Gemma Ward signs with IMG Models Australia, plots comeback; ALK is off the grid

New year, new model movements. First up: a couple of major names are currently AWOL from the websites of two of Australia’s biggest model agencies, Viviens Model Management and Chic Management. The big question - just where are Gemma Ward and Abbey Lee Kershaw headed?

Miranda Kerr and Nicole Trunfio sign with IMG Australia

backstage at david jones AW12 (kerr) and AW11

Back in June, frockwriter first reported that IMG Models was about to open up shop in Sydney with the new agency due to be headed up by Danielle Ragenard, the former general manager of high profile Sydney modelling agency Chic Management. We also predicted that Chic Management star Miranda Kerr would be IMG's first client – and that others may follow her. Following a report today that Kerr has now left Chic Management, IMG Australia – the official name of the newest division of the world's biggest modelling agency – has confirmed to frockwriter that Kerr joined the agency a week ago. And Kerr is not the only name on the books.

The show goes on for David Jones... without sass & bide

 

As per David Jones' famous advertising slogan, there used to be no other department store in Australia for sass & bide. But after days of rumours, it is now confirmed that David Jones' arch rival Myer will become the brand's exclusive Australian department store partner moving forward, having just acquired a 65percent stake for A$42.25million plus a performance bonus based on fiscal 2011 sales results. David Jones, which has winter 2011 sass & bide stock on its hands and features the brand in its winter 2011 "brand book" catalogue (above), has responded with its own Australian Stock Exchange announcement this morning that it is ending its 10 year association with sass & bide following David Jones' decision not to acquire a stake. Oh and it wasn't doing very well anyway, added DJs (at least at DJs - Myer reports that sass & bide overall delivered 50percent year on year sales growth for the past two years). Noted ceo Paul Zahra, “We did the calculations and could not justify the price paid for the business, particularly given the lack of growth in our sass & bide business with sales and gross profit in FY10 at approximately FY05 levels". This is fascinating, given that David Jones gave sass & bide its prestigious finale spot in the Autumn/Winter 2010 show one year ago. What the Myer decision ultimately means for the sass & bide brand remains to be seen. Not surprisingly perhaps, the brand has been yanked altogether from tomorrow's lineup, David Jones has confirmed to frockwriter.

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.

Nicole Trunfio to officially replace Miranda Kerr as the face of David Jones' winter 2011 launch

vogue italia

In July, following the news that Miranda Kerr would be skipping David Jones’ Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway showcase to enjoy her honeymoon with Orlando Bloom – amidst a deafening chorus of speculation she was three months pregnant – frockwriter predicted that Nicole Trunfio would replace Kerr as the face of the department store’s upcoming Autumn/Winter 2011 runway showcase and that Kerr would resume her official duties for the Spring/Summer launch in July 2011. So it’s official. Today’s Sunday Telegraph reports that Trunfio will “replace [Kerr] as the star of the David Jones Winter 2011 season”. Trunfio, who is also currently profiled in a video interview on the website of Vogue Italia, was flown by DJs to Sydney this week to shoot the winter catalogue. 

Abbey road: Australians on the Spring/Summer 2011 runways (New York)

So we know how at least one Kiwi went at New York Fashion Week - Calvin Klein's exclusive Jessica Clarke (head to Isaac Likes for full documentation on NZ models in SS11) - but how did the Aussies fare all up? A pretty good effort. Congrats to all the girls. Abbey Lee Kershaw, not surprisingly, pulled off the most shows: 13 in total according to frockwriter’s calculations. Great to see the return of Catherine McNeil, although with just five shows under her belt (including several big names and opening one show), one might have expected to see her do a little better. According to (reliable) backstage sources, McNeil came very close to booking the blue chip Tom Ford presentation, but was cancelled at the last minute. Julia Nobis, Ajak Deng and Georgie Wass powered ahead. We’ve already talked about the expected/unexpected success of Bambi Northwood-Blyth. Although her mother agency, Chic Management, did report that Nicole Trunfio was heading to the event, beyond turning up in Michael Angel's front row, Trunfio did not, apparently, walk in any shows. Here are the show tallies. Anything we’ve missed, thanks for a headsup. On to London, Milan and Paris.  

Get shorty: The personality girls of Spring/Summer 2011

bambi northwood-blyth/aje AW2011 via sportsgirl

The Spring/Summer 2011 show season kicks off in New York next Thursday and it’s time to ask, once again, which antipodians will make their marks on the international runways? We mentioned FRM Model Management’s Ajak Deng yesterday. Chic Management’s Abbey Lee Kershaw is of course tipped to continue her climb to the top. Already at #5 on models.com, could this show season help her make it to #1? Other veterans either already in New York or en route include Viviens’ Skye Stracke. Priscillas’ hot new girls Lauren Brown and of course, Julia Nobis, who first emerged on the radar in February with a Calvin Klein exclusive, will be there. Joining them will be some brand new Australasian faces. Interestingly, unlike Nobis, Kershaw, Deng and co, three are under the standard runway height requirement of 5’10”.

Super Tuesday at David Jones

 

Tremendous effort this morning from David Jones. The retailer's corporate stewardship might be under a dark cloud of controversy at present thanks to a sexual harassment suit, but as far as fashion shows go, it was the best DJs show that this journalist could remember. "I'm rolling with the punches" new ceo Paul Zahra told frockwriter before the show, when asked how he is coping with his baptism of fire. Beyond the scandal that prompted the "mutual termination" of Zahra's immediate predecessor Mark McInnes on June 18 - which culminated in yesterday's shock news that the retailer is now being sued for A$37million - the company also had to contend with the sudden withdrawal of its expensive new fashion ambassador, Miranda Kerr, just a fortnight before its biggest fashion showcase of the year, after she eloped with her Hollywood fiancé Orlando Bloom. The solution: wheel in some supermodel replacements. 

Nicole Trunfio is "stepping in" for Miranda Kerr

david jones AW10/getty via daylife

On Wednesday frockwriter asked, Is Nicole Trunfio Miranda Kerr’s understudy at David Jones? Trunfio had arrived in Sydney a full week ahead of DJs' August 3rd Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show – while her high profile runway colleagues Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw only arrived over the last 24-48 hours. Sources also reported Trunfio has been booked for in-store signings, she Tweeted that she was excited to be “part of the David Jones family” and she features heavily in DJs SS1011 catalogue. Well lo and behold, if the headline on a page one splash of the first edition of tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper doesn't read, “Nicole Trunfio – The next Miranda Kerr”. While inside, a story entitled "DJs next supermodel" reports “Nicole Trunfio is the heir apparent. David Jones has recruited the Aussie supermodel to lead its spring/summer fashion parade on Tuesday, stepping in for newly married Miranda Kerr”.

There's no other store for maternity wear like David Jones?

The KerrBloom camp can run, but it seems it can’t hide, from those pesky pregnancy rumours. This morning, Miranda Kerr’s publicist Carlii Lyon was still adopting a no comment position on the now deafening chorus of claims that the real reason behind Kerr’s and Bloom’s elopement – and her withdrawal from next Tuesday’s David Jones Spring/Summer 2010 runway show in Sydney – is because she is three months pregnant. The US press is now running hot with the story, after US Weekly yesterday quoted an unnamed friend  confirming the pregnancy, while OK! Magazine quoted a Victoria’s Secret colleague, Jessica White, proclaiming, so discreetly, “She’s preggos!”. With The Sun quoting hotel staff. Today’s mail delivery of the David Jones Summer 2010 “Brand Book” unfortunately did not really do much to help quell speculation. Not surprisingly, it features Kerr on the cover. But inside, Kerr shares quite a lot of space with Nicole Trunfio and Viviens’ Allegra Carpenter. And while Kerr often does share the catalogues with other faces, notably when it comes to showcasing the junior fashion lines, Trunfio seems to be unusually prominently placed here, which may suggest she is poised to assume a greater DJs role.

Is Nicole Trunfio Miranda Kerr's understudy?

getty via daylife

Speculation continues to mount regarding the August 3rd David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 launch. With Miranda Kerr indisposed after tying the knot with Orlando Bloom, David Jones is attempting to fill the runway gap, as frockwriter reported on Friday, with some high profile alternatives: Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil, Nicole Trunfio and Alexandra Agoston - even if the latter were both in last season’s show. But the runway shows are one thing. If Kerr is three months pregnant, as many believe - with Victoria's Secret colleague Jessica White so discreetly telling OK! magazine overnight, "She's preggos!"- it's unlikely she would be available for the winter 2011 catalogue and early February runway show. Who would fill in for her? Frockwriter’s money is on Trunfio, who arrived in Sydney yesterday (above), a week ahead of the show. Our sources also report that she has been booked by DJs for a series of “in-store signings” - certainly something that would appear to go above and beyond the call of mere runway duties. Earlier today Trunfio Tweeted: “Finished my fitting for David Jones collection launch, I'm really excited, will be amazing! Ecstatic to be a part of the David Jones family!” Just walking in the show would not automatically make Trunfio, or any other model, ‘part of the David Jones family’. 

Abbey Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil to replace new bride Miranda Kerr for the David Jones Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show

David Jones might have lost its ceo Mark McInnes and now even its new face Miranda Kerr, at least just for one season - with Kerr announcing on the Nine Network's Today Show this morning that she and Orlando Bloom have married and she will be skipping the department store's August 3 Spring/Summer runway showcase (with insiders reporting she is three months pregnant). But DJs has gained a fabulous replacement for the show: Abbey Lee Kershaw. Sources close to Kershaw confirm she will be replacing Kerr in the show (which is an in-season show designed to launch DJs new designer collections to consumers). Once a DJs Youth Ambassador, Kershaw is now ranked the world number six five runway/editorial/advertising model by US-based modelling authority models.com (moving up one place in the space of a fortnight). It's a fantastic get for DJs. UPDATE: Frockwriter's sources confirm that world number 12 Catherine McNeil is also doing the show, which is even better news for DJs. Other models on DJs' runway will include Nicole Trunfio, who did last season's show alongside Kerr and DJs regular Alexandra Agoston. All since confirmed in Kerr's statement that was released at 8.00am this morning (to which frockwriter did not have access), but which no mainstream media outlet considered sufficiently interesting to report at the time.

Make me a Zimmermann model

Frockwriter mentioned that newly repatriated sex bomb Lisa Seiffert would be shooting the SS10 campaign for stellar Australian swim label Zimmermann this week. But hot diggity dog, if US Make Me A Supermodel model mentor, imminent NIDA student and newbie jeweller Nicole Trunfio isn't in the campaign as well. As it happens, Trunfio, like Seiffert, recently defected from Sydney’s Viviens agency to Chic Management. This behind-the-scenes shot from the shoot popped up in frockwriter’s inbox today. Photographer was Simon Lekias, with New York import art director Louisa Gent, stylist Tamila Purvis, Sophie Roberts on hair and Linda Jefferies on makeup. Anyone in and around Sydney’s Hamptons northern beaches over summer, meanwhile, should definitely pop in to Zimmermann's popup store at Whale Beach. Supremely cool idea for a summer store.



 

Nicole Trunfio settles into her new role as model mentor

the cobrasnake

Well we heard Gemma Ward was due to be in Byron Bay, but who said anything about The Cobrasnake? Lordy, the dust has yet to settle on last night's news that Nicole Trunfio has just scored the plum gig of model mentor on the US version of Make Me A Supermodel, when lo and behold some fresh new pics of her popped up on Mark Hunter's infamous party reportage site. No sign of Ward, or this week's Cobrasnake star Stephanie Carta - who reports she has spent the past 48 hours getting a US visa, learning the Tarot and crying to Coldplay. But it appears there are plenty of other Oz fashion peeps and their mates in town at the mo, starting with model Cheyenne Tozzi (pictured above left, with Trunfio), Sneaky Sound System's Daimon Downey, LA DJ Steve Aoki and ksubi's Dan Single, looking like he doesn't have a care in the world. Frockwriter will take a bet that ksubi's (numerous) unpaid creditors would just love to be enjoying a party in Byron Bay at the moment.

Let's not be too hard on Trunfio. She has been working hard and is enjoying a break. And who doesn't like a Corona - or two - in their downtime?

But the 23 year-old would be well advised to be en garde, as she would appear to be in an especially vulnerable position at the moment.

Not only does Trunfio have a prestige professional image to maintain - one which the Murdoch press made a valiant attempt at trashing in New York back in July, following the appearance of her Guess? campaign images, in which, The New York Post suggested, she was styled up to look like Amy Winehouse.

But the ink is moreover still drying on what one must assume is a lucrative tv contract - as a model mentor who advises and cautions young girls entering the modelling profession.

Whatever she does, Trunfio can rest assured that Hunter will be on tap to capture the most undignified images of her that he can find.


the cobrasnake

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Nicole Trunfio, tv star

ellen dahl/portrait.gov.au

As frockwriter reported on January 1st, Nicole Trunfio is said to be currently seeing in the New Year in a Byron Bay beachhouse with fellow Perth native Gemma Ward. And Trunfio has lots of reasons to celebrate this January, having just scored no less than the model mentor gig of the US version of Make Me A Supermodel. According to a press release from the Bravo tv network, Trunfio is due to join host Tyson Beckford in the show’s second season, replacing the first season's female model mentor and co-host, high profile US model Niki Taylor. Other new faces to join Trunfio in the second series include designer Catherine Malandrino and model Jenny Shimizu.


bravo via zap2it.com


Although relatively low profile in the US, Trunfio is nevertheless no stranger to the television genre, having won Australia's Search For A Supermodel in 2002.

Trunfio later went on to win third place in Ford's Supermodel of the World 2002.

Like Ward, Trunfio is also repped by IMG in the US, the world’s biggest model agency - and an agency with more than its fair share of media connections.

Given the intense competition, it’s a pretty amazing get.

Congratulations Nicole.


RELATED: NICOLE TRUNFIO SETTLES INTO HER NEW ROLE AS MODEL MENTOR

McBeha on the Park

flynetonline.com via gossipgirls

How many supermods does it take to ring in New Year’s in Sydney? At least three going by a set of images which has just surfaced of Catherine McNeil and Danish gf Freja Beha Erichsen walking out of Sydney's Sheraton on the Park Hotel yesterday. The world numbers eight and 11 respectively, as ranked by models.com, join the world number three, Canadian Coco Rocha, who is spending two months in Australia over summer, with all of it to date in Sydney. Judging by the support bandage (or possibly even plaster cast) and crutches sported by McNeil, one wonders whether perhaps she may have incurred an injury playing soccer – as did Rocha a few days ago. That’s what happens when you play soccer in gladiator sandals. With Gemma Ward, the world former number one – now ranked as models.com’s world number 24 “Money Girl" – reportedly about to shack up with fellow Perth mod Nicole Trunfio at a Byron Bay beachhouse, that’s a lot of supes in NSW.

Although there are direct quotes from Trunfio, but not Ward, in this recent Perth newspaper story, Ward reportedly confirmed to the paper that she plans to return to modelling in 2009.

Ward and Trunfio, one assumes, may not be 'shacking up' in quite the same manner as McNeil and Erichsen, aka “McBeha”. If not, then perhaps the fashion world is about to greet its latest model hybrid.

Although these new McNeil images first popped up on GossipGirls.com, the celebrity gossip blog neither recognised Erichsen, nor, hilariously, even appeared to be aware of her much-mooted liaison with McNeil.

The site refers to Erichsen as McNeil's "gal pal" - since corrected from the original version, as listed on Google News, and which referred to Erichsen as McNeil's "sister".

The story also mentions a mystery "boyfriend". The latter seems nevertheless to be merely carrying the duo's packages - which include a large David Jones bag (and may, as it turns out, have been the partner of McNeil's New York agent Stephen Lee, who is in Sydney with McNeil. According to McNeil's agency, they were heading out to dinner when the photographs were taken).

Fashionologie, naturally, did fill in the blanks.

As just noted by the L Anonymous "Lesbian gossip and wit" web forum, McNeil and Erichsen appear to not only be wearing matching silver rings on the same finger, but also swapping clothes.

One L Anonymous poster has located an image of Erichsen standing in what looks to be Hyde Park, which is located directly opposite the Sheraton on the Park Hotel, in the same grey T-shirt worn yesterday by McNeil. The shirt is emblazoned with drug references.

According to the Sheraton on the Park Hotel, a "C McNeil" is still in residence at the hotel.

Nicole Trunfio: Anointed by Vogue, trashed by Murdoch

img

You’ve got to feel sorry for Oz comeback queen Nicole Trunfio. One minute, she’s on the August cover of Vogue Australia (^) and hooked up with prestige international campaigns such as Guess? The next, her picture is being plastered all over the net adjacent to the term “Junkie Chic”. With rather a lot of tabloid assistance from Rupert Murdoch. Who, funnily enough, owns the Australian license to Vogue.

According to this snippet headed “Junkie Chic” in The New York Post’s Page Six gossip column yesterday, adjacent to a photograph of Trunfio:

“AMY Winehouse is hardly a role model, but Guess? is inspired by the drugged-out singer. A rep for Nicole Trunfio, the new face of the line, told Page Six her look "mimics the singer's iconic thick black eyeliner and infamous beehive, adding a little rock and roll to their pinup image." The scorching 22-year-old catwalker is also in the new BCBG Max Azria campaign, shot by Patrick Demarchelier”.

Just do a Google web search with the terms "Junkie Chic" and "Nicole Trunfio" and you'll see how many outlets picked up the Page Six story.

These are the potential pitfalls, presumably, of being asked to channel a figure as notorious as Winehouse for a fashion job.

But it's funny how commentaries can vary.

Recently (although I can’t locate the original item, this comes via a cut-and-paste job in TFS) the Fashionista blog picked up the Trunfio/Guess story, with this scan of a Guess? ad as well as these kinds words to say about Trunfio:

“The new Guess? ads are out, and they're great, but a little bit sad.

After all, if Amy Winehouse were healthy, she'd look exactly like this picture of a sultry beehived babe, as embodied by Aussie model Nicole Trunfio”.

tfs

And perhaps I’m not looking in the right places, however I can’t seem to find the words “Junkie Chic” splashed all over the net next to Coco Rocha’s name.

That's in spite of the fact that Rocha, a top Canadian model, recently appeared in no less than a Chanel campaign styled up to look very much like Winehouse:


fashionindie.com

Was Winehouse the muse for Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld?

On yes indeedy - well at least, as it happens, according to yet another Murdoch-owned tabloid on the other side of the pond.

On December 10, on the occasion of Chanel’s Paris-Londres pre-Fall 2008 fashion presentation in London, The Sun newspaper headlined its Chanel coverage with:

“WINEHOUSE IS THE BEES KNEES”

And then quoted Lagerfeld on his muse for the show’s styling, which included heavy cat’s eye eyeliner and beehive dos à la Winehouse.

Lagerfeld told The Sun:

“She’s a style icon.

“She is a beautiful, gifted artist. And I very much like her hairdo. I took it as an inspiration. Because, in fact, it was also Brigitte Bardot’s hairdo in the late 50s and 60s. And now Amy has made it her own style.

“So, when I saw her, I knew it was the right moment. Amy . . . she is the new Brigitte.’”