Abbey Lee Kershaw - shoe drama queen

lanvin SS11 via style.com

Budding actor and soon-to-be-co-star of Mad Max: Fury Road Abbey Lee Kershaw has been taking a year-long sabbatical from the modelling world, but is about to re-emerge on the fashion stage according to her finance broker father Kim Kershaw - who is now, amusingly, also acting as her 'mother' agent in Australia. Earlier this year, Abbey Lee ditched Chic Management due to what we have on good authority was a dispute over Chic's 'mother agency' fee. That's the fee (generally 10-15percent) that a model's home market agent pockets on all future earnings in all markets, on top of booking agents fees. But Abbey Lee has not been far from the thoughts of her fans. Case in point, some behind-the-scenes footage that has just surfaced from the Lanvin Spring/Summer 2011 runway show in Paris, shot all the way back in October 2010. Kershaw's fans over at The Fashion Spot have reportedly been agog over one scene showing Kershaw in tears following a dressing down by Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz, after he observed what he describes as her "almost drunk" walk during a show rehearsal, wearing a perilous pair of Lanvin stilettos. The footage is from the Spring/Summer 2011 edition of the bi-annual French Habillé (e) s Pour documentary series by Loïc Prigent and Agnès Boulard. Originally broadcast in France in November 2010, it seems the episode recently screened on the Cinémoi North American cable channel, with the Lanvin excerpt subsequently uploaded to Vimeo by a fan. 

Frockwriter's Top 10 posts of 2012

We usually flag the top posts of the previous 12 months on Frockwriter’s July 4 birthday each year. This year we opted instead to focus on some of the challenges – and frustrations - of trying to maintain an independent news blog, whilst avoiding getting sucked into the vortex of the blogger gravy train. So here is a list of our top stories for 2012, rated by traffic. The year’s number one post, Close encounters of the KL kind – which attracted over 20,000 hits - is incidentally also one of the top posts in this blog's four and a half year history. It's also a story on which we personally received considerable feedback, from people who contacted us to say how much they enjoyed reading it. Not bad for a post that we originally hesitated publishing at all, because of its length and potential TLDR factor – “too long didn’t read” being the mantra of many when confronted with longform pieces on the net.

If the shoe fits

andrej pejic models chris benz SS12 via sight management studio

We all talk – a great deal – about the sizes of the bodies of fashion models. The sizes of their feet, however, rarely come up for discussion. What an interesting topic of conversation it proved to be when we puffed this week's Anmari Botha post on both frockwriter’s and my personal Facebook pages, using one of Botha’s IMG Models showcards as an illustration – and her published shoe size, "7.5", sparked a raft of comments. “How does a 5’11” woman have such small feet?!” asked Sydney-based media trainer Shauna Stafford. Another noted, “Most women that size would have size nine or ten feet”. While a former magazine maven chimed in, “Your basic nightmare. Perfect” – referring, we assume, to the dearth of “unusual” shoe sizes in the fashion cupboard of a typical magazine.

UN expert to Rodarte: Hands off Aboriginal culture

rodarte FW1213/getty via daylife

In writing about Rodarte’s Fall 2011 show in February last year and specifically, about the casting of Alice Springs-based model Melissa Johannsen, frockwriter noted, “When the Mulleavy sisters were dreaming up their Fall 2011 collection with the Great American Plains in mind, chances are there weren't any pictures of Australia’s Red Centre on their mood board”. Twelve months on, coincidentally, what inspired Laura and Kate Mulleavy, the designer siblings behind the New York-based label, for their Fall 2012 range? “Australia!” and “the rugged outback”, they told reporters backstage in New York last month, in spite of the fact that neither has ever visited Australia. The inspiration “came out of nowhere”, according to the Mulleavys. No, it did not, says Megan Davis, an indigenous Australian lawyer who is the head of the University of NSW Indigenous Law Centre and an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). UPDATED: The Mulleavys claim the prints were licensed, but they still won't reveal the identity of the artist/s (see below). 

They love a sunburnt country

melissa johannsen backstage at rodarte FW1213, vogue.it via TFS

Fashion really is having a love affair with all things Australian at the moment (and for anyone not familiar with the line in this post's title, it's borrowed from the iconic Australian poem My Country by Dorothea MacKellar). Sydney's urban beach culture was the inspiration for Michael Kors' Resort 2012 collection and in New York last week, Jeremy Scott looked to have deployed an army of Ms Fitz clones to model his Fall/Winter 2012/2013 collection. Scott said the collection was "inspired by the computer and the way information is disseminated today" and his show styling and even invitation certainly bore a striking resemblance to the work of the New York-based, Sydney expat artist, stylist and blogger. The Mulleavy sisters, meanwhile, themed their Fall/Winter 2012/2103 Rodarte collection around the "rugged Australian outback". Their cast included two Australians, Codie Young and Melissa 'MJ' Johannsen (above). Johannsen, who turned 17 yesterday, is of course more than a little au fait with Australia's Red Centre, hailing as she does from Alice Springs. Young and Johannsen were among at least 28 Australians to walk the New York Fashion Week runways last week. Below are their New York Fall/Winter 2012/2013 showlists.

Melissa queen of the desert

rodarte FW1112/style.com

When the Mulleavy sisters were dreaming up their Fall/Winter 2011/2012 collection with the Great American Plains in mind, chances are there weren't any pictures of Australia’s Red Centre on their mood board. And yet second out in the ethereal chiffon and guipure lace confections of their New York Fashion Week show on Tuesday was 16 year-old Melissa J who lives slap bang in the middle of Australia in Alice Springs, surrounded by desert. Yesterday frockwriter mentioned that in this bumper antipodian model season, a few, even newer Aussie girls were waiting in the wings. Melissa – aka “MJ”, who we first profiled in November – is one of them. Discovered by Adelaide's Finesse Models in October, she has already walked in seven New York shows and presentations this week (also Charlotte Ronson, Mandy Coon, Dennis Basso, Tracy Reese, Creatures of the Wild and Yoana Baraschi), with Hollywood red carpet favourite Marchesa lined up for today. Now 16, MJ is being chaperoned by her mother, brother and auntie and all were, we hear, in attendance at Rodarte cheering her on. Must have been a big thrill for them. 

Did Mexico's drug violence kill Rodarte's mojo? Spring/Summer 2011

With its avant-garde homespun aesthetic and ethereal eveningwear, Rodarte is normally considered a highlight of New York Fashion Week, an event better known for commercial sportswear than creative bravura. But this has been a peculiar event, with more than one designer delivering a low-risk, (they hope) sure-sale collection. In spite of the fact that several influential American fashion critics have lauded the Rodarte collection as some kind of breakthrough for sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, loving it is a pretty big ask. That’s not to say there were not a couple of pretty pieces. Supposedly inspired by the northern Californian outdoors, a clever, collaged wood grain print was used in a terrific shift dress with deconstructed sleeves and a shell top with stiffened peplum; and there is one striking blazer, also with a stiffened pannier peplum, in a Delft China-like blue microprint. But to frockwriter’s eye, the rest of the collection looks like a snafu of plaid, gold brocade, kimonos, cheongsams and togas – the kind of costumes that Maria Von Trapp might have whipped up for Ridley Scott’s next swords and sandals epic.  

Legs 7-Eleven

purple diary

One of the biggest FW0910 trends is, surprise, surprise, something that has been hovering on the fashion horizon for at least four seasons now. Call it an evolution of the skinny jean trend or a biproduct of fashion's bodycon '80s resurgence, leggings have been omnipresent at the FW0910 shows. The myriad variations included studded, distressed – and, picking up Miu Miu’s recent biker short reboot, also biker short - at Alexander Wang; Day Glo florals at Marc Jacobs; zippered at Alexander McQueen for Target; Anna Sui's velvet versions; in leather at Tory Burch; black suede at Max Azria; high-waisted and seamed at Coventry; Terence Koh's gold sequinned versions and knitted at Richard Chai. One of the week's more intriguing takes on the trend was offered on Tuesday, via those remarkable, rumpled Nicholas Kirkwood legging boots at Rodarte. Many described them as "over the kneee" but in reality, they reached almost to the hip. Here's a backstage shot by Purple mag's Olivier Zahm (above), which gives a closer look at the convoluted strapwork. You don't get into or out of these boots in a hurry.



marc jacobs FW0910/wwd.com


alexander wang FW0910/wwd.com

Sydney’s own sass & bide saw the megatrend coming this time last year, with the launch of their ‘new jean’, the ruched black silk/acetate Black Rats leggings, which generated record orders for the company.

Let them eat Rodarte

getty/daylife.com


Well the shows roll on in New York, with yet more reports of empty front row seats – even at Monday night’s Marc Jacobs show, which as frockwriter reported almost the minute it happened, started early. Jacobs shows off-schedule at the Lexington Armory (where his Marc by Marc Jacobs show just wrapped). In spite of IMG's claims that show numbers are on par with previous seasons, the IMG-operated Bryant Park tent setup seems particularly hard hit, perhaps due to the additional costs of showing there. Yesterday we reported one show-goer referring to the tents as “dead” due to schedule gaps. Just in, this Tweet from Mediabistro/fishbowlNY managing editor Rebecca Leigh Fox that on Tuesday, the “Bryant Park tents were no-(wo)man's land this am-think i saw tumbleweed roll by even w/ Badgley Mischka seating. cue recession wails”. Rodarte also shows off-schedule, but given that the designers, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, won the 100,000 euro Swiss Textiles Award (A$198,362) in November (and with additional $ from Swarovski), they are not as cash-strapped as some other emerging American fashion names.


AP/daylife.com

Click here to see the video of their beautiful FW0910 collection, a near single-note sonata of hand-crafted, heavily embellished - and incredibly short - dresses, every last outfit teamed with some remarkable rumpled leather legging boots by Nicholas Kirkwood.

Noone fell this time (unlike last season) - just a stumble at 5.51 as one girl heads backstage.

This level of craftsmanship is however sure to engender sticker shock.

Killer heels

sonny vandevelde

Here are the Nicholas Kirkwood platform stilettos which caused Abbey Lee Kershaw’s undoubtedly soon-to-be-widely-publicised-in-Oz spill on Rodarte’s runway yesterday.

In case anyone is wondering Kershaw is apparently OK, at least according to her Australian agent Kathy Ward – in spite of the fact that Kershaw had, says Ward, already broken one ankle last year.

The spill was news to Ward when I called her. She noted that the agency’s New York affiliate Next had not mentioned the incident to her in a phone call earlier this morning.

Kershaw joins a growing coterie of models who have come a runway cropper due to absurdly high shoes.

Naomi Campbell once famously fell in a pair of ludicrous Vivienne Westwood platforms, Jessica Stam is another catwalk toppler and earlier this week Arlenis Sosa fell in the BCBG Max Azria show.

Yes the shoes are high. Getting higher by the season – in spite of the fact that YSL’s shoe manufacturer Vittorini Rigato told me backstage in October last year:

“The highest that we manufacture and the highest on the market is 125mm. Afterwards, you fall over. Even 125mm is difficult for walking”.

Kershaw did not of course need any additional publicity this season.

She was already having a blockbuster second runway season in New York with additionally, as frockwriter has reported, not one, but two international fashion magazine covers about to hit the newstands.

Ninemsn.com.au has already picked the Rodarte story up – including the Swarovski TV video of the show.

As their source on the story Ninemsn quotes Jessica Coen, ex-Gawker, who now works at New York magazine and did this post on Kershaw’s spill on The Cut blog.

Jessica Coen didn’t break the story - Style.com’s Style File blog did, to which I link in my post. Coen also links to it.

Ninemsn.com.au also reports that Kershaw is ranked the world number 21 working model on models.com.

As it happens, I reported that figure this morning. I could be wrong, however I’m not sure it has been reported anywhere else beyond models.com's listings themselves.

Click here to see Sonny Vandevelde's backstage Rodarte reportage.
Click here to see the complete collection on wwd.com.