Showcards: The Agency Models - MBFWA SS13/14

maddison watling by romain duquesne

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia is less than a month away and the preliminary schedule has just gone up (click here to download). Who will rock its runways? Herewith the first instalment in frockwriter's MBFWA showcards series from Australia’s leading model agencies. First up, Sydney's The Agency Models.

Comeback queens - London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013/2014

cassi van den dungen backstage at giles FW1314 via style.com

London Fashion Week is in full swing and the ranks of the Aussie model posse have swollen – from 15 at the New York shows to at least 20 22 23 24 by our count. Who’s on deck? New to the circuit this season are Jess Gold, Eva Downey, Amanda Ware, Kye d’Arcy, Stephanie Carta, Rhianna Porter, Kaila Hart, Lola van Vorst and, perhaps the biggest surprise of all, Cassi van den Dungen, who is finally making her move on the international runways (and who changed her original plans to head straight from London to Paris on Monday after a callback from Love magazine editor - and Giles Deacon stylist -  Katie Grand). Carta, meanwhile, a Balenciaga fave five years ago, has been out of action for so long her Fashion Spot thread has not been updated in 14 months. In addition to Saturday night’s International Woolmark Prize show, she has popped up in a number of top shows, including Richard Nicoll, Antonio Berardi and L’Wren Scott. 

Rock on - David Jones Spring/Summer 2011/2012

Miranda Kerr has done rather a lot since she headed offshore to try her luck on the international fashion stage in 2005, like so many other eager Aussie hopefuls before her. The following year, after scoring a Maybelline contract, she landed what would evolve into a highly lucrative deal with US intimate apparel giant Victoria’s Secret. Kerr returned to the Australian market in 2008 in a big way as the new face of Australian department store David Jones, an astute marketing investment that is presumably costing DJs much less today than it is currently worth in media coverage. In the eighteen months since Kerr last walked DJs' biannual runway showcase, she has emerged as a truly global star – not just one of the world’s highest-paid models, but a household name whose every move is charted by the paps. Sure, the marriage to Hollywood heartthrob Orlando Bloom hasn’t hurt her profile, ditto the birth of their beautiful baby boy Flynn in January. So refreshing, then, to see Kerr backstage at DJ’s Spring/Summer 2011/2012 showcase on Wednesday night, hamming it up as just another one of the girls. 

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.

Cat gets the Tweety Bird

Since The Daily Telegraph published (this) image of Catherine McNeil at the annual Bondi Icebergs New Year's Day party, McNeil's usually supportive fan base has been in overdrive on the haterade. "Bogan" sniped one fan on McNeil's discussion thread on The Fashion Spot web forum. "She just needs to lay off the booze, the salt and sugar for a while is all" noted another. It wasn't the first time McNeil's new short black bob had seen the light of day - frockwriter first mentioned it in October - but together with a new facial piercing and the unflattering angle, shot while McNeil looked to be dancing with Daniella Rech, the photographer wife of expat Sydney show producer Kannon Rajah, it wasn't really the clearest image. Thanks to what is either McNeil's new Twitter feed, or else an elaborate fake using her happy snaps, here are a few other recent shots that demonstrate the new 'do, which has been cut shorter still - two featuring McNeil's great mate, Sydney model Stephanie Carta. 

Bob's your uncle: Catherine McNeil also gets the chop

nicole bentley, vogue australia september 2010 via TFS

Yes that’s a wig that Catherine McNeil is sporting in this Vogue Australia September 2010 editorial, above. But apparently the world #12 liked the look so much, she’s gone and had it replicated. Well, kind of. By all accounts, McNeil's new do is not a "long, choppy" Abbey Lee Kershaw bob, aka a "Kob", but a bob nonetheless and black to boot. There is as yet no hard photographic evidence beyond a bunch of Facebook photos and the shot, below, published on October 21st on the blog of McNeil’s model mate Stephanie Carta, together with the caption, “Yesterday kitty cut her locks off, Sorry, died them black! Meow”. UPDATED 29/10: HERE ARE SOME FIRST SHOTS. Not even McNeil’s Sydney-based mother agency was up with her hair news when we enquired earlier this week. But after days of buzz on model forums, Stephen Lee at McNeil’s New York agency Next finally confirmed the earth-shattering news to frockwriter overnight: yes, McNeil has definitely cut her hair. Lee added that McNeil has been enjoying a month’s break of “total normality” from the modelling business. 

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. 

Abbey Lee Kershaw walks Chanel (again), makes world number 6

chanel haute couture FW1011/getty via daylife

The haute couture shows roll on and overnight, to the best of frockwriter’s knowledge, Abbey Lee Kershaw was the first Australian model to pop up therein – at Chanel. This is no surprise, as Kershaw has spent the past eight months forging a powerful alliance with the iconic French couture house and its German creative director, Karl Lagerfeld. Kershaw closed Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2010 haute couture show in January, opened its Fall/Winter 2010/2011 ready to wear show in March and appears in both the Spring/Summer 2010 ad campaigns for Lagerfeld’s own collection and the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 Chanel campaign. Back in December, during an interview for Australian current affairs program Today Tonight (only a fraction of which made it to air) Kershaw told me that she was moving on from Italian luxury goods house Gucci, with which she had booked four campaigns – although in everything other than the Flora by Gucci campaign, as part of a group of bigger name models. But Kershaw’s star is definitely on the rise. Since December, beyond her Chanel coups, she has appeared on ten magazine covers. Today Tonight asked, could she make it to number 1? Well she's getting closer - models.com just upgraded her ranking to world number 6.

The Fall girls

chanel FW0910/wwd.com

Good grief. Frockwriter takes her eye off the FW0910 action for a mo, to attend to some work which required more than a little concentration, and the Oz model crew continues to walk up a runway storm. With Myf Shepherd (pictured above) leading the pack - by a wide margin. We did say that Shepherd's sophomore RTW season was shaping up to be bigger than her first. Well at time of writing, Shepherd had broken her own show record by walking in 56 (13/03: now 62) shows from New York to London, Milan and now Paris. With two days to go, how many more can she do? Will she crack the season's Top 5 in terms of shows walked? Here is an updated showlist of the 17 Australian women (and OK, one man) who have walked thus far on the season's runways.

The list is obviously yet to be finalised. Feel free to add in anything frockwriter may have missed. Thanks also to the TFS crew, whose model otakus keep such close tabs on their individual faves.

Congrats to all the models for making their marks on the season.

Couple of points.

Great first season for Bridget Malcolm and Georgie Wass. And who really is to say that an agent blabbing to Grazia UK about a potential Prada exclusive may have stymied Wass's chances of said exclusive? If indeed that is what occurred - we really don't know where the Prada info came from. As we pointed out, many girls are optioned for that show and never make it in. Wass did not, in the end, turn up at Prada.

Alexandra Agoston-O'Connor is really in her element at haute couture, but her season seems comparatively light - and it was disappointing not to see her at Dior, since she is usually a sure bet with any Galliano show. Tallulah Morton did make it into the Dior show.

Beyond a couple of great gets for Stephanie Carta in New York, moreover, and a few good Paris shows, Carta missed out on several high profile shows which she no doubt hoped to nab again - notably Jil Sander, Balenciaga and Givenchy. On the other hand, she did appear in a high volume of low profile commercial shows in Milan.

Work is work and of course, times are tough, but it's odd to see Carta in those lower tier shows, after achieving such great heights last season - and being hyped as a face to watch.

The Mallory Jansen info comes, perhaps amusingly, from a snippet in The Sunday Telegraph. Jansen does not appear to have her own TFS thread yet and we have been snowed under with work and had no time to check with the agencies. Yes bad timing, but hey, we have to make a living.

Unless sub-editors are at fault here, removing copy for space issues (which is always a possibility), it strikes frockwriter as strange that any paper would go anywhere near a story on Australian models in the FW0910 season and fail to mention even the names of Shepherd, McNeil and Stracke. But look, there you have it: mainstream fashion coverage. And they wonder why people are flocking to the net.

Frockwriter couldn't resist slipping in a couple of backstage shots of our fave Oz model mate hybrids.


Myf Shepherd
Brian Reyes (opened)
Jason Wu
BCBG Max Azria
Lacoste
United Bamboo
Adam Lippes
Diane Von Furstenberg
Erin Fetherston
Donna Karan
Marc By Marc Jacobs
Max Azria
Philosophy
Michael Kors
Phillip Lim
Devi Kroell
Zac Posen
Julian Louie
Verrier
Academy of Art University
L'Wren Scott
Topshop Unique
Sinha-Stanic
Armand Basi One
Christopher Kane
Aquascutum
Betty Jackson
Jaeger
Richard Nicoll
Luella (closed)
Giles
Julien Macdonald
Issa
Paul Smith Women (opened)
Louise Goldin
Missoni
Ermanno Scervino
Alberta Ferretti
Emilio Pucci
Gucci
Marni
Gianfranco Ferré
Prada
MaxMara
Pollini
Les Copains
Sharon Wauchob
Bruno Pieters
Akris
Givenchy
Hussein Chalayan
Sonia Rykiel
Lanvin
Sophia Kokosolaki
Haider Ackermann
Atsuro Tayama
Chanel
Kenzo (closed)
Wunderkind
Paul & Joe
Alexander McQueen
Hermès
Miu Miu

SMYF:


catwalking via TFS

Catherine McNeil
Ohne Titel
Alexander Wang
Preen
Diane Von Furstenberg
Carolina Hererra
Thakoon
Matthew Williamson
Derek Lam
Narciso Rodriguez
Diane Von Furstenberg
Isaac Mizrahi
Zac Posen
Giles
Julien Macdonald
Issa
Etro
Fendi
DSquared2
Blumarine
Alberta Ferretti
Bottega Veneta
Salvatore Ferragamo
Jean Paul Gaultier
Givenchy
Hermès
Stella McCartney
Louis Vuitton

MCBEHA:


style.it via TFS

Skye Stracke
Brian Reyes (closed)
Joseph Altuzarra
Mulberry
Karen Walker
Thuy
Akika Ogawa
Oscar de la Renta
Basso & Brooke
Nathan Jenden
PPQ
Nicole Farhi
Anne-Sofie Back
Paul Smith Women
Issa
Mary Katrantzou
House of Holland
Iceberg
MOMO
Antonio Marras
Enrico Coveri
Jo No Fui
Krizia
Moschina Cheap & Chic
Atsuro Tayama
Tsumori Chisato
Giambattista Valli
Emanuel Ungaro
Commun
Junya Watanabe
Chanel

MORTA:


style.com via TFS


Stephanie Carta
Narciso Rodriguez
Phillip Lim
Rad Hourani
Staerk
Matthew Ames
Vena Cava
Tuleh
L'Wren Scott
Laura Biagiotti (opened)
Love Sex Money
Antonio Marras
Albino
Gabriele Colangelo
Jo No Fui
Stefanel
Kristina Ti
Allegri
Gaspard Yurkievich
Veronique Branquinho
Akris
Dries Van Noten
Commun

Bridget Malcolm
Lela Rose (opened)
Miss Sixty
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Andy & Debb
David Delfin
Toni Maticevski
Tory Burch
Vera Wang
Cynthia Steffe
Elise Overland
Nanette Lepore
John Rocha
Maurizio
Nathan Jenden
John Richmond
Albino
Antonio Marras
Blugirl
Carla Carini

Tallulah Morton
Noir
Graeme Black
Jasper Conran
Paul Costelloe
Normaluisa
Mariella Burani
Jean Paul Gaultier
Marithé et François Girbaud
Ann Demeulemeester
Alviero Martini
Estrella Archs
Hiroko Koshino
Christian Dior
Vivienne Westwood
Jean Charles de Castelbajac
Hermès

Alexandra Agoston-O’Connor
Noir
Kinder Aggugini
Jasper Conran
Marithé et François Girbaud
Comme des Garçons (closed)

Shanina Shaik
Yeohlee (opened)
Shipley & Halmos
Abaete
Mara Hoffman
Lorick
Project Runway
Trovata
Richie Rich

Georgie Wass
Topshop Unique
Nicola de Main
Noir
Danielle Scutt
Jeal-Paul Knott
Marithé et François Girbaud
Jean Charles de Castelbajac

Chelsea Scanlan
Shipley & Halmos
Chocheng
Ideen
Mara Hoffman
Tuleh
Vivienne Tam

Rosie Tupper
Lela Rose
DKNY
Nanette Lepore
A Détacher

Christina Carey
Rad Hourani
Joseph Altuzarra
Vena Cava
Tuleh

Julia Ikonomou
Andy & Debb
Twinkle
Custo Barcelona

Zanita Whittington
Josh Goot
Alexandra Groover

Jethro Cave
Anastase

Vanessa Milde
Toni Maticevski

Mallory Jansen
Fatima Lopes

From the Cobrasnake to Narciso Rodriguez

catwalking.com via TFS

New York Fashion Week shows are great for any model's resumé. But let’s face it, with up to 300 shows every season in that city, there are some pretty low-profile gigs. Not so Narciso Rodriguez, one of the biggest US fashion names, who kicked off his career making a wedding dress for Carolyn Bessette Kennedy – and most recently designed the controversial red and black emsemble worn by Michelle Obama for Barack Obama’s Victory address on November 5. Stephanie Carta just scored the Narciso Rodriguez show – after hinting that she might via Twitter. After her recent appearance at Givenchy's haute couture show in Paris, nice to see Carta distancing herself further still from her unfortunate summer Cobrasnake photoop. Joining Carta on the runway was Catherine McNeil. Here is the complete Narciso Rodriguez collection on style.com. And here is an update on which Oz models are in town and what they are doing.

These lists include shows which have already taken place, together with new bookings (sourced from the various agencies). They are not yet complete.

Stephanie Carta
Narciso Rodriguez
Phillip Lim
Staerk
Matthew Ames
Vena Cava
Tuleh

Catherine McNeil
Ohne Title
Alexander Wang
Preen
Diane Von Furstenberg
Carolina Hererra
Thakoon
Matthew Williamson
Derek Lam
Narciso Rodriguez
Isaac Mizrahi
Zac Posen

Myf Shepherd
Joseph Altuzzara
Jason Wu
BCBG
Lacoste
United Bamboo
Adam w/ Samuel Francois
Diane Von Furstenberg
Erin Fetherston
Donna Karan
Marc By Marc Jacobs
Max Azria
Philosophy
Michael Kors
Phillip Lim
Devi Kroeel w/ Brana Wolf
Brian Reyes
Zac Posen

Also confirmed for 16 shows in London.

Skye Stracke
Joseph Altuzzara
Mulberry
Karen Walker
Thuy
Akika Ogawa

Bridget Malcolm
Lela Rose (opened)
Miss Sixty
Marc by Marc Jacobs
Andy & Debb
David Delfin
Toni Maticevski

Chelsea Scanlan
Shipley & Halmos
Chocheng
Ideen
Mara Hoffman
Tuleh
Vivienne Tam

Shanina Shaik
Shipley & Halmos
Abaete
Mara Hoffman
Lorick
Yeohlee

Vanessa Milde
Toni Maticevski

Rosie Tupper
Lela Rose
DKNY
Nanette Lepore

Christina Carey
Joseph Altuzzara
Vena Cava
Tuleh

Julia Ikonomou
Andy & Debb

Girt by HC

christian lacroix haute couture SS09/style.it

Yet more extravagant haute couture - and more Australian mods - in Paris overnight. Frockwriter mentioned that Skye Stracke is also in town – here she is (^) hooting it up backstage at Tuesday’s Christian Lacroix show. Stracke also appeared at Chanel (along with Myf Shepherd), in addition to Alexis Mabille. And while as we already reported, Stephanie Carta was due to walk at Givenchy – and did - who else should turn up in the same show, but Catherine McNeil (see below). So evidently McNeil's torn ligament healed. With honorary Aussie, McNeil’s Danish girlfriend Freja Beha Erichsen, opening and closing Chanel, Australians have certainly been making their haute couture mark this week.

Although it’s possible that we have missed other Australians, frockwriter is finding it hard to believe that, as reported by Carta via Twitter:

“australia day is so over but at least half of dior wore aussie flags on their faces!”

But hey, if any photos turn up via Facebook or other, thanks for letting us know.

No sign as yet of Alice Burdeu, who was reported to have been in Paris for haute couture castings.

One alleged sighting of Burdeu at Friday's Big Day Out in Australia however, as it now emerges, suggests that those castings may have proven unfruitful.

Here are some haute couture show coverage links to various sites, as well as some details of the quite extraordinary jewellery at Lacroix.



christian lacroix haute couture SS09/style.it

Loving the Givenchy show, to which the work of Australian Toni Maticevski bears a slight resemblance in parts, if frockwriter is not mistaken. Unless it's the other way around.

Needless to say, Maticevski would be in his element, creatively, spiritually and financially, should he ever be embraced by the Paris haute couture establishment.



givenchy haute couture SS09/style.it

Click here for the Christian Lacroix collection on wwd.com
Click here for the Giorgio Armani Prive collection on wwd.com
Click here for the Christian Dior collection on wwd.com
Click here for the Chanel collection on wwd.com
Click here for the Martin Margiela Artisinal collection on wwd.com
Click here for the Alexis Mabille collection on wwd.com
Click here for the Givenchy collection on style.it
Click here for the Anne Valérie Hash collection on style.it

From the Cobrasnake to the couture

givenchy SS09 ready-to-wear/style.com


"PARIS COUTURE, starting tomorrow!! And pretty over the bad PR back in sydney". So Twittered Stephanie Carta less than one hour ago after attending a fitting for Givenchy, whose show is due to take place at 5am tomorrow morning Sydney time (7pm Tuesday Paris time). That's at least one haute couture show which Carta looks to have in the bag. Given that she walked in Givenchy's SS09 ready-to-wear show in October (^), it looks like Carta is a personal fave of Riccardo Tisci, the creative director of the prestigious Paris haute couture maison, which was founded by Hubert de Givenchy in 1952 and made its name by dressing Audrey Hepburn. It makes a change from being a personal fave of Cobrasnake party snapper Mark Hunter, whose trashy NYE shot of Carta in Kings Cross certainly got people talking three weeks ago (even The Sydney Morning Herald). Carta also looks to have taken some proactive PR measures by either deleting or moving her Magna Carta blog. Not that her partying days are behind her. In this just-posted quick chat with PAPER mag's Julia Frakes, Carta reveals that Le Baron is her favourite Paris nightclub and that Australians have earned a bit of a Paris rep as the life of the party. This is no doubt music to the ears of Hunter, who has just popped back up on the radar at the haute couture shows.

Carta tells Frakes:

"The the night before last I sat for about two hours at a casting with some model friends that I did not expect to see, including two other Aussies. When I finally walked into the casting (I had chosen to wear the sheerest dress out of the selections given since I knew nobody else would choose it and I wanted to leave more quickly) and was instantly blamed for all the noise... along with any other Australians that they knew were waiting there!"

There are at least four other Australian models in Paris this week: Skye Stracke, Alice Burdeu, Myf Shepherd and Alexandra Agoston-O'Connor. Both Shepherd and Agoston-O'Connor were spotted in the Christian Dior show overnight.

That's not counting Harper's Bazaar's Christine Centenera, who turned up overnight in a Dior pic portfolio on The Cobrasnake. Apparently Hunter has moved on from Byron Bay.

We do look forward to seeing the party shots.

And will be interested to see if this week's runway shots of Carta, Stracke, Burdeu, Shepherd and Agoston-O'Connor prove the biggest talking points of their respective haute couture seasons.

Dude, where's my career?

the cobrasnake

“i want to be in the next Balenciaga campaign. And im really impatient, and feel like sitting here on the computer all afternoon is such a waste of time and i need to be doing more. But everyone in my house is doing the same thing right now. I guess everyone is human and the thought of another party right now, for once does not interest me. (I mean its not like Pip, Dangerous, Cat, Natedog, MattSaville, Mikey, etc all my other fun people) are in the house to make me definately think otherwise about starting a Half Party)”. So wrote Stephanie Carta on her Magna Carta blog on November 3.

An erstwhile muse of Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière – and a two-time runway model for the 2008 shows of the venerated French fashion house – such was the strength of Carta’s second international show season, models.com nominated her as one of SS09’s Top 10 Newcomers in October.

Sadly, while Carta did make Balenciaga’s SS09 show, reportedly she has not made the SS09 ad campaign - which is said nevertheless to boast 10 other models.

And nor it appears may Carta have scored any SS09 campaigns – unlike her compatriots Catherine McNeil, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Myf Shepherd and Alice Burdeu.

As a consolation prize, and in tandem with her buddy, Tallullah “Party” Morton, Carta has become a regular star on the party photoblog of Mark "The Cobrasnake" Hunter. Including this delightful cameo (^) from last week's ksubi/Cobrasnake/Steve Aoki et co NYE party at Kings Cross nightclub Club 77.


pedestrian.tv

In The Cobrasnake shot, Carta appears as a caricature of what everyone imagines to be wrong with the modelling business.

Perhaps taken at an (extremely) unflattering angle, Carta looks not only underweight (which is awkward in light of the weight controversy in which she found herself embroiled in Sydney last year), but totally off her face.

The party occurred of course during Carta’s downtime, while she is, like many other models, enjoying a summer vacation.

This afternoon I asked another photographer his position on the ethics of photographing those who may be momentarily mentally incapacitated due to the effects of alcohol or other substances.

Hunter is documenting the international party scene, came the response. And makes, by all accounts, a handsome living out of doing so.

If anyone walks in front of Hunter's lens, said my photographer, Hunter is entitled to shoot them regardless – and publish those shots on his high traffic website.

This is irrespective, he noted, of whether or not the subject happens to be professional model with an image to maintain. Or even a friend.

Carta cannot claim that she does not know who Hunter is, because she has appeared in previous Cobrasnake party reportages.

At 23, Carta is also most definitely a consenting adult.

Hunter is reporting the news, in other words.

And sometimes, of course, it's not pretty.

Magna Carta, the blog

the cobrasnake

“thats it i am starting my own blog” noted a poster claiming to be Stephanie Carta at 2.18am AEST this morning in a comment on frockwriter. And evidently they haven’t wasted any time. Hot on the heels of Carta's inauguration as a models.com Top 10 Newcomer (Europe) for SS09 – which seemed to pop up, coincidentally, a matter of hours after frockwriter’s Carta-dedicated post and video on Friday - comes what could be the latest model blog, Carta.

In a first post, dated Monday 6th October, 5.13pm (Paris time, one assumes), "Carta" wrote:

"WATCH THIS SPACE
(this is not the first blog)
maybe it is."

Hey Carta - how about a bit of behind-the-scenes @ Balenciaga?

Stephanie Carta: Even Raf Simons thinks camilla & marc are cool

balenciaga SS09/catwalking via tfs


After a brief industry hiatus, Stephanie Carta popped up on the international modelling radar earlier this year as no less than the only Australian in Balenciaga’s FW0809 show. Following SS09 shows in New York, London and Milan, Carta continues her ascent in Paris bagging, among other names this week, Balenciaga, Dries Van Noten and Givenchy. In this video interview just shot by Fashionlab, Carta talks about April's skinny model furore at Australian Fashion Week, her Australian designer mates and her slow-but-steady career strategy.

Fashionlab shot that amusing Sonny Vandevelde video that I posted on Saturday (and thanks Sunster for the headsup on Carta). It’s a project of the Nokia Trends Lab and the quality of the video is quite remarkable – for what one assumes is a mobile phone.

Just to clarify I have no commercial connections whatsoever to Nokia.

Can anyone ID the Australian interviewer?

In the iv Carta talks about the controversy in which she found herself embroiled in Sydney in April – when her agency, then Chic Management, famously pulled her off Michelle Jank’s runway because she was considered too skinny, only to reinstate her the following morning for camilla & marc.

Carta tells Fashionlab:

“I don’t know why they targeted me. Maybe because I’m a local model. So many models were brought into Australia that were skinnier than me....everybody in Australia is looking at me now, but when you come here and look at everybody...”

A few other bits and pieces mentioned by Carta in the iv include:

1. Dan Single scoring some "guest hosting UK tv gig" (beyond vogue.co.uk?).
2. A designer friend Nathan (we assume Smith) is planning to move to Paris.
3. “Collette Dinnigan doesn’t interest me”
4. Carta wore a pair of camilla & marc “tights” to castings (possibly the two-tone Jacoba Pant) and reports she was stopped not only by models, but even Jil Sander designer Raf Simons, asking who made them. She says she was also snapped in them by The New York Times.

Of the new model influx this season, notes Carta:

"The girls are coming around so fast now it seems. Everybody’s new. It’s everybody’s first season it seems. Everyone’s doing 20 million shows at once. And they’ll probably be like, nobody, tomorrow. I'm in it for the long run”.

Here's the vid:


fashionlab