Showcards: Work Agency - MBFWA SS 13/14

kellie williams via work agency

And now to part VIII of frockwriter’s MBFWA Spring/Summer 2013/2014 model showcards series – Work Agency. Although this show pack is so far the most compact of the season, we have to say it gets top marks for presentation. Internationally, model agencies go to some effort to make their show packs stand out, tapping art directors to create innovative concepts. Not so much down under. As competition increases in this market, branding is going to be increasingly important. Heading up Work Agency's MBFWA pack is the agency's star Cassi van den Dungen, who has just returned from making her international runway debut, walking for, among others, Miu Miu.

Cameron Silver: Duke of Melrose

photo: supplied by foxtel

I first met Cameron Silver at the Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2004 when he was guest speaker at the event. A cabaret singer-turned-vintage retailer, Silver operated a by that stage seven year-old boutique called Decades on LA’s Melrose Avenue and he had established himself as a go-to guru for high-end, pre-loved couture gowns from upwards of the 1920s; seducing a swag of Hollywood power stylists and their A-list clients such as Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow. Silver’s comrade-in-couture is Christos Garkinos, a former marketing manager for Disney and Virgin Megastores, who joined the business in 1999, launching what was up until 2011 an adjacent contemporary designer resale boutique called DecadesTwo, which sources pre-loved designer fare from a global network of over 3000 consignors – including many celebrities. The businesses have since merged. The duo – who have arguably peeked inside more private wardrobes than anyone on the planet - are the stars of Bravo’s brand new reality show Dukes of Melrose which debuted on Foxtel’s Arena channel in Australia last night at 10.00pm. Part of Arena’s new triple fashion reality show bill for Thursday nights, the show follows straight after The Rachel Zoe Project (Season V) and It’s a Brad, Brad World (Season II). I have also watched a further three episodes and it’s as funny as hell. I caught up with Silver earlier this week to yack about the show, vintage, “insane” and “unscrupulous” red carpet politics - and what kind of milk Catherine Deneuve takes in her coffee.

New faces: Nicola Walsh

chadwick models

The 2013 edition ("Cycle 8") of Foxtel's Australia's Next Top Model has just commenced production and already the dramas have begun. As you may recall, frockwriter thought to blog the full cast list of the David Jones Autumn/Winter 2013 runway showcase on Tuesday 5th February - the day before the show. We had a hunch a good story might arise. As it emerges, it’s one that involves the world’s biggest model agency, a model agency that noone has heard of, Australia’s growing profile as a fertile hunting ground for new models – and the fever pitch that that hunt has now reached, with IMG Models not only opening an Australian bureau last year, but also inking a deal with Fox8's high-rating modelling reality show. Not only is IMG Models the show’s new agency affiliate, which will offer contracts to the winner and potentially other contestants, the company dispatched two of the industry’s most influential scouts, IMG Models’ Vice Presidents of Scouting and Development, David Cunningham and Jeni Rose, down under last month to personally oversee Next Top Model’s state-by-state auditions roadshow. Amongst their numerous other achievements, Cunningham put Gemma Ward into international orbit and Rose is credited with reviving the flagging career of the Netherlands’ Lara Stone and propelling her to the world number one spot. We hear IMG Models is thrilled with the talent unearthed during auditions for Cycle 8. Which brings us to the David Jones cast list, which included one brand new face who was essentially unseen up until last Wednesday. Or so we thought.

Andrej Pejic is shooting a reality television show

vestal magazine via models.com

It was only a matter of time, surely, before Andrej Pejic scored his very own reality television show. In July last year, in fact, he hinted there had been an approach, when he put the question to his Twitter followers “Should I do a reality tv show? I mean what would I have…. to say”.

Laura Brown hosts The Look

laura brown's twitter

Elle Macpherson has hosted the first season of Fashion Star on NBC in the US and two seasons, so far, of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model on Sky Living. Now another Sydney expat, Laura Brown, is getting a crack at hosting a broadcast fashion show beyond these shores – at least, a mini online version. Here is a preview of The Look, which will debut on the new Hearst/YouTube channel Hello Style tomorrow.

Jez Smith is on the road (again) with America's Next Top Model

ANTM via the CW

Sydney-based Brit fashion photographer Jez Smith might have quit his role as a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model last year citing work commitments and the fact that he "struggles" with the reality tv format, but he has just wrapped a shoot with America’s Next Top Model – in fact his second gig with the NTM mother ship.

Shaik, rattle and roll

next models

In 2008, 17 year-old Shanina Shaik was named the runnerup of Seven Network’s unsurprisingly short-lived reality show, Make Me A Supermodel. By February 2009, she had moved to New York, popped up in a handful of shows at New York Fashion Week and started dating US model and reality tv star Tyson Beckford, the co-host of the American version of Make Me A Supermodel (who is currently shooting Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model with Elle Macpherson). The pair had originally met during the filming of the Australian show, on which Beckford played model mentor. Although a contract with New York Model Management was part of Shaik’s prizes, not much was heard from her until November 9 2011, when she appeared in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York, alongside some major modelling names, including compatriot Miranda Kerr. 

Cox plate

montana cox at chanel FW1213/getty via daylife

"Everyone you've worked with said you were ready to take on the fashion world" Australia's Next Top Model host Sarah O'Hare told Montana Cox on live television last October, after announcing the 18 year-old Melburnite as the winner of the 2011 series. Just five months later, it seems O'Hare and co may have had a point. Over the past fortnight Cox has scored some of most coveted runway jobs in the business, just adding top Paris shows Lanvin, Christian Dior, Kenzo, Mugler, Cacharel, Andrew Gn and Vanessa Bruno to a Fall/Winter 2012/2013 showlist that already included Italian luxury names Bottega Veneta, Pucci and Etro. Cox leaves Paris today after adding just one more name to that list. It's a big one (UPDATE: Chanel, see above, where Cox walked alongside compatriots Miranda Kerr, Julia Nobis, Caitlin Lomax and Rosemary Smith). Then it's straight to Charles de Gaulle airport for a flight to Melbourne, to star in Thursday night's David Jones parade which will open the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival (her only LMFF gig). Stand by to see if Cox scores an equally coveted spot on any of the Top 10 Newcomer lists that are published by various outlets at the end of the season. But just how unusual is her 'overnight success' against the broader backdrop of Tyra Banks' Top Model franchise, which was launched in the US in 2003 and is now produced independently in some 50 countries? And with Cox as its latest star, just how successful is the Australian version of the show?   

Kim Kardashian wants you to buy her handbags but she'd rather carry Balenciaga

splash via the daily mail

Sydney-based entrepreneur Bruno Schiavi managed to convince Kim Kardashian to sign a global fashion and accessories deal, so you'd figure he would have taken care of a little detail like what brand handbag she was carrying when she arrived at Sydney Airport yesterday, wouldn't you? But apparently not. Kardashian and sister Khloe are in town specifically to spruik their Kardashian Kollection handbags, an exclusive capsule collection of which has just gone on sale in Australia. In the reality television star's first public appearance since her announcement on Monday that she would be filing for divorce from her husband of 72 days, NBA player Kris Humphries, she waltzed into the waiting media scrum carrying not a Kardashian Kollection, but a black Balenciaga City bag (aka Motorcycle bag). The distressed leather and hand-stitched handle are unmistakable. The bag is one of many Balenciagas from Kardashian's personal collection. 

Andrej Pejic talks to Seven's Sunday Night

richard chai FW1112/style.com

Seven's Sunday Night current affairs program just ran its profile on superstar Serbian Australian model Andrej Pejic - as tonight's lead story no less. Here is the video below, in case you missed it. As outlined last week, I worked closely on this story with the Sunday Night team, setting up all their filming access as they went in Paris and London. I also travelled to Melbourne for the interview with Pejic's delightful family: mother Jadranka, brother Igor and grandmother Danica. Andrej, meanwhile, has just touched down at New York Fashion Week, where he is booked for a number of shows. Some are straight menswear, as in yesterday's Richard Chai (above) and Robert Geller shows. However some shows and presentations are womenswear, such as Ally Hilfiger's presentation for her Nahm brand (below). And it seems he may be earning womens' modelling rates. Way to go.   

Jessica Gomes is the Megan Gale of South Korea

There were only two models at last week’s Australians in New York Fashion Foundation party to announce the 2011 AINYFF grant winner, each representing opposite ends of the Australian modelling spectrum. The upwardly mobile high fashion girl Bambi Northwood-Blyth, who seems to be getting thinner and thinner. And the more voluptuous Jessica Gomes (whose surname FYI rhymes with “homes”). Gomes has, not surprisingly, found a niche in the ‘sexy’ arena, whose imagery primarily appeals to straight men - as distinct from the flatter-chested, ballerina-like gazelles who tend to populate the world’s top runways and ‘highbrow’ fashion editorial. A few models have managed to cross over between the two arenas, Miranda Kerr being a good case in point. Gomes is on the December cover of Australia’s Men’s Style magazine and has appeared in Sports Illustrated’s famous Swimsuit Edition three times. Not forgetting her lingerie-clad cameo in the 2007 tvc for Sean Combs’ steamy 'Unforgivable Woman' – which was banned in the US.