Miranda Kerr on how to avoid a wardrobe malfunction

AKM-GSI/splash news

As far as wardrobe malfunctions go, they don't get much more embarrassing than Anne Hathaway's experience at the premiere of Les Misérables in New York on December 10. Hathaway had chosen a dramatic Tom Ford ensemble for the occasion: a black gown with a thigh-high split over a pair of knee-high gladiator boots. And not much else, as it unfortunately emerged when she alighted from her limo to a blaze of paparazzi flashes - and a knicker-less Hathaway flashed them back. The photos, naturally, travelled around the world. After spotting some recent images of our own Miranda Kerr emerging from a limo looking pulled together and intensely focussed, frockwriter thought we would pick her brains on the subject at last week's David Jones show. 

Elyse Taylor shoots a Victoria's Secret fragrance campaign with Michael Bay

elyse taylor for victoria's secret swimwear

Another day, another Australian model scores an international fragrance campaign. Last week it was the Sunshine Coast's Codie Young - the solo face of Marc Jacobs' new Dot campaign. Now comes news that Sydney's Elyse Taylor appears in the new 'Love is Heavenly' fragrance campaign for US lingerie and swimwear giant Victoria's Secret, shot by action director Michael Bay (videos below). Taylor - a recent frontwoman of Australian swim and surf brands Tigerlily and O'Neill - is described by Victoria's Secret as a 'new face'. She co-stars in the commercial alongside two Victoria's Secret 'Angels', Erin Heatherton and Lindsay Ellingson.

Shaik, rattle and roll

next models

In 2008, 17 year-old Shanina Shaik was named the runnerup of Seven Network’s unsurprisingly short-lived reality show, Make Me A Supermodel. By February 2009, she had moved to New York, popped up in a handful of shows at New York Fashion Week and started dating US model and reality tv star Tyson Beckford, the co-host of the American version of Make Me A Supermodel (who is currently shooting Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model with Elle Macpherson). The pair had originally met during the filming of the Australian show, on which Beckford played model mentor. Although a contract with New York Model Management was part of Shaik’s prizes, not much was heard from her until November 9 2011, when she appeared in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York, alongside some major modelling names, including compatriot Miranda Kerr. 

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2010

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2010 screened in the US on Tuesday night. Predictably, it did not take long to wind up on YouTube. Here is the entire show, below, which frockwriter noted last month did not include a single Australian model for the first time in four years. Several Australians were, however, involved in the show. For the sixth consecutive year, Sydney jeweller Jenny Mercian created some spectacular showpieces, including this fringed corset, above. And New York-based Sydney expat casting director and show producer Kannon Rajah can be seen in numerous shots sending the models out onto the runway. 

Victoria's Secret gives Australian models the cold shoulder

manik mercian for victoria's secret/getty via daylife

Since Miranda Kerr first touched down in the multimillion dollar extravaganza that is the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2006, there has been a steady trickle of Australian faces onto its runway. In 2008, Kerr was joined by Abbey Lee Kershaw and Sarah Stephens. Last year, the Aussie VS triumvirate was comprised of Kerr, Kershaw and Elyse Taylor. No surprise that at seven months pregnant, Kerr is out of action at this year’s event. But what is perhaps surprising is that there are no other Australian models in this year’s show – the first taping of which has just occurred in New York, with another show imminent. Not even Kershaw, who is ranked by models.com as the world number five and who some believed was locked in. Frockwriter can confirm that Kershaw did not do the show. Her Sydney and New York agencies have been unusually quiet on matters VS in the leadup to this year's event - and given that all the Australians in the show to date have been from their stable, that's understandable. All Chic Management would say this morning was that Kershaw was "very busy" with other matters.

Did the then "almost unemployed" Lara Stone neglect to stitch up a nude Greg Lotus photoshoot in 2008?

celebrity69  via fashionising

Last week frockwriter revealed that the spectacular onyx and crystal corset and cuff worn by Lara Stone in the June edition of Playboy France were originally designed by Australian jeweller Jenny Mercian for the 2008 Victoria's Secret show. We also noted that some mystery surrounded the origin of the photos. Although some images had already been widely circulated online in late 2009, with only the website of photographer Greg Lotus cited as a source, it appeared to be the first time the shots had made it to print. Now comes news that Stone is is taking legal action against both Playboy France and Lotus, in order to "protect" her "reputation", claiming the publication of the shots was unauthorised and that she would never have posed for Playboy. Given the volume of nude work that Stone has pumped into the public domain in recent years, the claim that her reputation has been sullied by a nude Playboy spread seems a little frivolous. The far bigger issues, surely, are did Stone not have the right to consultation before the photos were sold to Playboy and is she entitled to remuneration?  

Jenny Mercian dresses Lara Stone for French Playboy

celebrity69 via fashionising

Jenny Mercian has made a career out of bejewelling bombshells. Since she first set foot on the fashion stage in May 2005, displaying her spectacular crystal body jewellery at a trade show stand at Australian Fashion Week, the Sydney-based jeweller has been a principal supplier to five Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows, outfitting the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Alessandra Ambrosio in increasingly elaborate showpieces (and on Friday, winning the Catwalk Jewels of the Year Award at the UK Jewellery Awards for her runway efforts). Well now Mercian can add Lara Stone to that list. In the June/July issue of Playboy France, the world number one wears Mercian’s dramatic onyx/crystal corset and cuff – and not much else (NSFW). Here is a clearer image of the cuff, below, although it must be said, it’s not one of Stone’s better shots.

Casting clout: Kannon Rajah carves up the show circuit, from Karl to Ksubi

Frockwriter has mentioned Sydney expat Kannon Rajah on several previous occasions. During 2008’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – on which he has worked in casting and show production since 2006 – and last year’s VS show, which we profiled in a tv story on Today Tonight. We caught up with the casting dynamo yesterday down in Bondi. Rajah, who now lives in New York with his Australian wife and son, returned to work on Ksubi’s show which closed RAFW. It was a bit of a homecoming for Rajah who started his career working for the then Mercedes Australian Fashion Week from 2001-2005, initially as a runner and eventually designer relations director and show producer. Victoria’s Secret isn’t Rajah’s only coup – in February he became the casting director for Italian luxurygoods maker Fendi, the latest in an expanding roster of personal clients, which also includes Gareth Pugh, Pedro Lourenco and Willow.

Juliana forges ahead

Frockwriter mentioned that Chic Management’s new star Juliana Forge walked in 21 shows at her first Rosemount Australian Fashion Week earlier this month. We were sworn to secrecy over Forge’s recent Ralph Lauren Rugby campaign, because, well, sometimes models shoot and are paid for campaigns, only to wind up on the cutting room floor. But in the case of the 18 year-old Victorian, that's not the case, because here she is in the Ralph Lauren campaign. And now here is a sneak peek at two Max Doyle images from Forge's upcoming Seafolly Limited Edition campaign – that’s the new high-end line from the 35 year-old Australian swimwear brand. It’s a pretty great get for a new model, especially considering the established names who have previously been cast: Alyssa Sutherland for the inaugural Seafolly Limited Edition campaign, with everyone from Miranda Kerr to Catherine McNeil and Jessica Hart modelling for Seafolly proper.

Add to this a multigirl Harpers Bazaar Australia cover, together with campaigns for Just Jeans and Red Earth, and Forge appears to be well en route. If not to be the next Miranda Kerr, as Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported yesterday, then at least certainly Australia's latest rising Australian modelling star.

Some of the information in the SH story is inaccurate, at least according to Chic Management, which reports that there was interest in Forge from German Vogue at one point, which however came to nought. There is no second Ralph Lauren Rugby campaign. And Forge does not leave for New York this week.

According to Chic, Forge is heading to New York in June, where there may well be a go-see with Victoria's Secret, as reported.

Chic Management and its New York affiliate Next do of course have a knack for getting their models into the VS show, so let's wait and see.

Lingerie was however apparently far from Forge's mind in 2008, when she was a Melbourne schoolgirl modelling part-time and repped by Melbourne's Camerons agency. In August that year she told The Age's Janice Breen Burns:

"I have a say in what jobs I do too - like, I won't do underwear. And I wouldn't be pressured into being really skinny".

At the time Forge also reportedly described catalogue gigs as "cheesy". But that doesn't appear to have precluded her recently doing what looks very much like an online lingerie catalogue gig for Bloomingdales.



both images: max doyle for seafolly, courtesy seafolly

Prada's curve ball: Fall/Winter 2010/2011 video

Frockwriter talked about the unusual casting this morning. Here is Prada’s video of the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show if you haven't seen it already, or missed the live stream. And on closer inspection, with all the full-skirted dresses, A-line skirts and Princess line coats – the wardrobe staples of many fuller-figured women (you only have to check the best-selling merchandise of antipodian brands Easton Pearson and Trelise Cooper, which cater specifically to the mature customer) - the brand’s casting strategy makes a whole lot of sense.

Not that there is anything remotely middle aged about the Victoria’s Secret Angels.

But their hyper “sexy” figures, which have placed them at the top of the modelling industry by way of earnings, as distinct to high fashion cachet, make them a little closer to regular women, with breasts and bottoms. As distinct from the androgynous, barely pubescent teenagers who have dominated the runways for the past decade.

Indeed, Dutch bombshell Doutzen Kroes, one of Prada's Victoria's Secret Angels, is one of several high profile models who have dominated fashion coverage over the past fortnight - over the fact they have been excluded from the runways due to issues of weight. On the eve of New York Fashion Week, at a CFDA body image initiative, Kroes told reporters that she rarely does shows because, although she might have done so when she was "11 or 12", she doesn't fit the current runway sample size.

Also on the eve of New York Fashion Week, the well documented weight struggles of Australia's own Gemma Ward were the focus of a 2500 word feature in The New York Post. And Canadian Coco Rocha was on the record with The New York Times saying:

“I’m not in demand for the shows anymore”

Although she was quoted directly in the NYT, on her blog, Rocha later claimed the story was a beatup. Only further confusing matters by admitting:

"in another parallel universe I'm considered "fat"

Presumably, that parallel universe is fashion.

Backstage, Prada talked about going back to the brand’s heritage (there’s that word again). The sexy secretary vibe and Sixties homewares graphics certainly did that.

The braided beehives seemed inspired by both Mad Men (although Miuccia Prda reportedly claims she's never watched it) and the stylish Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko (a connection previously noted by Bryanboy after Prada’s FW0809 collection).

But it also reminded frockwriter of Prada’s SS08 show, which we clocked in person.

Much was made at the time about the casting of full-bosomed Lara Stone, who also hails from the Netherlands, with many outlets heralding a return of curves to the runway.

Stone seemed somewhat larger two years ago than she is now. To wit, we distinctly recall overhearing backstage model gossip about the first casting she attended in Milan that season. “Jaws dropped” we were told, when Stone entered the room, such was her relative bulk compared to the other ectomorphs.

It is well worth noting that, two years down the track, Stone has just graduated to world number #1 on models.com.

Prada bumps an all skinny cast to include Victoria's Secret Angels - and four Australians

prada fw1011/getty

Yesterday there were whispers that the Prada cast in Milan might “shake the earth with surprise”. Frockwriter wondered if that might mean Miuccia Prada was planning to include plus sized Crystal Renn? Not quite, but fascinating casting nonetheless and it involves a hell of a lot of Australians. Yes the fashion world was gobsmacked by Balenciaga’s inclusion of Miranda Kerr in its Spring/Summer 2010 show in Paris last September. Well just as frockwriter hinted Kerr might make an appearance in Milan, she has just walked in Prada, alongside two other Victoria's Secret Angels, Doutzen Kroes and Allessandra Ambrosio, not to mention Kerr's compatriots and Chic stablemates Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw. And not forgetting Australia’s hottest new modelling star, Priscilla's Julia Nobis, who, as we reported, scored a Calvin Klein exclusive in New York last week and powered along at London Fashion Week this week, walking for a handful of top shows, including Burberry, Richard Nicoll and Topshop Unique - opening the latter two (and just dubbed a breakout star of the season by New York Magazine). Here is Prada's complete cast list.

None of the Victoria's Secret contract Angels are "plus sized", so let's just put things in perspective here. They are all thinner than "average" women. But they are more voluptuous than your "average" high fashion models, which is why they are in high demand for lingerie and swimwear work.

Catherine McNeil however, interestingly, has not done runway shows for several seasons - because, it has been claimed, she gained weight.

This is not a victory for plus sized models. But it is nonetheless a very interesting move in an area of fashion that is known for its draconian weight regulations and one that is no doubt about to be discussed at length.

Jewel citizenship: Jenny Mercian rocks Victoria's Secret

Here is another of the (numerous) posts that I have not had a chance to put up since going back to fulltime work in October. Given that yesterday was Australia Day here, this one seemed more than appropriate: another Today Tonight story which aired in late November, immediately after the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was taped in New York. Modelwatchers will obviously be more than familiar with the Australian girls in the VS show, from Miranda Kerr to Abbey Lee Kershaw and this year, Elyse Taylor. Frockwriter has also previously mentioned Sydney expat casting director/show producer Kannon Rajah, who has worked on the show for several years. One name with which you may not be familiar is Jenny Mercian, a Sydney jeweller who has worked on the show for the past five years.

I wrote about Jenny when she first showed up at Australian Fashion Week 2005, on the occasion of her first VS show and elsewhere. So this was a good opportunity to do the tv version (which I produced).

Hit up the player (above) to see the TT story.

Here are also some images from Jenny's more accessible new diffusion line Sahani - and the complete Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, in case you missed it when it aired on December 3.

Four Australian Victoria's Secret Angels?

elyse taylor/sonny vandevelde

Could Sydney super agency Chic Management be en route to supplying four Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show models this year? That’s what frockwriter is wondering, following the news that Elyse Taylor has been been cast in the 2009 show, which tapes in New York on Thursday. Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr is of course a given and Abbey Lee Kershaw is also a strong possiblity, given her appearance in the show last year and her recent VS ad work with Behati Prinsloo. Sarah Stephens may even make a second appearance after, we hear, receiving a special request to attend the castings. If all four Chic-ettes turn up on the runway, that would surpass the agency’s VS model hat trick last year. (Updated: Stephens was not cast. Only three Australians walked in the show).

Taylor is on a roll at the moment - and not before time. The face of August’s Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival, she is the November covergirl of Vogue Australia. Taylor left Australia to try her luck in the US in 2005, at the same time as her once close mate Miranda Kerr. Although Taylor has worked steadily in the interim, a high profile has so far eluded her. It will be interesting to see the two former best friends strut their stuff together on the one mega catwalk.

Amusingly, Taylor’s dad Ross is a senior executive at Australian intimate apparel giant Pacific Brands, which operates labels including Bonds, Berlei, Playtex and Hestia in this market.

Make me a Victoria's Secret model

zimbio.com via TFS

Frockwriter was wondering just who else might pop up on the NYFW model radar from left of field. And voilà: Shanina Shaik. The 18 year-old runnerup of Australia’s Make Me A Supermodel 2008 walked in at least four New York shows over the weekend: Abaete, Shipley & Halmos, Mara Hoffman and Lorick. Repped by Chadwicks in Australia and now, New York Model Management, Shaik appears to have attracted the attention of not only NY casting directors, but also the host of the US Make Me A Supermodel, Tyson Beckford (pictured ^ with Shaik at last Wednesday's Victoria's Secret party).


shanina shaik @ lorick FW0910/wwd.com

According to model blog Modelinia, Shaik celebrated her 18th birthday on February 11 with Beckford at NY resto Indochine – before heading to the Victoria’s Secret What Is Sexy? party.

In spite of her NY showcard - a mixture to date of predominantly smaller label shows - Shaik seems a little too sexy for the high fashion runway.

But sexy is certainly where much of the modelling money is to be found.

Interestingly, while already compared to VS Angel Miranda Kerr by Make Me A Supermodel Australia judge/Chadwicks ceo Martin Walsh, Modelinia reports that Shaik may now be “under consideration” for Victoria’s Secret.

How many more Australians can VS fit on that runway?

At a party thrown by New York Model Management for the opening night of NYFW at the Grace Hotel, Shaik told Modelinia:

“It would be the ultimate if I worked for Victoria’s Secret. I’ve always had a goal to get there. Hopefully this is my time!”

While Catherine McNeil, Myf Shepherd and Stephanie Carta have been spotted in several shows already, Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 3 winner Alice Burdeu has yet to materiliase on this season's NY runway.

Burdeu made her international runway debut this time last year, for the FW0809 season, also walking in numerous SS09 shows in September and October.

There was however no sign of Burdeu at the recent haute couture shows in Paris. It’s understood that she may still be in Australia.

Panty power

AFP/getty via daylife


Swarovski crystal-encrusted Christmas bows, giant angel wings, maribou feathers, lace, froufrou, highwaisted, '50s-look knickers, bloomers, boxer shorts and a hint of S&M. Yes Victoria's Secret rolled out all this, and more, for its 2008 fashion show. Recorded earlier today in Miami, the over-the-top lingerie extravaganza will be televised on CBS on December 3rd. In her third VS show, the now fully-fledged Angel, Miranda Kerr, had no trouble negotiating the runway in a pair of giant butterly wings. And by the look of things, it didn't take long for Australia's rookie VS runway stars, Abbey Lee Kershaw and Sarah Stephens, to forget everything that they have ever been told by a producer at a major fashion show and start vamping it up, blowing kisses and pretending they're the modern day equivalents of Betty Grable or a Playboy Bunny, take your pick. In a profession in which women already outearn men by a significant degree, their runway co-stars were some of the highest-paid models in the world.

Spared the fantasy outfits worn by the high-profilers, Kershaw and Stephens were kitted out in the type of relatively low-key garb that was donned by Kerr in the same show, before she graduated to a higher profile - and pay grade - within the company.

Stephens looked as sweet as the lollipop she was sucking, in a candy striped brassiere, fingerless knitted gloves, crystal-encrusted bustier and pink tutu:



Kershaw wore a sporty green and white striped bra, striped turban and a peculiar pair of knitted bloomers with "LOVE" motif intarsia:



Kershaw and Stephens were among a handful of new faces to hit the VS runway this year. It was quite a significant coup for both models.




all four images: getty

RELATED:

ANGEL TOUCHDOWN
A RAJAH AND HIS QUEENS
BEACH BLANKET BABELON
SARAH STEPHENS: EARTH ANGEL
VICTORIA'S SECRET AUSSIE ANGELS?

Angel touchdown

landov via tfs

First shots of the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. And many of them feature our supermod whisperer, Kannon Rajah, giving the Angels props as they exit the runway.

Here's Rajah with Heidi Klum:


landov via TFS

A Rajah and his queens

afp/getty via daylife

Meet the Australian at the epicentre of the world's biggest, sexiest and yes, most outrageous, fashion show. His name is Kannon Rajah and the shot above was taken a short time ago at Miami's Fontainebleu Hotel, amidst preparations for the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which is underway. A former employee of Australian Fashion Week, Rajah has carved out an impressive career for himself over the past four years in international fashion show production and casting, working with some of the biggest names in the fashion business. Before the runway shots start rolling in here are a few backstage glimpses from the 2008 Victoria's Secret show - and last year's show.


Abbey Lee Kershaw in makeup a short time ago:


afp/getty via daylife

Cue card showing outfits that Sarah Stephens (#36), Kershaw (#37) and Miranda Kerr (#47), are due to wear on the runway:


afp/getty via daylife

Rajah backstage at the 2007 show:




all three images: kannon rajah

RELATED:

PANTY POWER
ANGEL TOUCHDOWN
BEACH BLANKET BABELON
SARAH STEPHENS: EARTH ANGEL
VICTORIA'S SECRET AUSSIE ANGELS?

Beach blanket babelon

patrick mcmullan via TFS


Three days ago frockwriter hinted that, beyond contracted Victoria's Secret Angel Miranda Kerr, an additional two Australian models might have been booked for tonight's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Miami. We threw the names of Abbey Lee Kershaw, and yesterday, Sarah Stephens, into the ring as possibilities. Here is a just-snapped VS photocall on Miami Beach. Stephens is the second from the left on the first row and Kershaw, third from the left on the second row.

Sarah Stephens: Earth Angel

next via models.com


Frockwriter mentioned that two more Australians might be joining Miranda Kerr on the Victoria's Secret runway tomorrow night in Miami. Well, although it is certainly true that it's not over until they are in hair and makeup (and there are stories of girls at other shows being yanked even at that late stage), you'd figure if a model touched down in Miami on a Victoria's Secret flight, she would have a good chance of cracking the show. Eighteen year-old Sarah Stephens was on that flight so let's wish her all the best in the countdown to what could be the biggest night of her international career. Which, just to put things into perspective here, kicked off a couple of months ago.

It is also understood that Abbey Lee Kershaw will be in the show.

Kershaw could not make it to Miami with Stephens and the other VS girls, because she was shooting an editorial with W magazine in New York, according to her Australian agency.

Of course, Chic Management is going to talk up its talent. And with potentially three Victoria's Secret Fashion Show models on the company's books, that would be some talent.

Let's wait and see.

UPDATED: BEACH BLANKET BABELON
UPDATED: A RAJAH AND HIS QUEENS

Victoria's secret Aussie Angels?

abbey lee kershaw/next via models.com

The world’s biggest, and sexiest, fashion show is just three days away. Contracted Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr will of course be in it. But due to touch down in Miami is a special VS jet carrying up to 30 models who will also take part. At least two other Australian names have been mooted as VS potentials [UPDATED: now confirmed].

Who are they?

Well, although apparently booked for the gig, things can change at the last minute and frockwriter gave our undertaking that we would not reveal their names.

There has already been some online speculation that Abbey Lee Kershaw has been booked – pegged on what appeared to be Kershaw’s composite card spotted in the background of an E Entertainment story on preparations for the show.

If Kershaw does do the show, let's hope the corsets aren't too tight - because we'd hate to see her faint again.

Another potential Australian Angel would seem a perfect fit for the job. Bombshells don’t axiomatically always make the best high fashion models. Although there are certainly some who have managed to segue between the two milieus – Gisele Bündchen and Lara Stone being two good examples - curves may get in the way of the runway. They are however de rigueur for swimwear and lingerie. Let's leave it at that.

UPDATED: SARAH STEPHENS - EARTH ANGEL
UPDATED: BEACH BLANKET BABELON
UPDATED: A RAJAH AND HIS QUEENS
UPDATED: ANGEL TOUCHDOWN
UPDATED: PANTY POWER

Plenty of models do the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show without necessarily being upgraded to the official status of a Victoria’s Secret "Angel".

But it’s not a bad foot in the door.

Call the shows cheesy, the compensation for being booked for this gig – as distinct from the runways of Balenciaga, Prada or Marc Jacobs etc – is that a VS show appearance could put a model in line for a potentially highly lucrative VS contract.

They don’t call the US$5billion company a "modelling machine" for nothing. Seven of the 15 models on Forbes 2008 Top-Earning Models list – and four of the list’s top five - boast current or former commercial connections with VS.

Due to be recorded at Miami’s Fontainebleau Hotel on Saturday 15th November, the 2008 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show will not be screened until December 3 on CBS.

Coverage of the 2008 show coincides with reports of a potential class action lawsuit filed against Victoria’s Secret in the US, over claims that skin irritations have been caused by some of its products, with formaldehyde identified in some tests.