Case closed: Jenna Sauers is Tatiana Anymodel

nikola tamindzic/jezebel


So the Tatiana mystery appears to be finally solved. In a coming-out essay on Jezebel today entitled "I am the anonymous model", New Zealander Jenna Sauers reveals that she is Tatiana Anymodel, the anonymous model behind the site's Modelslips column - as frockwriter long suspected to be the case.

The Tatiana mystery - about to be solved

nikola tamindzic

Frockwriter has had some fun over the past 12 months trying to ascertain the identity of the mysterious "Tatiana Anymodel" who writes anonymously about the modelling business - and, increasingly, general fashion - for Nick Denton's high-profile, New York-based womens' blog Jezebel. In fact we devoted five posts to the subject. Our best shot was Kiwi Jenna Sauers, even though Sauers repeatedly denied she was Tatiana, both in comments on this blog and in person, when we bumped into her at last September's New Zealand Fashion Week. Well Jezebel is about to finally unmask Tatiana. And this teaser that appears on the blog of Gawker photographer Nikola Tamindzic tells us three things: Tatiana is white, with brown hair and a rather strong jaw. Compare this shot to a portrait of Sauers that we took in Auckland after the Zambesi show (below). If it is indeed Sauers, this is a big story for New Zealand. UPDATE 22/7: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.

Moe better clues?

There are probably a gazillion reasons why Jenna Sauers would be photographed at a party in NYC with her arm around someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jezebel founding editor Moe Tkacik (R^). Being Jezebel’s model mole Tatiana could be one of them. UPDATE 22/07/09: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.

I didn't go out of my way looking for this picture. It simply landed in my inbox this week, sent by someone who has been following the Tatiana story. It's no smoking gun - but interesting, nonetheless.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with this story, the fashion world continues to be intrigued by the anonymous model who has been dishing on the biz in the Modelslips column on the high profile, Gawker Media-owned womens blog Jezebel.

Discussion had been raging for months when I first touched on Modelslips in a post on July 16.

On July 19, I named Sauers as one of three Tatiana suspects – based on industry buzz and online speculation.

On August 1 I mentioned that a major international book publisher had been on frockwriter, looking specifically at the July 19 post – and speculated that there might be a book deal in the pipeline for the Modelslips author.

Sauers has repeatedly denied that she is Tatiana, on The Fashion Spot web forum, on her own blog, on frockwriter – and yet again in Auckland one week ago, in an interview that I did with Sauers at New Zealand Fashion Week, which coincidentally, we both attended.

In the interview, not only did Sauers categorically deny that she is Tatiana, she also cast aspersions on Tatiana's tangled web of deception.

Sauers told me:

"I’d be a bit worried if I were her....I don’t want to criticise her or anything but there’s a slight element of almost… It seems like it might be in, I don’t want to say poor taste but almost. You’re in this industry and you’re working with clients on an understanding and then to turn around and write about it in secret, I don’t know… I have respect for that but I also would be concerned."

Whoever Tatiana is, she does seem to have something of a conflict going on here.

Tatiana has two clients: fashion companies, whose remuneration she accepts.

And a media outlet. Which is paying her to dish dirt.


ali michael, fendi SS09/style.com

Ali Michael, meanwhile, was gobsmacked to find her previously 'secret' eating disorder and Paris show snubs intel outed by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

Who tipped off the WSJ? Michael's mother, who reportedly complained about her daughter's lack of Paris runway work and health problems to a WSJ writer.

In web forum comments Michael's mother later described the WSJ coverage as "sensationalised". That's the term many use to describe negative media coverage - particularly those in the fashion business. Which of course, runs on spin and hype.

Michael went to ground, reemerging several months later to go public in Teen Vogue and on The Today Show, about her eating disorder and the pressures on models to be thin.

Many predicted that this might be the end of Michael's career.

Michael has however been omnipresent on the SS09 runways, including this week's big ticket Burberry and Fendi shows in Milan.

On the record: Jenna Sauers

I spotted an eerily familiar face on the runway at the Lonely Hearts show on Thursday. I raced backstage but failed to locate the model in question. One look at the model cue card however semi-confirmed my suspicions: the name “Jenna”. Yep, the one and only Jenna Sauers was in town for New Zealand Fashion Week. Had I been properly on the air 24/7 last week – instead of having wifi access limited to mad dashes to the media centre to file in between shows - I would have twigged that Sauers had in fact been blogging throughout the event herself. Under her own name that is – on her own blog, which I read. As opposed to blogging under the pseudonym "Tatiana". UPDATE 22/07/09: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.

Some of course are already aware that the NZ expat has enjoyed some publicity of late as a potential “Tatiana” – the anonymous model who has been blogging about the modelling industry via a column called Modelslips on high profile New York women’s blog Jezebel.

This is in spite of the fact that Sauers has publically denied that she is Tatiana.

Frockwriter has been covering the Tatiana story over the past two months – with Sauers herself also leaving comments at one point to further refute the claims.

Spotting Sauers again on Zambesi’s runway on Thursday night, I ran backstage to find her - this time, successfully. And was fascinated to learn that Sauers is now being repped by the Chic/Next amalgam.

Here’s our quick chat.



So are you Tatiana?
Jenna Sauers: No, sorry.

Are you at all flattered that people think you might be?
I don’t know. To a certain extent, perhaps flattered to be mistaken as a candidate is nice because I guess….I mean she’s a good writer.

But would you tell me if you were Tatiana?
Oh God no, of course not. I mean, would you? Seriously. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not. I kind of wish I’d thought up that gig though. Because it sounds sort of sweet to write for such a large readership.

So, any ideas?
I don’t know. Someone told me that they thought it was another girl from Iowa named Shea.

Shea Prueger. I mentioned her in the original post. The writing style is completely different.
Now that I’ve seen her blog, I see that it’s not the same writing style.

Another candidate is Emina Cunmulaj – who seemed to be absent from the New York season. But it could still be you of course.
You keep on saying that like you think you’re going to get….

Have you been contacted by anyone who thinks that you might be Tatiana? I mentioned that a large international publisher was on my blog one day looking at that specific thread, nothing else.
No, my blog is refreshingly poorly read. I think 95percent of my comments come from my friends and family.

But you use Sitemeter/Google Analytics etc don’t you? It’s about the traffic, it’s not about the comments.
I get about 200 page views a day most days. It’s nothing. I’m not very technologically with-it. I barely know how to post photos. I had to learn how to do that.

So what was the skeleton shoot you did in Australia? You mentioned it on your blog.
Yes it was hilarious. I think I’m going to be a window decal.

Who was it for?
For General Pants. The tagline is ‘Come alive’.

How often do you come to New Zealand?
It has been since January 2003 [since she has been back to NZ]. I was born in the US and moved here when I was an infant. Grew up here. Lived in Morocco when I was 10. Came back here for Year 8. Went to high school here then was an exchange student in Switzerland, went to the US to university and have been travelling since then.

So why aren’t you doing the ready-to-wear show circuit?
I’ve been working in New York all summer, which was a long time. I mean I love New York but it gets a bit much after a while. I popped over to Milan for a month but it didn’t feel like that much of a break or a change of scene even. And the chance came up to come to Sydney, which seemed like a totally different thing. It was to do with Chic, which I knew was a fantastic agency.

So you’re with Chic now? You weren’t represented in Australia before?
I’d never worked there.

Did Chic contact you as a result of the Jezebel publicity? [Auckland's Nova Models did in fact seek to contact Sauers as a result of the publicity]
I don’t think so. As far as I know I’m with Chic because Stephen [Lee] at Next in New York used to be with Chic.

But they only just contacted you?
Yeah.

Coincidentally, Chic reads the blog – at least I know that [Chic director] Kathy Ward does.
Actually, that’s one thing I’m kind of happy about. This whole misunderstanding…. Yours is a pretty cool fashion blog, which I now have to read. But thanks – again.

Chic/Next are very good at getting the word out about their models.
I’ve been loving Sydney.

You’re not moving back are you?
No – no. I’m going back to New York in November. I know it’s always a kind of decision that can backfire, to sit out the ready to wear season. But I think this way, I mean I’ve done basically all editorials in Sydney and even shot one here this week. Oyster, In Style, Karen magazine… By the time I get back to New York for the January shows, my book is going to be basically all new.

You could be Chic/Next’s new supermodel.
Well [laughs] we’ll see about that. I would be totally happy just to continue doing this for a while. I love to travel and it’s a brilliant lifestyle when it works.

So tell me about the writing. You have worked professionally haven’t you?
It depends what you call professionally. I wrote book reviews for my college newspaper. I interned at a literary magazine called The Believer, which probably about five people read in San Francisco. It’s a wonderful magazine. I haven’t done any other writing. I would like to be a writer. Probably some form of book critic at some point. That’s really my first love. I said no to fiction before but… one day I might want to write some fiction. We’ll see.

What about a record of your time as a model?
I don’t know – a lot of people write that book.

Who?
Paulina Porizkova…

I’m talking about a well-written book from an insider’s point of view – not just some celebrity book.
That would be interesting. I mean, If I thought I could do a good job, that might be a project I’d want to crack. But then there’s that whole being confident that you’re going to do a good job. Maybe in a few years…

With all the speculation about you potentially being Tatiana, has anyone you work with seemed a little nervous lately? There was that great ‘cokeblown oaf of a booker’ line.
Is that what she said? Oh my God. That’s hilarious. I hope her booker never finds out. What was the question again?

Has all the speculation about you potentially being Tatiana made anyone nervous?
Actually Stephen Lee one time earlier this summer, it was really funny. He caught me in the elevator of the Next building in New York. And I was changing my shoes. Because every model wears, like, flip flops to walk around in and then we change into these giraffe pedestal shoes.

The kind of shoes that models regularly fall off while they’re walking on runways.
Yes, exactly. And I was changing in the elevator and I was squatting down, in this awkward position, trying to get my laces off and my straps buckled. And Stephen hops in the lift and he says, ‘Oh Jenna, you’re such a funny model. Sometimes I look at you and I think you’re secretly a journalist just going to write a book about us all’. And I was like……’OK!’.

That’s hilarious really.
It was just the compromising position and the borderline embarrassment of just feeling mid-transition from street person to… Everybody knows I went to university and studied English and that, I suppose, between signing with Mother [Model Management] and signing with Elite in Paris, there was about a two month period where I was living in San Francisco and not modelling at all and calling myself a freelance writer. Which mainly meant that I had a shitty day job and sent out a lot of query letters which never got a single response. So they know that I have that history with writing. If you want to call it that. [I wrote] ‘Please, please, please publish my book review. Please let me preview this band that’s playing in three weeks in this shitty venue that a hundred people will see’. That kind of regular grunt stuff which never even went anywhere. So I’m assuming that’s why Stephen said that. I don’t know. I didn’t ask him about it. I just laughed and he laughed.

Some people seem convinced that it’s you. I’m talking about Fashinfags, The Fashion Spot...
I don’t really pay attention to that stuff.

Whoever it is, it’s interesting – as are the model blogs. This is an industry which revolves around women and which uses women to promote its products. Their stories are interesting.
It’s true. We come from all over the world and we live such transient lifestyles.

So Jezebel hasn’t told you to like, keep it on the downlow for a season? You know – disappear downunder for a moment, noone will ever know, they’ll forget etc…
Wasn’t there a post about New York Fashion Week?

No – she wrote one post about NYFW, saying how great modelling can be. She also said ‘I’m flying across an ocean in a couple days – wish me luck’. Which could have been any ocean really.
Well then why are you here talking to me? She’s in London, probably hanging out with Erin Wasson [presumably Erin O’Connor] and the model doss house she started or whatever.

So it’s not you?
Is that like the tenth time you’ve asked me? No I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you. So long as it doesn’t affect my career in a negative way, I guess people are going to think what they’re going to think and I can’t control that.

It’s a brilliant marketing idea though.
You think? I don’t know. I’d be a bit worried if I were her.

Because people think that she’s jaded and bitter because she dishes?
I don’t know.

She just tells it like it is. I guess what they’re not used to dealing with is the idea of a ‘double agent’.
I don’t want to criticise her or anything but there’s a slight element of almost… It seems like it might be in, I don’t want to say poor taste but almost. You’re in this industry and you’re working with clients on an understanding and then to turn around and write about it in secret, I don’t know… I have respect for that but I also would be concerned.

You think it’s unethical?
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call it unethical. Because what’s the contract really? It’s – you will turn up and wear a dress. She does that presumably.

But then she slags some off behind their backs.
Sometimes. Maybe those people deserve slagging off sometimes.

Journalists do that all the time. It’s our job. We put our names to it and deal with the consequences. But there have always been whistleblowers in industries.
I can understand why she would want to be anonymous.

Do you think there are some things about the profession which should be changed? Issues such as being paid in ‘trade’ instead of cash.
Oh God, if they could get rid of the paying in trade I’d be all for that.

It seems like a pretty crap idea.
It is kind of crap.

What percentage of designers pay in trade?
Well it depends. Relatively few designers pay every single model in trade. It’s usually the young up-and-coming people who can’t afford to pay money. But then a lot of the bigger name designers will pay certain models in trade.

According to Simona McIntyre, she was being paid in trade by Marc Jacobs – and picking it up in fact the following season.
Oh man, yeah, God, tell me about it. I’m owed trade from the shows I did in New York in January.

How do you pay your bills when people pay you like that?
Well, you wait for that super sweet commercial-oriented job to come through.

I guess the idea that everyone works on is the prestige of being in a big name show, which goes in your book etc....
Getting to know the casting agency, all the editors in the front row…

So do you think models should unionise?
Oh that’s an interesting idea.

I tend to think the model blogs phenom might be edging towards that because, to a greater or lesser degree, these women are talking about the industry and opening it up to greater scrutiny. Do you think it’s a good idea or not?
I think it’s an interesting idea. I would have concerns about the practical applications.

Do you think there is a lot of exploitation?
It depends. You put a lot of faith in your agency when you agree to fly around the world, leave your family, leave your friends, leave your regular support network. And give up your regular life, possibly your education. At least for a month or two, maybe longer, if it goes well. And if that agency is reputable and respectful of you and doesn’t give you the runaround, then it can all go great. But just that initial leap of faith puts you in a position from which it would be possible for an agency that wasn’t so ethical, to exploit a young model. I don’t think it’s quite as bad now as it has been in the past.

What about all the young models from eastern Europe and south America? Presumably they’re in a much more vulnerable position.
Well I don’t know. There have been eastern European girls for a while.

But there has been a huge influx in the past decade, notably from eastern Europe. Most of whom were born shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
It’s true – and especially if you add in the economic disadvantage of coming from a relatively poor country to a wealthy country. But at least it’s not like it was in the late ‘90s when there was all that hullabaloo about parties in Milan and models being assaulted. I don’t think it’s quite as bad as that.

Well in fact there is an online petition circulating at the moment asking for the NYC Police Department to reopen the Ruslana Korshunova case – suggesting that it was not, as widely reported at the time, a suicide.
Is there?

There was some initial speculation that there may in fact have been Russian mafia involvement in that case. It was quickly dismissed as conspiracy theory.
That’s creepy, That’s very frightening. The poor girl.

Think about it - there’s not a huge number of job options in those places for women.
I don’t know, I’ve never been to Eastern Europe, other than a visit to Hungary once. Which probably doesn’t even count as eastern Europe, because it’s in the EU. It’s an interesting industry to work in. And for the most part, I’m a fan. I enjoy it. I’m very grateful for the lifestyle it’s afforded me. A year ago I would have had no hope of standing here now.

Thanks to Tatiana?
No, it’s not. It’s thanks to me, goddamn it!

Sure, but there are a million models out there. Everyone needs a point of difference.
And mine has to be blogging in secret?

Well you do in fact blog - and for whatever reason, yours is one of the names that has been thrown in the ring.
And I have no control over that.

At the end of the day it’s not like you’re being accused of something really bad.
I guess not. I think the people who represent me know that I’m not her so they aren’t worried about proposing me to clients. At least I hope not.

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MODEL BLOGS AND BLACKLISTS
THE TATIANA MYSTERY: IS KIWI JENNA SAUERS JEZEBEL'S MODEL MOLE?
IS JEZEBEL'S MODEL MOLE LOOKING AT A BOOK DEAL?
MOE BETTER CLUES?

Is Jezebel's model mole looking at a book deal?

jenna sauers/elite milano



If frockwriter’s Sitemeter intel is anything to go by, then perhaps so. Regular readers will recall a recent post which discussed the mystery surrounding the real identity of "Tatiana Anymodel", the anonymous model mole who pens the Modelslips column on the New York-based, Gawker spinoff women’s blog, Jezebel. UPDATE 22/07/09: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.

Frockwriter profiled three models who have been touted on various web forums as potential Tatianas.

As far as frockwriter is aware, only two of the three models already pen their own blogs. The blogs were linked in the post.

Now non-bloggers may be fascinated – or perhaps mortified – to learn just how much information the average blogger is able to glean from their readers.

Services such as Google Analytics and Sitemeter provide detailed visitor information at a glance, including not just IP addresses, but also company domain names, referring sites, entry and exit pages etc.

Two days ago, I was intrigued to spot the name of a major international, US-based, publishing house checking in on frockwriter.

The company representative had gone directly to, and was interested specifically in, just one thread from a fortnight ago: The Tatiana mystery: Is Kiwi Jenna Sauers Jezebel’s model mole?

Jezebel is an extremely high profile blog which, in the space of a mere year, has swept aside millions of other blogs to grab a Technorati Top 100 position, with an authority of 4,399 and a rank of 57.

Paris-based American model/actor Velvet d’Amour recently told me that after one of her recent interviews was picked up by Jezebel and run as a two-parter, she was pursued by two separate literary agents, both of whom seemed confident of securing a book deal.

When I wrote 'The Tatiana Mystery' post, low-profile, New Zealand-born and –raised model Jenna Sauers appeared to be the most likely candidate of the three names put forward – if indeed Tatiana is to be found amongst these three names.

As mentioned in that post, Sauers had already once flatly denied that she is Tatiana - on The Fashion Spot web forum.

In a comment dated July 30 on her own blog, Sauers denied once again that she is the author of Modelslips.

Noted Sauers:

"I’m not the anonymous columnist....There are an awful lot of models who are smart and good-enough writers to do what the Jezebel blogger does, and plenty who are also low enough on the fashion food chain for their on-the-side efforts to go unnoticed. The one reason this whole issue doesn’t bother me is that at least I know everyone within the industry knows this; they spend all day meeting models who read, models who care about politics, models who are passionate about film and who can talk up a storm on 100 topics. I think it’s just non-industry folk who go “Wa-hey! A smart moddle! With her bloggity-bloggin!” and immediately assume I’m Jezebel’s source”.

Tatiana’s latest post on Jezebel meanwhile, dated July 29, discusses dating issues.

Tatiana refers to a recent ex as “The Guy”. And she refers to said ex's disdain of her favourite author:

“My favorite author was someone he, personally, found 'pessimistic and dry', and it spoke volumes about my personality that I attached a 'talismanic authority' to the author's works and persona. ("So," mused a friend, 'if you liked Ann Rice, you'd be too much of a bloodsucker?') I have the wrong color hair and I'm an atheist lacking in appreciation for life's mysteries”.

On July 16 on her own blog, Sauers referred to a recent breakup with a boyfriend.

In a July 19 post Sauers refers to some model mates as "The Lithuanian" and "The Ukrainian".

In Sauers’ own blog bio, she refers to herself as:

“a moderately obsessive Joan Didion fan”.

Sauers also refers to Didion in three other blog posts.

RELATED:
MODEL BLOGS AND BLACKLISTS
THE TATIANA MYSTERY: IS KIWI JENNA SAUERS JEZEBEL'S MODEL MOLE?
ON THE RECORD: JENNA SAUERS
MOE BETTER CLUES?

The Tatiana mystery: Is Kiwi Jenna Sauers Jezebel's model mole?

Jenna Sauers/elite milano

This is waaay more fun that trying to work out who is/was behind 4inchnails (as one wag dubbed it). Following on from the Model blogs post, comes word (many tks Timo) of another model blog penned by Summer Rayne Oakes. Then there is the ongoing mystery hovering over the real identity of the author of the hugely-entertaining – and well-written - Modelslips column that is currently running on high profile New York-based women's blog Jezebel, as penned by the anonymous “Tatiana Anymodel”. After a few clues were dropped by Fashinfags and TFS, I did a little sleuthing.

The only ID info provided by Tatiana is that English is her first language and that she has “attended” college.

Three names have been tossed in the air as potential candidates.

>
Emina Cunmulaj in Stella McCartney R09/style.com

The first is 23 year-old Albanian American Emina Cunmulaj. Born, and now based, in the US, Cunmulaj lived from the ages of 4-17 in Yugoslavia.

Perhaps I’m not looking in the right places (and thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction) but I can find no reference to any tertiary education – or indeed writing experience, blogging or otherwise. I have overheard Cunmulaj chatting backstage at shows and from memory, she sounds pretty fluent in English – with an American accent. She also sounds quite bolshie.

Cunmulaj is, however, pretty high profile and enjoys a lot of prestige work. Tatiana, I suspect, may be much more under the radar.


Shea Prueger/IMG

The second name is 21 year-old Shea Prueger: a Peggy Moffitt/Charlotte Gainsbourg hybrid who, according to model maestro Joseph Tenni, is an Iowa-born Leo.

Leos tend to love attention.

According to what looks to be her Friendster profile, Prueger is currently attending Iowa State University, studying Fine Arts and philosophy.

And....she blogs!

Two blogs pop up under Prueger's name: Blushed Out, which does not look to have been updated since January 2005.

Far more interesting is the current (RED) CHARDONNAY, which is subtitled:

“just some things that happen to me or whatever”

The writing style is nowhere near as fluid as Tatiana’s. But my God, this blog is funny.

Prueger's social commentary is acerbic. Given the age of this blog (three years), it deserves more visibility.

Here’s a New York Fashion Week entry from February 11th, in which she talks about a casting session:

“The Calvin Klein wait was over two hours. After an hour and a half of sitting in a narrow hallway on a dirty, cold, tiled floor a chair opened up. I found myself sitting across from an extremely beautiful Russian with long red hair. She introduced herself immediately to me and then said, do you have any drugs?. After laughing and telling her "no", her phone rang. It was her agent who told her that after the Calvin Klein casting she needed to go to the Bronx for a job. She hung up the phone exasperated. Is it true that if I go the Bronx I will get KILLED the second I come up from underground? She asks me this while wildly making quick stabbing motions with her hand above her head. I choked back laughter and a series of sarcastic comments. And then after a second thought, replied, maybe not the second you reach sunlight, but yeah it happens. You should be really careful. Wide-eyed, she stared at me for a second and said, this is no good".

Prueger is currently based in Taipei. This entry dated May 28th describes a nightclub scene:

“Upon arriving to my table filled with tall, thin girls in short dresses and heels - most of them younger than both of my sisters (probably), I was already cringing. When a Guns and Roses song came on the speakers and my roommate looked at me and said, see this isn't so bad, they even play rock like you like, I really didn't know if I was going to last ten minutes. And then immediately some guy walks up to me, some guy that all of the models seem to know, and offers me a line of blow. I declined nicely, no thanks. And he persisted:

I heard you are from NY. Everyone in NY does blow. Come on.

No, really. I don't touch that shit. Thanks anyway.

All right. So what about some K?

Are you kidding me? K is the LAST thing I want right now. I'm fine.

Champagne?

No. I'm fine.

What can I get you then? One line won't hurt you, I promise.

“I mean this dialogue was absolutely ridiculous. This is what you hear on TV talk shows when those tragic cases of supermodels turned drug addicts with eating disorders finally come forward to "tell their story." It's something I've never experienced in the industry. And now I know why. I don't hang out at clubs with weird, old, strange men.

“Here is the thing I have learned from my few years of working in a bar. People who always "have" drugs, are always "on" drugs, are not the biggest drug addicts on the planet. When you are doing something wrong, you don't tell anyone about it - definitely not offering it to friends and people you don't know. In the bar world, we call these guys, 'fashion druggies'".

Jenna Sauers/Cynthia & Philippe Barigan

Prueger’s name was dropped by another model called Jenna Sauers in this TFS thread – and possibly as a red herring, after one poster suggested that Sauers in fact might be the author of Modelslips.

Sauers flatly denied that she is Tatiana.

As it happens however, she also has her own blog.

In her bio entry, Sauers mentions that she is also a university graduate – coincidentally, of the University of Iowa - with English (creative writing) and French (literature and culture) majors. She mentions that she has also been published in The Daily Iowan newspaper - and freelanced.

Not mentioned in Sauers’ provided bio, but easily spotted online, are a couple of other achievements: she won a Presidential Scholarship to Iowa U – and the university's Scott Anderson prize. A 2007 Iowa U press release announcing the latter mentions that, upon graduation, Sauers,

“plans to pursue jobs in journalism”.

Of particular interest to the New Zealand media will be the fact that Sauers is originally from Christchurch and a 2003 graduate of Rangi Ruru Girls' School.

Sauers discloses to TFS that she has joint US/NZ citizenship and modelled in NZ as a child and part-time during high school.


Jenna Sauers/Cynthia & Philippe Barigan

In her blog, she notes:

“Rather than enter the writing world the traditional way — by getting the kind of assistant-assistant-assistant job that is Sisyphean in its reading but permits you to write only post-its on other people’s manuscripts — I moved to San Francisco, got a wicked day job with the kind folks at Freight Baggage, sewing messenger bags and listening to NPR and John Cale all day, and started freelancing

“Seven weeks and a few lucky connections later, I was in Paris working as a model — a job I suppose I technically started back when my eight-year-old shit-eating grin first graced department store and mail-order catalogues in my home country, New Zealand. University in the Midwest was my attempt to connect with the culture of my American parents, and to short-circuit the question of whether I would one day model full time, but the biz just keeps bringing me back.

“Modeling is very uneven: within the same working day, I might be exhausted, elated, crushed, told I’m fat, or given a job that starts now, get on the Métro, run, don’t walk! In my experience, every good model (even the most vapid) has a special preserve of consistency and solidity in her regular, non-working life: the place from which you draw the equanimity and presence of mind to deal with the turbulent surface. One of mine is writing”.

RELATED:
IS JEZEBEL'S MODEL MOLE LOOKING AT A BOOK DEAL?
ON THE RECORD: JENNA SAUERS
MOE BETTER CLUES?

Model blogs and blacklists

Self-portrait/Sessilee Lopez


Spotted on COACD that African American model Sessilee Lopez has her own blog. I’d be fascinated to know just how many models are blogging – and notably, how many are doing it under their own names. Judging by the number of working girls who have gone on the record recently about the skinny model issue – I can think of only three - you have to wonder how honest any model blog can possibly be?

Fashion is a business known far more for its hubris and hyperventilation, than its cold hard analysis. So perhaps we should forgive Douglas Perrett of COACD for his breathless appraisal of Lopez’s blog.

He notes today:

“Now in her blog she opens up to us, her adoring fans about the perils of being, not only one of the world’s it models, but one of its only black it models. Through her own words she shares with us how she broke the Grace Jones mold that so many girls are put into and rose to the top”.

I’ve had a look through Lopez’s blog and I am struggling to find much insight about the industry’s perils – or exactly how Lopez "broke through the Grace Jones mold”. Although perhaps the key here is to read between the lines.

In her first entry, dated October 30th 2007, Lopez explains she has just jumped ship from IMG to New York’s Major Models.

In her second entry, dated December 12th, she notes:

“I've been out of the NYC scene for a while because I've been based in Paris, France over the past month or so, and loving every second of it. Although, I had my tough times in this crazy city, I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Major Models in Paris are the ones representing me and I just love my agents. They work so hard for me knowing that "women of color" don't work so well out here and slowly but surely we're changing that! So far, I worked with many amazing photographers for several different magazines and I am so proud of my new work, very different from the whole Grace Jones styling that I usually get”.

On April 14th, Lopez logged a shoot for Metal Magazine in the Canary Islands. She notes that although Josephine Baker was the initial inspiration for the shoot:

“...at the last minute it was changed to a Grace Jones - a black female Ivan Drago (Rocky 3) type of look”.

Lopez breaking the Grace Jones mould on Metal Magazine/Sessilee Lopez

And on May 7th she logs a shoot she did with photographer Simon Procter - which was dropped altogether.

Of course this month Lopez features on one of four covers of, and a spectacular 30 pages of editorial inside, Vogue Italia’s landmark all-black edition. For this issue Steven Meisel shot a number of black models, both women who are currently working and veterans. The names include Liya Kebede, Jourdan Dunn, Chanel Iman, Toccara Jones, Alek Wek, Naomi Campbell, Iman, Pat Cleveland and Veronica Webb.


Lopez on the cover of Vogue Italia July 2008/Sessilee Lopez

Here is a good sample of scans from the issue on high profile New York women's blog Jezebel.

This issue is one of several fashion industry initiatives which would appear to address recently-raised concerns about the lack of diversity in the business.


Lopez shot by Steven Meisel/Vogue Italia/Sessilee Lopez

And Vogue Italia's all-black issue is proving not only a talking point, but a hot seller. On Monday WWD reported that by 10.00am last Friday, the day the issue went on sale, New York newsagencies were selling out of the issue – and that not only had Conde Nast increased US newsstand distribution of the issue by 40percent, but the company would print an additional 10,000 copies.

But there have been criticisms.

Some have suggested the all-black issue is just a token gesture.

Others, that Vogue Italia deliberately sidelined the idea into one of the year’s lowest-profile editions.

Others still have called into question the appropriateness of the “blackface” makeup in some images. And more than one has suggested that many images are simply imitations of Jean Paul Goude’s iconic ‘80s studies of Grace Jones.

Frockwriter can’t help musing that, at the end of the day, shouldn’t the real agenda here be to include more black models in regular fashion coverage - rather than grouping them all into a separate edition?

You’re unlikely to hear that on Lopez’s blog because, presumably, she’s thrilled with her part of the action. And fair enough.

Meanwhile Jezebel is paying what it claims is a bona fide working model to pen a semi-regular sub-blog called Modelslips.

So far they're not earth-shattering revelations but the model, "Tatiana", does nevertheless nibble the hand that feeds.

Of course, she's anonymous. So we have absolutely no idea who she really is - and those she criticises can't ice her out. Which is precisely what they would attempt to do if they knew her identity. The "cokeblown oaf of a booker" (and what a brilliant line that is) would presumably be first in line with the ice pick.

The journalist in me has a really hard time believing that the person penning this column has no professional writing experience.

Tatiana confesses that she has attended college, but to my eye the writing is pretty slick – and cynical.

Notes Tatiana in one entry:

"Last night I worked, unpaid, for six hours so that a fashion designer could continue dressing socialites and selling out her sunglass and perfume licenses and decorating her SoHo apartment with Picassos. I did it notionally for pictures on Style.com ("Think of your pictures on Style.com!" a minder hissed whenever we models began to look slightly wilted in the third hour of standing, immobile, in shoes invariably two sizes too small or two too big.) But actually, if you want to be technical, I did it for two slices of melon and a lipstick and a dress. And I did it because I knew if I hadn't, my agency would've been disappointed — "She's a little difficult," I could already hear my cokeblown oaf of a booker whispering in a client's ear, "how about Dasha or Angelika instead, mmh?" — and because I would've been replaced for the show in less than an instant if I had quibbled with the remuneration offered.

"Six hours.

"Style.com didn't even get my good side.

"We had come from Brazil and Canada, from the Ukraine and the Bronx. From Croatia, Australia, and Korea. We had come to work a presentation — to spend three hours in hair and makeup, and three hours entertaining those individuals wealthy and well-connected enough to make the guest list. We wore a resort collection. Although resort collections are timed for mid-winter release, they are brief, pretty, summery garments — the idea being that you pack them to take on your January cruise. This is my "career" in a nutshell: I work for free to sell overpriced clothes to the women for whom an invitation to a fashion show and a Picasso and a January cruise are among life's givens".

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