stadium. This time, of course, it wasn't quite so secret, with the ceremony watched by an estimated one billion. Craig looked ultra sharp, in an impeccably–tailored tuxedo (below) that would have been a fabulous plug for one of Britain's greatest sartorial exports – bespoke Savile Row tailoring. But was it British tailoring – or American?

Chesty Bond market

Australian women were all over this week’s haute couture runways in Paris - playing tag team, in fact, with their male counterparts, who wrapped up the Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear menswear season in the City of Light last Sunday. Aussie male models continued their assault on the menswear market, with at least nine names nabbing blue chip shows in London, Milan and Paris. Leading the pack, once again, was Brisbane’s Angus Low who walked in 16 shows, with fellow Brisbanite, Joel Meacock and Byron Bay’s Kye D’Arcy, hot on Low’s heels.

Skeleton key

File this under impromptu frockwriter styling. During Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia earlier this month, we were shooting backstage at the menswear group show and couldn't help but do a double take as we walked past Jesus lookalike model Butch Dean being kitted out in a rather spectacular piece of body jewellery. A stainless steel exoskeleton to be precise, or so we christened it, designed by Perth jeweller Alister Yiap and deployed by another Perth-ite, Zsadar designer Shane Newton, to spruce up Newton's segment of the show. We took a shot of Dean - but not before asking for the piece to be turned around backwards, so as to best highlight the design, which is far more discreet from the front (both versions, below). Posted simultaneously on frockwriter LIVE, frockwriter's Facebook and our pop-up MBFWA live blog UNCUT, the shot proved the most popular of all the images we took at MBFWA. Among its fans was Michael Christofis - the Sydney-based designer behind mens' swim- and underwear brand The Navy Diver. So enamoured was Christofis of Yiap's creation, he immediately contacted Yiap and has since used the piece in every single shot of a new promotional series for The Navy Diver starring model Benjamin Gellie. And yes, it's worn backwards.

Three minutes with Angus Low

A score of models passed through Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia last week in Sydney - and in front of our camera, for our live coverage of the event on the Fashion Week UNCUT live blog. It was great to finally meet one in particular: Angus Low, who we have profiled several times in recent months. We first met Low at Toni Maticevski's off-schedule presentation the week before MBFWA (above). He had been cast alongside one other male model to perch shirtless on the podium under Maticevski's couture-clad glamazons. Then last week Low appeared in Song For The Mute's menswear show, his only MBFWA gig before heading off for other bookings. We had a quick chat as he was walking out the door.

Is Andrej Pejic about to sign a fragrance deal?

jean paul gaultier FW1213/getty via daylife

Frockwriter was interested to watch the following story on Andrej Pejic which aired overnight on Sept à Huit on France’s TF1 Channel. The story followed Pejic in fittings and rehearsals for Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fall/Winter 2012/2013 menswear show last week (above) and Friday’s Michalksy womenswear show at Berlin Fashion Week. During one scene filmed inside his Paris agency, New Madison, a booker revealed that he has been booked for this week’s haute couture shows. One specific haute couture show is possibly a safe bet: Jean Paul Gaultier’s show on Wednesday. This time last year, Pejic famously closed Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 2011 haute couture show in a wedding gown. In signing off, the Sept à Huit anchor dropped another tantalising morsel of Pejic gossip in his voice-over: “He will sign, in several weeks, his first contract to lend his image to a major perfume brand”. UPDATE 23/02: Sources say the contract is for Jean Paul Gaultier's new menswear fragrance Kokorico. UPDATE 21/03: Now confirmed by Gaultier. 

Man up

Australian women have become a force to contend with on the international runways, now here come the guys. The Fall/Winter 2012/2013 menswear shows are currently underway in Europe and while there is no sign so far of androgynous superstar Andrej Pejic (who nevertheless looks like a sure bet for at least Jean Paul Gaultier), in his place is a cadre of antipodian Adonises with chiselled jaws and razor-sharp cheekbones. At least thirteen to be precise. This time last year, Calvin Klein booked Jack Vanderhart as an exclusive for its menswear show. This season, the brand had three Australians, all on exclusives: identical twins Zac and Jordan Stenmark, who opened and closed the show and Joel Meacock. Overnight, on the first day of the season's Paris leg, the Stenmarks opened a second show: Nicola Formichetti's sci-fi Mugler show. Meacock is confirmed as a Paris exclusive for Louis Vuitton later in the week, opening the show no less. 

The high Low

chic management

Twenty-two year-old Brisbane-ite Angus Low may prove extra popular on the international circuit, once any runway colleagues suffering from back pain twig that he doubles as a physio. Low graduated last year from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Studies – and was awarded the Dean’s Commendation for academic excellence – and has been working full-time at a private Brisbane hospital. Modelling part-time for the past two years, prior to June 2011, the biggest name on his modelling CV was the Mercedes-Benz Brisbane Fashion Festival. Enter the Spring/Summer 2012 menswear season in Milan and Paris and Low can now add shows for Lanvin, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Costume National and Raf Simons. And we can add his name to a bulging Aussie male model pack that is headed up by Andrej Pejic, Tom Bull, Jordan Coulter, Jack Vanderhart and Jordan & Zac Stenmark. Although Low's SS12 show season transpired under the publicity radar back home, evidently he made quite an impression because two months ago, his Brisbane mother agency Dallys tells frockwriter, he shot Lanvin's SS12 menswear campaign in New York with Steven Meisel, two other male models - and a bunch of snakes. Then last month in Paris, he shot Lanvin’s SS12 eyewear campaign with Stéphane Gallois. Low has just given up his day job to pursue modelling full-time. 

Paul de Gelder: Navy diver, shark attack survivor, smoking hot swimwear model

silke stuckenbrock/the navy diver

 

Aimee Mullins meet Paul de Gelder. Much has been written – and broadcast - about de Gelder’s near brush with death on February 11, 2009, when the then 31 year-old Royal Australian Navy clearance diver and former paratrooper and East Timor peacekeeper came face-to-face with a three metre bull shark, which savaged his right hand and leg. A double amputation, extensive rehabilitation and two years later, de Gelder is back at work as a Royal Australian Navy diver trainer, with several brand new spinoff careers, including motivational speaker and conservationist, who has called on the United Nations to protect sharks from over fishing. Earlier this year he also became a published author, with the release of No time for fear: How a shark attack survivor beat the odds. But de Gelder has another new career that’s a little less well-documented: fashion model. To be precise, underwear and swimwear model for new Sydney-based brand The Navy Diver. 

Boy's own - LMFF 2011

A very high percentage of the fashion on last week's runways at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival was womenswear. But there was one menswear-dedicated show: Thursday night's Menswear Runway that was presented in tandem with GQ Australia. Oh and a local optical retailer whose name escapes us. Much to the frustration of backstage media - and, we understand, some of the organisers - nearly all photographers were kicked out at the last minute, in preparation for the arrival of VIP showpony, Helena Christensen. Celebrities often have demanding backstage riders, Christensen's apparently included no photographers and, beyond one or two interviews, no other press exposure. We understand the extent of the coverage outside of Melbourne reflected these restrictions. Click (here) to see frockwriter's Posterous pic gallery of the show.     

Meet the new boy, Jack Vanderhart

models.com

On Friday, frockwriter posted about the potentially bumper season of Australian models on New York Fashion Week's runways for the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 season, which commences on Thursday. Three days later, there's already an update. Meet Cronulla's Jack Vanderhart. Modelling for just a few months, the 17 year-old's portfolio includes one editorial in Vogue Australia, two Australian GQ editorials and a campaign for pyjama tycoon Peter Alexander. According to his mother agency EMG Models, Vanderhart is about to add something with a little more international resonance to that list: Calvin Klein exclusive. EMG reports that Vanderhart has just been confirmed for Calvin Klein's menswear show in New York at 2pm on Sunday 13th February. A Calvin Klein exclusive is considered a highly prestigious get for any new model and has the potential to launch their career. Sydney's Julia Nobis scored an exclusive with the womens' show last year.

Meet the new girl, Emilia Skuza

elie saab haute couture SS11/getty via daylife

In spite of the deluge of global publicity following Jean Paul Gaultier's decision to cast Serbian Australian male model Andrej Pejic as the bride of his haute couture show in Paris on Wednesday, Pejic was of course not the only Australian on the haute couture runways. Abbey Lee Kershaw, a recent Chanel advertising face and runway regular, turned up at Chanel for yet another exclusive, no surprises there. Also scoring Chanel: Julia Nobis, who had a busy haute couture season, also walking at the Elie Saab, Georges Hobeika and Bouchra Jarrar shows. Ajak Deng walked at Alexandre Vauthier. According to Priscillas, Lauren Brown, who has appeared in several Chanel ready-to-wear shows, was in town for the haute couture castings but as far as frockwriter can tell, did not turn up on a single catwalk. One Australian who has slipped completely under the radar until now walked at Elie Saab and Bouchra Jarrar, alongside Nobis, as well as the show of new haute couture name Maxime Simoens - Emilia Skuza.