Sophie Ward and Sebastian Mader team up to create 'My Dirtied Soles'

As the countdown continues to the May 20 2011 release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, in which Australian model-turned-actor Gemma Ward is due to appear as a mermaid (its trailer, due for release on December 17, may well including a fleeting glimpse of same), turns out Ward’s model-turned-writer/publisher sister Sophie Ward has made a movie of her own. Or rather, a haunting “video poem” called My Dirtied Soles, that she has written and narrated and which is directed by New York-based German photographer/filmmaker Sebastian Mader. Sophie Ward is a talented writer, whose first novel, The Beginning of an Inexplicable Journey is downloadable as an e-book from her website). And as she demonstrates with this project (below), she also has a great voice - just like her sister.

The Sunday Telegraph: The disturbing trend of model deaths

daul kim, backstage @ alexander mcqueen SS08

On November 20th I - along with many others - blogged about the very sad news of the death of South Korean model Daul Kim. The news was all the more alarming by virtue of the fact that Kim's was not an isolated death in the modelling industry - or indeed suicide. As regular readers of this blog would be aware, I have been tracking some of these stories over the past twelve months. Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper asked me to develop the post into a small feature (which they titled "Dying for success"). Many thanks to models.com's Wayne Sterling, Sophie Ward and Vikki Graham for availing themselves for interviews at short notice. Here's the story (which ran last weekend):

THE fashion industry has been rocked by the death of top South Korean model Daul Kim, the latest in what has emerged as a disturbing trend of model suicides over the past 18 months.

The 20 year old was found hanged in her Paris apartment on November 19th, the third model suicide since June 28 2008, when Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova, also 20, died after falling nine floors from her apartment building in New York.

On October 11 2008, 26 year-old Canadian Hayley Kohle fell seven floors to her death from an apartment building in Milan.

Although Kohle was one of many virtual unknowns struggling to make names for themselves in a fiercely competitive business, both Korshunova and notably, Kim, had achieved far greater success, securing magazine covers and lucrative advertising contracts.

And yet both Korshunova and Kim also left a trail of social networking site posts behind them talking about heartbreak, loneliness and depression, with Kim already once having to defend her mental state on her two year-old blog I Like To Fork Myself.

On October 11, just one month before she died, Kim even used the terms “cut ur wrists”, “jump out a window” and “cry for help” in a blog post called “Say hi to decided”.

“The industry is definitely in shock over the news of Daul Kim's suicide” said Wayne Sterling, a prominent New York casting director and the editorial director of the website models.com, whose closely-followed world rankings of models are considered the industry’s unofficial benchmark. “People are asking...How could we have missed the signals? There have been a lot of tears and some guilt about all of our superficial assumptions”.

But the suicides are part of a wider pattern of recent model deaths that have many asking about the hidden risks and dangers of an industry that remains largely self-regulated.

Not counting the eating disorder-related deaths of three South American models in 2006, which reignited the Size 0 debate and prompted a raft of industry initiatives, on July 7 last year Canadian Diana O’Brien was murdered while on assignment in China.

Then on October 11, coincidentally the same night that Hayley Kohle died, 20 year-old male American modeling star Randy Johnston died from a heroin overdose in Connecticut.

“We all have to accept that yes there is a serious problem” said Sterling.

“Common decency now would demand that designers, editors, photographers and agents should address signs of depression and fatigue and stress in young models as clear problems that could amplify with tragic implications” he added. “We're dealing with human beings here, not inanimate mannequins”.

Speculation is currently focused on the mental health of Australian modeling star Catherine McNeil, who was photographed last week in Sydney with a series of mysterious cuts on her arms.

McNeil’s mother contradicted the official statement from Australian agency Chic Management, that the cuts were the result of a skateboard fall, by stating her daughter fell down stairs and has also been “depressed”, with McNeil’s grandmother adding that Catherine is “burned out” by the industry.

Chic Management declined comment for this story on either McNeil or Daul Kim. Chic’s New York affiliate Next Models was Kim’s American agency.

"This was the tipping point - enough is enough now" said Australian model and author Sophie Ward of Kim's death.

Ward has experienced the modeling rollercoaster both first-hand and through the eyes of her sister Gemma Ward who, by early 2007, had risen to the world number 1 position, before disappearing from the business altogether following a segue into acting and the January 2008 death of close friend Heath Ledger.

“Without a strong sense of identity, I think it's very easy to lose oneself in the demands of a million people, and forget who you even were to start with” said Ward. “Yes I went through dark stages of existential doubt but I wouldn't call it depression, it didn't last as long”.

“Of course my family were vital, but you can't survive in a hotel room with just a telephone, or a blog. You need many voices, many hands, all around you, to get your mind off those pressures, and enjoy life".

Sydney’s Scene Models director Vikki Graham conceded that although she believes agents are not therapists, the size and pressures of the business and the speed of communications have helped depersonalize the industry.

“Models don’t come into the agency like they used to before, now every model’s got a BlackBerry - but a BlackBerry doesn’t tell you whether they’re feeling down in the dumps” said Graham, who also believes agents should be both aware if there are personal issues affecting a model’s work and prepared to cancel jobs.

“They’re not machines” she added. “There are times when they can’t do a job. The model has to take priority over the booking”.

Paper, Castle, Runway... RAFW SS0910, the season of the comeback queens

toni maticevski backstage/sonny vandevelde

Well, well, well, Emma Balfour isn’t the only one making a runway comeback. As frockwriter Tweeted last night after Toni Maticevski's show, you can add Sophie Ward to the mix as well (UPDATE 23/04: and apparently also Alyssa Sutherland). But while 39 year-old Balfour has been working on her comeback for seven months – first popping up at the SS09 New York Fashion Week shows (and will open Friedrich Gray on Sunday) – to frockwriter’s knowledge, last night’s show was 23 year-old Ward’s first fashion gig in two years. Ward is currently being promoted for RAFW – and according to Viviens, is attending castings, with Romance Was Born already confirmed. Last week, Ward made mention of her runway return on her blog. As we recently reported, Ward, a professional writer, has been busy over the past 12-18 months establishing her own publishing company, Paper Castle Press. No word yet on the publication date of the imprint’s first titles (one a childrens book called The Ginger Marmalade Toastmeister, with illustrations by Ward’s mate, the talented American illustrator Danny Roberts). Modelling is not the easiest of professions - the older you are, the harder it gets to compete with reed-thin adolescents. As the Ward family is already well aware, it is particularly hard when you have been out of the game for a while. The big question is will both Ward sisters return to the runway in 2009?

Another Oz model blogger - and this one has a four-book deal

sophie ward by danny roberts


Once upon a time there were two beautiful sisters who lived a long way from anywhere in the most remote city on earth. With a little help from the Prada fairy, one grew up to become a fashion princess, then grabbed a balloon string and floated off into another make believe world. The other built her own castle in the kingdom of publishing.

The last time frockwriter noticed Sophie Ward, she was modelling for stellar Australian denim startup 18th Amendment and blogging for ninemsn.com.au from the Melbourne Fashion Festival.

I have often wondered how she coped shadowing the quite extraordinary success achieved by her younger sister in the same profession.

Sophie Ward, according to her LinkedIn profile, has been writing professionally for four years, and is the current New York correspondent for Perth’s Silver magazine.

Ward holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, with English and European Studies majors and describes herself as the “founder, president and creative director” of new imprint Paper Castle Press.

Although headquartered in Los Angeles according to the company’s website, the domain name was registered in February 2008 by Chris Hemmings of the Sydney-based CGH Artists, whose relationship with Ward remains unclear.

Frockwriter has attempted to contact Hemmings (and Ward) to as yet no avail. According to Hemmings’ agent Three60, he is a Perth native (like Ward) and used to rep Derek Henderson, among other Australian photographers. Most recently, Hemmings has been involved with his own publishing ventures, which have included the photographic book +61.

In a separate profile on the Canadian online magazine/writers network Suite 101, Ward describes herself as a “partner” in the Paper Castle Press website.

The Suite 101 profile also mentions that Ward wrote her first book in 1993, at the age of 8, winning the Miss Booker Literary Prize in Western Australia.

Paper Castle Press's stated mission statement is to be:

“...a publishing vessel created to protect and support the ideas of the future today. Our philosophy is to support creative visionaries by generating a dissemination of their body of work with utmost attention to quality over quantity. We are focused on sourcing grass roots individualism and regenerating a culture of free thinking rebellion through writing, illustration, photography and other forms of paper bound expression.”

The site lists several upcoming projects.

The first is a new novel by Ward called The Beginning of An Inexplicable Journey.

A curious precis of the tome, in what look to be Ward’s own words, describes the book as:

“Sophie Ward's philological study of a personal human journey with universal relevance. In the tradition of Pliny the Elder (23 - 79 AD) and French artist, phenomenist and linguist, Genevieve Seille (1951 - ) Ward documents her passionate observation of various phenomena with highly detailed notations which spread throughout the book. This personalized observational research technique is used to document the insights and reflections unique to Ward.”

Also in the pipeline is the first novel, I, Poet, of Lily Black, who is described as a “blackly beautiful San Franciscan poet” who negotiates:

“seques [sic] between a violent Maya Angelou to hot unicorns.”

Frockwriter is not familiar with Black’s work – and judging by a quick net scan, nor are many others – but two upcoming Ward collaborations with the prodigiously talented 23 year-old LA-based illustrator Danny Roberts would appear to be extremely promising.



'the ladies of dior'/danny roberts


Roberts has illustrated a childrens book written by Ward called The Ginger Marmalade Toastmeister.

It recounts the story of a cat and a warthog.

A second collaboration with Roberts is The Siren Who Loved, the outline of which project sounds like it may eventually embrace some element of live performance, involving an "audio" component courtesy Stacey Dupree – one quarter of the Texan sibling indie pop outfit Eisley.

Paper Castle Press also has an online store selling Roberts’ illustrations, which are quite beautiful and very fashion-focussed. Roberts' oeuvre has in fact so far been dominated by caricatures of fashion models (and occasionally also fashion bloggers) – which partially explains how he may have come into the orbit of the Ward sisters.

Where is the money coming from? That's a very good question. Book publishing is expensive, with illustrated colour books often prohibitively so. Is multimillionaire Gemma Ward perhaps a silent partner?



gemma ward/danny roberts


Roberts studied fashion design at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, later switching to illustration.

In August he told the Pony Ryder blog that he started illustrating seriously three years ago. Roberts' first studies were of Gemma Ward and Lily Cole and he has since developed the drawings into The Lily and Gemma Book, which is comprised of two volumes (describing Gemma Ward as his “dream portrait model” to another blog, Chic Intuition).

Roberts cites his first professional job as illustrating the lookbook of the Academy of Art Senior show at New York Fashion Week in 2007 - and showcases his illustrations on his increasingly popular Igor + Andre blog.

Sophie Ward also has her own blog attached to the Paper Castle Press website.

Far more esoteric than your average model blog - and in parts quite melancholic - Ward suggests the word blog could be an acronym for “big long open gash”.

In an October 15 post entitled Fractal Reflections of Reality Facets, she noted:

“This is where I am now, in a state of hard luck. I am in this big apple, but it is rotten already. There are worms and critters, slugs, slaters, maggots and mutant pumpkins, their skins blistered by some weird pulse, sitting on the rabid sidewalk and my kitchen bench too - an ugly pumpkin and a cactus amongst ripped envelopes full of the stock market’s frenzied collapse.”

And in The Lizard's Velvet Hand on October 23:

“I am a tasty chicken and my juice is gashing all down your chin. I don’t mind being eaten. All I want is to be in peace and oneness. All I ask for is to live in a nice house, on a nice street, with a nice car and a magnificent man, a magnificent career, a magnificent life.”