Born in Scotland and raised in the UK, Ruby Jean Wilson emigrated to Australia with her family at age 13 and started modelling three years later. In a very short space of time she has certainly made her mark. One of Australia's most high profile catwalkers on the international show circuit over the past couple of seasons, at the Spring/Summer 2013 shows in September and October she opened and closed Marc Jacobs and then opened Louis Vuitton, subsequently scoring ad campaigns for both brands. The campaigns were lensed by Juergen Teller and Steven Meisel, respectively, and she is the sole star of the Marc Jacobs campaign. Back home briefly from her new, New York base for a summer holiday, frockwriter caught up Wilson just before Christmas at the Australian Fashion Foundation party to announce the winners of the foundation's 2013 burrs. Among the topics canvassed with RJW: which other family members might follow in her fashionable footsteps? And whose name does she have tattooed on her left wrist?
Another week, another Perth model lands a magazine cover. First, Tom Bull cracks his first cover with The Australian's Wish magazine, for April. And now Chrystal Copland has landed her first international cover - no less than Vogue Italia, also for April. Copland is part of an ensemble cast posing in the magazine's 'Prom Night' cover story, shot, as always, by the inimitable Steven Meisel. There are two covers; one, complete with freakish masks. So far no good highres versions have appeared, but above is an out-take and below are both versions of the final cover in lowres. And Australia's other Vogue Italia covergirls.
Twenty-two year-old Brisbane-ite Angus Low may prove extra popular on the international circuit, once any runway colleagues suffering from back pain twig that he doubles as a physio. Low graduated last year from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Studies – and was awarded the Dean’s Commendation for academic excellence – and has been working full-time at a private Brisbane hospital. Modelling part-time for the past two years, prior to June 2011, the biggest name on his modelling CV was the Mercedes-Benz Brisbane Fashion Festival. Enter the Spring/Summer 2012 menswear season in Milan and Paris and Low can now add shows for Lanvin, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Costume National and Raf Simons. And we can add his name to a bulging Aussie male model pack that is headed up by Andrej Pejic, Tom Bull, Jordan Coulter, Jack Vanderhart and Jordan & Zac Stenmark. Although Low's SS12 show season transpired under the publicity radar back home, evidently he made quite an impression because two months ago, his Brisbane mother agency Dallys tells frockwriter, he shot Lanvin's SS12 menswear campaign in New York with Steven Meisel, two other male models - and a bunch of snakes. Then last month in Paris, he shot Lanvin’s SS12 eyewear campaign with Stéphane Gallois. Low has just given up his day job to pursue modelling full-time.
In one of those amusing art-imitates-life scenarios, the ever-creative Vogue Italia released a preview of its November cover story overnight. A 26-page fashion editorial lensed, of course, by Steven Meisel, 'The A train' depicts supermodel Raquel Zimmermann commuting on the New York subway, whilst kitted out in various luxury brand finery and flanked by a cast of black-suited salarymen. Anyone familiar with Australia's annual Melbourne Cup Carnival will be reminded of very similar scenes on Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse Line at this time of year. At time of writing, the latter is in the process of delivering a hefty percentage of the 100,000 that are expected to attend today's Melbourne Cup - just with a much higher volume of women in hats. Whilst the traditional dress code for Derby Day is black and white (ignored on Saturday by, among others, Dita Von Teese), for the Melbourne Cup, the so-called 'race which stops a nation', it's more of a no-holds-barred fashion approach.
When Australian Robyn Lawley recently landed the cover of ELLE France's 'curvy' issue, frockwriter mentioned that she had just been shot for the June edition of another, even more prestigious European title by one of the biggest names in fashion photography. They don't come much bigger than Vogue Italia and Steven Meisel. Congratulations to Lawley, who appears on the June 2011 cover of Vogue Italia (above, far right) with two other plus-sized models, Tara Lynn and Candice Huffine. Lawley, an Australian size 14, is also prominently featured inside the issue, in the remainder of the Meisel-lensed cover story (see another shot, below), but also in an only-girl editorial shot by Pierpaulo Ferrari (see further down for three behind-the-scenes images from that shoot, taken by Lawley). Lawley has more high fashion gigs on the horizon, having just shot with Max Doyle back home in Australia.
In the much-hyped, Tom Ford-edited December 2010 edition of Vogue Paris, which is out tomorrow, Ford tackles the subject of cosmetic surgery with an eight page editorial called La Panthère ose (which translates as “the panther dares” - a play on the French version of the film title The Pink Panther). Starring the world’s most high profile plus size model Crystal Renn, the editorial was shot by Ford and styled by editor in chief Carine Roitfeld. Yes, cosmetic surgery makes an interesting editorial backdrop for any fashion magazine, considering that such magazines stand accused of only ever showcasing unrealistic – and frequently digitally enhanced – images of female “perfection” that prompt feelings of inadequacy in “normal” women and lead them to eating disorders and cosmetic surgery. But it is not the first time this has been done. The July 2005 edition of Vogue Italia featured an 80-page cover story by Steven Meisel called Makeover Madness. Shot inside a medical equipment rental facility and a suite at the St Regis, the story depicted Linda Evangelista and eight other models before, "during" and after staged procedures (complete with fake blood). It's interesting to compare the two editorials.
After his Vogue Paris debut in August, frockwriter hinted that upwardly mobile Australian model Andrej Pejic was due to appear in an equally prestigious international title. Well that title is Vogue Italia, for which Pejic (right, above) was shot by legendary lensman Steven Meisel alongside a stellar female cast - Freja Beha Erichsen, Iselin Steiro, Iris Strubegger and Alla Kostromichova - in addition to two other male models with long hair and feminine features, Michael Tintiuc and Tomek Szczukiecki. Called Venus in Furs, the provocative editorial, which was styled by Karl Templer, depicts 19 year-old Pejic and co rolling around on a bed in a kind of androgynous Bacchanalian orgy wearing fur, leather boots and gauntlets - and not much else. A shot of Erichsen and Steiro made the cover (below). Go to the Z FashionBlog to see the complete set. Tomorrow's launch of November Vogue Italia comes three days after the arrival of the December issue of Vogue Turkey, which also features a Pejic editorial. For the latter, Pejic was shot by Matthew Brookes alongside lookalike Czech model Jana Knauerová, who is styled as a boyish girl to Pejic’s girlish boy, in a story called, you guessed it, Androjen.
She has yet to grace the cover of her home country edition, but September is shaping up as the month in which Miranda Kerr hit the big time in the international Vogue stakes, with three editorials inside the September edition of US Vogue and the September covers of both Vogue España and now Vogue Italia. Shot by Steven Meisel in 3D, even Kerr’s pooch Frankie gets a lookin on the Italian cover. It wasn’t the Yorkshire terrier that grabbed frockwriter’s attention in two images in the accompanying 12-page editorial, however, but a cigarette (above, below). And it's not the first time Kerr has been photographed smoking this year. In June, she appeared topless, cigarette in hand, in issue 114 of French magazine Numéro.
On the eve of the launch of the Australians in New York Fashion Foundation, here is the second in a series of chinwags with a handful of the foundation’s board members – all prominent Australians working in the New York fashion media. Here, a (sadly very brief) chat with Julie Anne Quay, who landed in New York to a job as studio manager for no less than Steven Meisel. Quay then moved on to V Magazine as executive editor and other fashion consulting roles such as casting, for clients including Marc Jacobs.
Describe your current position and what the job involves. Julie Anne Quay: President of Colac Pictures and Jaq Inc. Colac Pictures is a film production company. The main project in development right now is the film version of Australian author Lee Tulloch's fashionable cult classic Fabulous Nobodies. Jaq Inc is a fashion production company and right now the main focus is projects for Style.com.
How difficult was it to break into the New York media environment? Briefly describe the career trajectory which led you to your current position. I really believe you make your own luck. My first job here was with the photographer Steven Meisel as his studio manager. I was recommended by an American friend I had worked with in Australia. If I hadn’t been right for the job Steven wouldn't have hired me.
Best part about working and living in New York. The energy - anything is possible.
Worst part about working and living in New York. The flight home to Australia.
Where are you from in Australia and what do you most miss about it? Melbourne. I miss my family the most.
What prompted you to launch the foundation and how will it operate? It is very hard when you first get here. There is a culture shock, namely that everything is not what you see on television. Australians have a unique sensibility and outlook and en masse we are a powerful entity. We wanted to encourage young Australians to be proud of the heritage here and draw on that to make their path in the US and as well create a way for Australians living in Australia to get great work experience here and bring it back home.
And so to the new Calvin Klein Jeans video which has been picked up very quickly since its launch on WWD overnight. Normally I try not to touch the same material that bigger blogs are discussing, because well, I assume that many of frockwriter’s readers have already seen the story there and I try to do new material. But the CK video is interesting for several reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that a big deal seems to be being made out of the video being “banned” from even late night cable tv in the US - and now, it seems, even restricted by the YouTube community. (UPDATE 31/1: VIDEO SINCE DISABLED BY CK. PLEASE GO TO CALVINKLEIN.COM OR CLICK THIS WWD LINK TO SEE THE VIDEO).
The grainy video, shot by Steven Meisel, depicts a group of women and men, half-naked save for their Calvin Klein Jeans, writhing on a couch as if engaging in foreplay for a ménage-à-six.
The scene is dark, the video quality grainy, as if it shot on a home movie camera.
All appear to be over the age of 18. Over 20 in several cases.
To be sure, fashion editorial is vastly different to the medium of television. Women routinely appear topless in mainstream fashion imagery. More so, certainly, of late.
Calvin Klein runs the “uncensored” version of the Secret Obsession ad on its own website - which is where the new Calvin Klein Jeans tvc is due to bow today.
According to WWD the video will screen in Europe uncensored and Calvin Klein is working on an edited version to screen on cable in the US.
This campaign is tame compared with Meisel’s recent "dogging" editorial in V Magazine, in which a number of models - including Selezneva and Chabanenko - simulated sexually explicit acts in semi-public places.
The latter editorial was reportedly originally turned down by Vogue Italia.
But the Calvin Klein Jeans campaign does look like an audition for a porn movie - an industry in which Selezneva, Chabanenko, Jagodzinska and co might ostensibly have found themselves ensnared, were it not for the fact they were plucked from east European obscurity by international model scouts on the lookout for new talent.
Calvin Klein is by no means the only fashion or beauty company to use sex and soft porn to sell its products. From Tom Ford to American Apparel and Estee Lauder, the list seems endless.
But at least Calvin Klein can claim the soft porn genre is part of the company's brand DNA.
Launching his company in 1968 with startup capital of US$10,000, Calvin Klein sold the business to Phillips-Van-Heusen for US$700million in 2002 - excluding the jeans, underwear and swimwear businesses, which were at that time owned by Warnaco.
Klein originally made his name with his minimalist sportswear collections, which earned him the nickname of "Calvin Clean".
But he essentially made his fortune as Calvin Dirty, growing the business via the far more lucrative high volume categories of denim, underwear and fragrance which were promoted via "hot", sexually-charged imagery. The bigger the controversy, the greater the publicity.
Klein's most controversial campaigns involved minors.
In 1980, 15 year-old Brooke Shields appeared in a series of Calvin Klein Jeans advertisements, famously proclaiming that “nothing” comes between her and her Calvins. In one tvc Shields is sitting in jeans with her legs splayed before the camera.
It is difficult to imagine these ads even getting to air today. But then it is also difficult to imagine Louis Malle’s 1978 film Pretty Baby being made today without considerable fuss. In the film, the then 12 year old Shields plays a child prostitute, including some nude scenes.
The Brooke Shields ads were reportedly pulled by all three of the tv networks on which they aired.
Here are three of the videos:
WWD reports that the new Steven Meisel campaign is the first Calvin Klein Jeans commercial produced for television since the 1980s.
However Meisel was the author of the so-called 1995 “kiddie porn” campaign for Calvin Klein Jeans, which reportedly included tvcs (as opposed to cinema spots).
Originally inspired by an editorial shot earlier that year by Meisel for Italy's L'Uomo Vogue, teenagers as young as 15 were interviewed by an anonymous sleazy videographer, as if participating in an adult film audition.
Said to be inspired by "picture set" pornography of the '60s and staged with a wood-panelled 'basement' backdrop, the models cavort, and in some cases, squirm, before the camera.
In the print version, some models were pictured with their legs spread and their underwear showing.
In the video, a voiceover interjects with comments such as:
“You got a real nice look. How old are you? Are you strong? You think you could rip that shirt off of you? That's a real nice body. You work out? I can tell."
"express the spirit, independence and inner worth of today's young people."
Glancing back at the clips now however via YouTube (see below), it's not youthful independence and inner worth which seem to be being celebrated here, as much as human merchandise and the power trip of a sexual predator.
After sparking an outcry from conservative groups, criticism from President Clinton and even an FBI child pornography probe, the campaign was eventually withdrawn.
Just three months later Klein was obliged to withdraw a second campaign, after coming under fire over a new Calvin Klein Underwear image.
Shot by Tiziano Magni, the campaign included a provocative image of 20 year-old American model Joel West sitting with his legs spread wide open before the camera. Some suggested that West looked aroused.
In February 1999, apparently oblivious to the perimeters of his soft porn franchise, Klein did not blink when enlisting the services of Mario Testino to photograph a series of small children clad in only their CK knickers to promote his new childrens line.
"intended to show children smiling, laughing and just being themselves. We wanted to capture the same warmth and spontaneity that you find in a family snapshot".
However the images (^), which were published in fullpage spreads in both The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living and were due to appear on a giant Times Square billboard, prompted yet more controversy. Morality in Media president Robert Peters said at the time, "At Calvin Klein, nothing is innocent."
The campaign was withdrawn within 24 hours.
Noted Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in The New York Times, prior to the announcement of the decision to withdraw the campaign:
"I think they're in very bad taste. But I can't stop them. I mean, there's the First Amendment."
