Close encounters of the KL kind

rose smith backstage at carl kapp's SS1112 show, sydney, may 2011

Publicists would disagree, but any journalist worth their salt will tell you the best stories never come straight off a press release. Occasionally that’s where they start, however. And so it was at 2.44pm on January 16th, when I received an email from Sydney-based fashion PR firm Little Hero headed “Malaysia’s First Lady covets Carl Kapp”, alerting me to what they were claiming would in anybody’s terms constitute an unusually large single, personal order of a designer brand - 61 items. Many designers wouldn't have 61 pieces in a single collection. The alleged client was Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. I called Little Hero back within minutes. The story had been passed over by the fashion editors of two Australian newspapers, said Little Hero staffer Holly Beer, who immediately followed up with a second email, with yet more tantalising details. The second of two appointments had taken place in the PM’s hotel on New Year's Eve – as it emerged, The Star Sydney Casino’s new venue The Darling, the penthouse no less – with the PM himself present. After taking Rosmah's measurements and near six figure order, Kapp was due to be flown by the client to KL for a second round of fittings, said Beer. "It was unbelievably surreal" Kapp told me later that day. Indeed. No mention was made of Kapp being dispatched to KL in a Learjet but by this stage nothing would have surprised me. UPDATE 02/02/12: PM Najib has now gone on the record on Twitter about the Carl Kapp story. In response to a question about frockwriter's post, he described it as: "a wildly exaggerated story deliberately fabricated to affect people's perception of their leaders". UPDATE 06/05/13: As we mentioned in a recent interview with the ABC's Radio National, according to sources close to Kapp, he was paid upfront for the order - in cash.  

Pru Goward channels Mad Men for SoHi Magazine

kylie coutts/sohi magazine

Behold Australian politician Pru Goward in the sophomore edition of SOHI Magazine – which, for those unfamiliar with goings on in the NSW Southern Highlands (a fave weekend haunt of many Sydney fashion, film etc folk, including Nicole Kidman), is shaping up to be the creative version of the glossy, bi-monthly, glorified luxury property catalogue High Life. Snapped by Kylie Coutts, Goward - the Member for the seat of Goulburn and the state Shadow Minister for Community Services and Women - wears a vintage 1950s pink linen dress and hunting cape as she stars alongside several other local highprofilers (notably, fashion retailer Belinda Seper, below) in a retro-nosed spread called, hilariously, 'Role Models'.



kylie coutts/sohi magazine

According to SOHI’s editor, the Exeter-dwelling photographic agent Rebecca Wolkenstein, the spread was inspired by 1950s German photographer Regina Relang and is in keeping with the mid-century ambiance of the rest of the issue, which features the work of noted graphic designer/illustrator Don Fish.

Of course, any pop culture aficionado will take one look at Goward’s image and note, “Um, doesn’t she look like one of the secretaries or long-suffering homemaker wives in Mad Men?”.

That is, the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning AMC series which depicts the shenanigans in and around a fictitious early 1960s Madison Avenue ad agency, during the still halcyon days of chauvinism and racism, prior to the passing of the 1963 Equal Pay and 1964 Civil Rights acts. The old skool typewriter and teacup props really don’t help things.

Goward is of course the former federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination with the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. And who noted of her first day in NSW parliament two years ago, "I have never worked in any profession as male-dominated or as ruthlessly sexist as this. I was quite shocked by it."

She would have loved Sterling Cooper.

Rod Blagojevich, fashion icon?

tom ford via wwd.com


Ah yes Tom Ford has done a Karl Lagerfeld/Hedi Slimane by lensing his own advertising campaign. Yesterday WWD got the scoop on the SS09 campaign for Ford’s menswear line, which bows in March issues, stars Jon Kortajarena and Karen Elson and was shot by Ford. Ford told WWD, “I wanted to create clean, straightforward shots of a handsome man in beautifully cut clothes. Simple, clear, and fresh.” There was no mention by Ford of any specific inspiration and frockwriter cannot help thinking that the outlets which have since picked up the story may have overlooked the elephant in the room. Is frockwriter the only one to notice that Kortajarena’s scenester coiffure seems uncannily reminiscent of one Rod Blagojevich? Blagojevich being of course the recently ousted Illinois governor who is facing federal corruption charges, including accusations of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. It’s not like Blago’s hair has not been in the US news of late.



getty images via the cut

In an earlier WWD story on December 11, the flamboyant chestnut 'do with bangs prompted the following comments from the hair styling industry.

Calvin Klein’s hairstylist Roberto Nova:

“Ugh....there’s no name for that”

Jennifer Anniston’s coiffeur Chris McMillan:

“Jack Lord from ‘Hawaii 5-0’ called. He wants his look back.”

And hair stylist to Meg Ryan, Courtney Love and Hillary Clinton, Sally Hershberger:

“It’s very dated. And it looks like a wig.”

And Womens Wear Daily is by no means the only US news outlet to discuss Blagojevich's hair.

From a cartoon competition in The Washington Post to identify the best Blagojevich hair caricature, to a score of stories and headlines, the controversial 'do has evidently been, well, front of mind for not just Blago.

The Dallas News called Blagojevich:

“The politician with America's Most Important Hair“

In a story entitled "Big hair, big head, big bozo: That's Gov. Blagojevich", The New York Daily News noted:

“Now we know why Blago has such big hair. It's to cover his great big empty head”

During a studio interview with Blagojevich, The View co-host Joy Behar could not resist touching the merchandise, telling her co-hosts:

"Where do I get the chutzpah to touch this guy's hair? It's like I have this little kid inside me that just wants to do it."

Meanwhile, The Chicago Sun Times dedicated quite some space to an analysis of the coiffure, asking the probing question, “Is Blago's hair a sign of sickness?”.

The Times interviewed several psychologists, who concurred that the trademark "glossy locks...perfectly sculpted in rain or snow" may be a sign of a narcissistic personality disorder.

Clinical psychologist Scott Ambers told the paper:

"It's all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw.... This grandiose sense of self . . . doesn't carry the implication that [Blagojevich] is a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest he has a really overinflated view of his own importance".

When the corruption issues are dealt with, needless to say, Blago would be infinitely better suited to a gig in the fashion industry.

The haunting of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

michel comte/I-management via designboom

Memo to all those who happily pose nude for photographers, whether that be for the glory of art, a paying gig – or even as a favour for a mate for charity. In March last year a nude photograph of France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, caused a stir when it came up for auction at Christie’s New York. Following a whirlwind of publicity, the photograph was sold in April for US$91,000 - 20 times the figure that was originally anticipated by Christies. And while some of the proceeds reportedly went to a worthy cause - the Swiss charity Sodis, which organises clean drinking water for developing nations – the Christie’s auction was not the end of the story. Beyond the fact that the image lives on in private hands, in December a French court awarded Bruni-Sarkozy 40,000 euros damages against a fashion chain in the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion. The Pardon chain had cheekily used the unauthorised image on a bag - an action which it was determined had caused Bruni-Sarkozy "moral and economic damage". Well the Bruni brouhaha may be about to crank up again, with the news of yet another nude Bruni-Sarkozy portrait by the same Swiss photographer, Michel Comte. This one is due to be exhibited at Düsseldorf gallery Kultur und Wirtschaft from February 1 to May 10, as part of 30 year retrospective of Comte's work.

The new image depicts Bruni-Sarkozy topless, glancing downwards, with her face partially obscured by her hair.

According to a caption on DesignBoom, the shot was taken as part of a Safe Sex campaign in 1993 (the same year as the Christie's shot) - at a time when of course Bruni-Sarkozy was working as a high fashion model.

No images are for sale and according to a gallery representative with whom frockwriter spoke this afternoon, the Bruni-Sarkozy image is not in the gallery's official press material, which includes a dozen examples of Comte's work.

The spokesman confirmed that there had been no consultation with Bruni-Sarkozy, but added:

"We don’t expect any problems. If she makes any problems, we deinstall it. But we would not take it too seriously. For us it's one image out of 303".

Given however the publicity blitz sparked by the Christie's auction and the La Reunion bag saga, you have to wonder just how the Sarkozys, and notably Sarkozy's political party, might feel about the prospect of having the First Bosoms on display in Germany for three months.

With every new nude Carla story to emerge, the Opposition must of course be clapping its hands. Because Sarkozy's administration is starting to look a little like an issue of RALPH magazine.

At the time of the Christie’s flareup, Comte told Swiss newspaper Le Matin that the original shot was taken during a photo session for Vogue Italia.

Comte added that he had “thousands” of other shots of Bruni, taken in the decade in which they worked together. Comte also claimed that although The Sun newspaper in Britain had offered him more than a million pounds for a photograph of an unspecified celebrity, they are not for sale.

Comte told Le Matin:

"I have other nude photographs of Carla far more explicit, but I would never sell them... I'm not in it for the money. That's my principle."

Given the plethora of topless images - and increasingly, full-frontal nudity - in mainstream fashion imagery, presumably the models involved and their respective agencies must shoulder responsibility for any longterm impact that those images may have on the models' respective future careers.

Notably, of course, with the internet, via which nothing can really ever be considered "niche" again.

But this matter does raise an important question about consent issues.

If Bruni-Sarkozy posed for the shot in 1993 as a “favour” for a charity, that is one thing.

But what happened to the photographs afterwards?

Comte told Le Matin that he had “no idea” how the image wound up at auction.

Noted Comte:

"I must have given it to someone as a gift."

A further potential complication in the Bruni case may well be posed by the fact that in 2005, Comte sold his entire archive to a company called I-Management, which is based, mysteriously, in the British Virgin Islands.

The transaction, for an undisclosed sum, comprised all of Comte's works up until the end of 2007, including copyrights.

Reportedly, Sodis wound up benefitting from the Christie's sale only after Comte eventually persuaded Christie's to donate the funds to charity.

And Sodis only became the beneficary after the funds were rebutted by the original intended recipient, a Cambodian childrens medical care group, because the donation was deemed to be culturally insensitive.

According to the Cambodian group's director, the Swiss paediatrician Beat Richner, the funds were rejected on the grounds that:

"Accepting money obtained from exploitation of the female body would be perceived as an insult".

Yes, he did

History in the making.

Is John McCain the Imelda Marcos of the 56th presidential campaign?

imelda marcos via pierce mattie

Back in July – pre revelations about Sarah Palin’s 150K wardrobe allowance – John McCain copped flack in the US press over his penchant for luxury Italian footwear. After rocking up to almost every campaign stop in July in a pair of US$520 Ferragamo Pregiato loafers, some suggested he was out of touch with the average American, with one blog calling McCain a shoe slut. Well, as both Joe The Plumber and JLo prepare to cast their votes to determine the 44th American presidency, comes further potential evidence of McCain’s footwear fetish: McCain acolytes have been sneaking advertising onto the blog of our own shoe queen, Imelda.



mccain, his ferragamo loafers and george bush snr/AP via usmagazine.com


At 11am this morning Imelda’s alter ego, Sydney-based Matt Jordan, started receiving frantic emails from US readers of his year-old, footwear-focussed Imelda blog – who make up 30percent of his 2000 page impression-a-day audience, Jordan tells frockwriter.

Jordan’s US readers were horrified to spot a series of Google Adsense advertisements for Support Marriage on Imelda - and notably, the ads were adjacent to one of three recent pro-Barack Obama blog posts penned by Jordan.

Here are two American screen grabs of the blog taken November 4 AEST:





Support Marriage is a conservative Californian lobby group at the epicentre of one of the 2008 election's hot-button issues: the proposal to amend the Californian constitution to overturn recently-granted same-sex marriage rights.

Support Marriage sponsored the initiative which made the issue a Californian ballot proposition.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain supports Proposition 8, as it has been called – as he did a similar earlier campaign in his home state of Arizona (even though McCain voted against a federal constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage).

Obama has spoken out against Proposition 8, even though personally he is opposed to gay marriage - a political juggling act which some have suggested could cost him Californian votes.

According to the latest Field Poll however, Obama is tipped to win California's vote with the largest margin since World War II.

Either way, Jordan was aghast to see his blog being used as a Prop 8 prop.

“I was horrified, I was clutching my pearls, I was left feeling violated” noted Jordan, who blogs in character as a satirical caricature of the former First Lady of the Philippines. Marcos was of course noted for her luxury shoe collection.

But not only does Jordan barack for Obama, what's more to the point here is the fact that Jordan is gay and is involved in his own longterm same-sex relationship.

Jordan’s Australian readers are not seeing the ads, leading him to assume that the ads are IP-targetted. And indeed yesterday TechCrunch noted that California residents who view sites that include Google Adsense ads were seeing Support Marriage ads.

TechCrunch noted the irony inherent in Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s recent endorsement of a NoOnProp8 advertisement in The San Jose Mercury News - and later spotted the same Support Marriage ads on TechCrunch. The ads were subsequently filtered out.

Prop 8 ads also popped up on Gaywheels.com, in spite of the fact that the site had reportedly specified to Google that it wanted no political advertising.

Google Adsense is an automated, keyword-activated ad generator which is easily incorporated to any blog. Frockwriter does not use it because a/we like our white space; b/we think Google Adsense looks like crap and c/we don’t care how much money is generated from Google Adsense, it’s not enough to compensate for the fact that it looks like crap.

According to Jordan he has generated a whopping US$88 in Google Adsense revenue in twelve months.

It's interesting to ponder how Imelda popped up on the radar of Support Marriage/Google Adsense.

Was it the blog's Obama posts?

Could the politically-affiliated name of the blog itself - Imelda, The despotic queen of shoes - have been a contributing factor?

Some of Jordan’s readers, coincidentally, have reported difficulties logging onto his blog whilst travelling in China, leading Jordan to speculate that there may be some censorship issue in that country.

Or could it be the case that Ferragamo fan John McCain is a regular reader of Jordan’s blog, can’t get enough of its shoe coverage - and urged his conservative allies to send advertising Imelda's way?

And could McCain be secretly ogling Ferragamo’s womens collection?

On the latter chic conspiracy theory Jordan quipped, “You know what they say - the ones who vehemently oppose gay lifestyle are generally closeted gays”.

Dressing to the Left: Old Socialists don’t fade away - they spruik luxury goods

dailymail.co.uk

For anyone still acclimatising to the recent images of the former Secretary General of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhail Gorbachev, reclining like a pimp in the back of a limo advertising handbags for French luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton, get ready for the September edition of US Men’s Vogue. Who’s the cover boy? Former British PM Tony Blair.

The cover story - “TONY BLAIR: THE MAN WHO MADE BRITANNIA COOL TAKES ON THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST JOB” - is promoted as an “Exit interview exclusive”.

Blair was interviewed by New York Times/International Herald Tribune correspondent Roger Cohen and photographed by Norman Jean Roy in South Africa in May, during his controversial “farewell” world tour.

However it’s not ongoing controversy over that purported “vanity” tour, which was causing tongues to wag in London yesterday - but rather, a mini debate over whether or not the British Labour Party’s longest-serving Prime Minister might have had ............. a little digital ‘work’ done in the cover shot. Stop the press.

Is it just my imagination or is some kind of pattern forming here? And if it doesn’t work out for Kevin Rudd in the election, might we be seeing him trotted out in the menswear section of the next David Jones store wars parade? Mark Latham flogging his own line for Autore Pearls? Who knows? In the interim, we can but reflect on a few memorable Blair-isms.

“I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral - It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality” Blair noted in his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 6 July 1983.

And on the occasion of the sharemarket collapse of October 1987: “The City whizz-kids, with salaries only fractionally less than their greed, now seem not only morally dubious, but incompetent”.

No idea if Blair spotted the previous edition’s health feature - “Manual labor can build a stronger, better body than the usual gym routine” - but on the September issue he does share cover billing with three other glossy Men’s Vogue exposes, that are headlined:

“THE OILMEN, THE DRUG RUNNERS AND A TRIP INTO A FORBIDDEN JUNGLE”

“FINANCIAL TIME - A WATCH IN SYNCH WITH THE WORLD’S MARKETS”

“JAGUAR’S FASTEST CAT”

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