Dogs must be carried - unless you work at Tatler

via jennifer george's twitter

There's been a death in the fashion family and no it's not another model or designer suicide. News of the grisly fate of Alan TBH Plumptre (above), the beloved Twitter hero mascot of Brit silvertail bible Tatler, who died yesterday after getting trapped in the revolving glass door of London's Vogue House, has made global headlines. While the sad story has brought out the black comic in some - "Straight outta Zoolander" Tweeted Ian Prior, sports editor of The Guardian - it prompted a backlash on Twitter (and the #condenasty hashtag) and begs the question: why did anyone think it was a great idea to be walking a small animal through the automatic doors of a busy office building in the first place? Fortunately some in the public eye set a far better example. 

Deep in Vogue - LMFF 2011

Second up on the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival's main runway schedule was the Vogue Australia showcase, featuring the finalists of LMFF's 2011 Designer Award: Melvin Tanaya's and Lyna Ty's three seasons old menswear brand Song for the Mute, which won the award, plus Arnsdorf, Bassike, Dress Up, Ellery, From Britten, Laurence Pasquier and Lui Hon. Styled by Vogue's Trevor Stones, it was an edgy showcase of exciting, emerging Australian design talent. And it wasn't only the new brands that attracted frockwriter's attention. Rachel Grasso (above) was also a standout. Modelling for four years and repped in Sydney by Priscilla's, the 20 year-old Perth native of Irish/Italian ancestry must have walked in front of our camera on more than one previous occasion. For some reason, we really noticed her this week.

Was Marion Hume fired from Vogue Australia for putting a black woman on the cover?

Naomi Campbell is never far from the headlines. On Sunday she managed to inadvertently embroil an Australian publisher in one. In a story headlined 'Editor sacked in racism row', Campbell told the UK Telegraph, "One time, I went to Australia. The editor-in-chief of a magazine there told me that she got fired for putting me on the cover. I do remember going there and saying, 'Where's the Aboriginal model? There should be one. They're beautiful women.'" No names are mentioned. But coincidentally, another Brit by the name of Marion Hume edited Vogue Australia for 18 months in the late 1990s, during which time she commissioned Peter Lindbergh to shoot Campbell for the June 1997 cover, above. In 1998 Hume was fired, following a controversial tenure, during which, it should be noted, she did not manage to stem the erosion of circulation and advertising that had begun prior to her appointment with the arrival of marie claire in 1995 and continued with the 1998 rebirth of Harpers Bazaar Australia. From 1995-1999 Vogue lost almost a quarter of its readers and two-thirds of its ad share. In 2002, Conde Nast withdrew from Australian publishing, selling the Vogue license to FPC Magazines, which in turn was acquired by News Limited in November 2006. 

Two Australians on schedule at New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011

julie tran

Who knew an Australian was at the helm of iconic New York fashion label Bill Blass? Not frockwriter, that’s for sure, until we read today's Herald Sun story. Perhaps Melbourne fashion scribes are more familiar with Jeffrey Monteiro's (above) name, given that he apparently launched his eponymous collection there in 1996. Another reason for Monteiro’s lack of a profile downunder could be that he doesn’t appear to have spent that much time here. Monteiro was born in Qatar in the Middle East, raised in Australia and schooled in India, with tertiary fashion studies done in Melbourne, where he worked as a design assistant at the Ellin Ambe label before launching his own line. He moved to New York in 2000, designing for the Mayle label and from 2005, for Derek Lam, where he was design director (also working for Tod's). Monteiro relaunched his signature collection in New York for Fall 2008 and in November last year was appointed design director of Bill Blass – which had closed in 2008, following several attempts at resuscitation. Blass died of throat cancer in 2002, after selling the label several years beforehand. Monteiro is one of just two Australians showing in New York this season, alongside another Melbourne expat, Michael Angel. Angel will show on Friday 10th with the Bill Blass show taking place on Wednesday 15th September - and Kiwi Karen Walker showing on Tuesday 14th.

Young blood

Last week frockwriter mentioned new Sunshine Coast face Codie Young. Modelling for a few months, flown to Rosemount Australian Fashion Week for the Ellery show, signed to DNA in New York and booked for three Vogue Australia editorials – with VA editor Kirstie Clements reportedly “obsessed” with her - things are moving pretty quickly for the 17 year-old. We are not likely to see further images of Young in any magazines other than Vogue Australia for the immediate short term because, frockwriter understands, the latter has her locked down on an exclusive. But we can reveal this unpublished test, shot with Australian photographer Thom Kerr in Brisbane on Monday.  

Forever Young

 nicole bentley for vogue australia/viviens

Queensland continues to springboard stellar modelling talent. After Catherine McNeil, Alyssa Sutherland, Samantha Harris and Jordan Coulter, comes 17 year-old Sunshine Coast schoolgirl Codie Young. Modelling for just a few months and flown in as an exclusive for the Ellery show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in May, on Wednesday the first of three Vogue Australia editorials reportedly due to feature Young will be published. She appears in an only-girl story shot by Nicole Bentley in the August edition - part of a larger, 36-page fashion spread in the issue starring six Australian models, each with their own five-page section (Nicole Trunfio, Lauren Brown, Julia Nobis, Rosemary Smith and Samantha Harris). Young's Gold Coast mother agency, Busy Models, reports she has been signed to DNA in New York, Viva in Paris and London and will finish her HSC before embarking on her first international show season in February.  

Vale Richard Bailey

Very sad news about Richard Bailey, who passed away yesterday at the age of 52 from cancer. By all accounts he was working right until the end. Bailey was one of the giants of Australian fashion photography, working with every major local magazine and retailer. Based in New York for 10 years, he also worked with GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue Italia, Glamour, Grazia and Mademoiselle and his portfolio of advertising work spans The Gap, Victoria's Secret, Anne Klein, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Anne Taylor, Nautica, L'Oréal and Mercedes Benz. But Bailey's biggest showcase was by far Vogue Australia, with which he worked for 31 years. You only have to check his website, to see that the local edition accounts for over half the content of his magazine covers section.

It wasn't all safe, commercial work. Tsubi's controversial 2004 'Death Machine' calendar featured Bailey's colour-saturated images of semi-clad models, including Miranda Kerr and Michelle Leslie, posing provocatively against cars and motorbikes.

The previous year, for a book called 1/1, he shot a series of edgy, black and white images of Chic Management models, to prove the critics wrong that "There are no girls [read: decent models] in Australia".

Bailey of course lived to see Australian models take the world by storm. Many of them will be toasting him tonight.

He is survived by his wife Gillian and children Billie and Jasper.

Vale.








all images/richard bailey.com.au

The extreme cheek of Italian Vogue

screen cap vogue italia

Frockwriter loves the fact that the late Alexander McQueen finally did what more than one scifi makeup artist must have dreamed of doing for his Spring/Summer 2010 ‘Plato’s Atlantis’ show last October: use prosthetics in runway makeup. But we really didn’t anticipate that the alien-esque look would be adopted quite so literally by the fash pack. Imagine our surprise, then, to check into Vogue Italia’s website and spot the headline, The Now Idea - Focus on cheekbones, accompanied by a gallery of backstage images from the show, a video and the following instructions, which naturally squeeze in as many plugs for Vogue advertisers as possible:

“A rebuilt face, yes, but just for one night. Implants become toys you put on your cheeks to change your features and live a special night as if you were a creature from outer space or a nymph who escaped from the forest. In a soft version they are more structured types of foundation that create a smoothing and reconstructive effect, while soins help features to get lifted.

Cheekbones Volumizer by Pupa acts with a lipo-filling cosmetic action which increases volume thanks to Volufiline and Kio Pulp Complex V10. You will already see the effect after a few applications.

For the treatment of the whole face, there's the Recompacting High Definition Foundation SPF10 with anti-wrinkle action by Collistar. The special formula extends your features and strengthens the facial contours, while the marine collagen acts in the tissues giving you a long compacting action”.

alexander mcqueen SS10/vogue.it

Hilariously, the story sits directly opposite a second beauty story entitled Beauty Victim, which warns about the dangers of too much plastic surgery:

“Cosmetic surgery can dramatically improve our physical appearance. But be careful not to go in for too many operations in an attempt to achieve an impossible model of aesthetic perfection. Don't become a beauty victim.

This is what happened to American socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, also known as Catwoman, who spent four million dollars on plastic surgery. The outcome? Her face was radically altered, giving her a grotesque, unnatural look”.

RJ Cutler is shooting Rag & Bone at Fashion Week

getty via zimbio.com

Just got off a conference call with The September Issue director RJ Cutler and 10 other bloggers. It was organised by Lionsgate, in connection with the release the DVD version on February 23. Over the course of the call - which I will add as an MP3 file once it's emailed - Cutler revealed a few interesting morsels of information. One of which was that over the next three days he will be shooting a behind-the-scenes of the New York Fashion Week preparations of Rag & Bone designers Marcus Wainright and David Neville. Another documentary perhaps? Kinda. Cutler is shooting "short vignettes" which will appear, he says, on Starbucks website and Facebook page. Ah the commercial realities of indie design - and filmmaking.

Abbey Lee Kershaw talks to Today Tonight

Just before Christmas I mentioned that I bumped into Abbey Lee Kershaw on a shoot in Sydney. As I can now reveal, the job was Vogue Australia's March cover shoot and I was there to do an interview with La Kershaw for Today Tonight, the Australian nightly prime time current affairs program to which I recently returned as a producer (after a ten year hiatus). The issue is of course now out and less than an hour ago, our tv exclusive went to air. Here it is.

Anna Wintour on The Late Show with David Letterman

Here is the full interview.

Wintour on Letterman: "I reckon that makes me luke-warm royalty with a whip from outer space”

The much-anticipated Anna Wintour interview on The Late Show with David Letterman is due to air at 11.35pm Monday night in New York, which translates to 1.35pm today (Tuesday) here in Sydney. CBS has a teaser up on its website which includes Wintour’s rather amusing take on the newspaper coverage of last week’s premiere of The September Issue. In response to a question about her tough reputation, the US Vogue editrix notes, “I read in The New York Times this week that I’m an ice queen, I’m the Sun King, I’m an alien fleeing from District 9 and I’m a dominatrix. So I reckon that makes me a luke-warm royalty with a whip…from outer space”. There is no embed code but you can see the rest of the clip here.

Talking dressing your age with ABC Adelaide

I am doing a fortnightly chat on fashion every second Tuesday at 1400 AEST with the ABC Adelaide Afternoons with Carole Whitelock program. This week we talked dressing your age (click the player ^ if you are interested in hearing the show). There have been a few news stories on this subject pinging across the net in recent months. Most, IMHO, pretty dumb. One thing these stories constantly seem to overlook is the fact that we are staring in the face of a generation of older, high-profile women who not only don’t feel the "older" fashion rules personally apply to them and apparently have no fear of ridicule, they are setting the style agenda for others.

Just take fiftysomething celebrities Madonna and Sharon Stone.

The first posed legs akimbo in Louis Vuitton knickers advertising LV handbags.

The second recently posed topless and looking smoking hot for the cover of Paris Match, together with the headline, “J’ai 50 ans….et alors!” (I’m 50, so what!).

American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the star of one of the year's biggest buzz films, The September Issue, is 60.

Paris Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld is in her mid 50s.

And Anna Dello Russo, the flamboyant Vogue Nippon fashion director at large, is pushing 50.

And while you would most likely never see Wintour in a pair of short shorts, leggings or a micromini – unlike Roitfeld and Dello Russo – Wintour has nevertheless been known to make bold fashion choices.

Unlike many other ordinary female consumers their age, these women do not feel forgotten by fashion and "invisible". These women are fashion.

Why do so many of their contemporaries feel out of the loop?








images:

1. sharon stone: paris match via the huffington post
2. anna wintour: perez hilton
3. carine roitfeld: new york magazine
4. anna dello russo: style.com
5. anna dello russo: jak + jil

Out of Vogue: nipple jewellery

Oh no they didn’t? Oh yes, they did. In one of the more amusing anecdotes to emerge from Vogue Australia's 50th anniversary edition, the magazine Photoshopped out the nipple jewellery sported by both Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw in one shot of Greg Kadel’s edgy 28-page Come as you are spread. Apparently it was a little too edgy for Vogue, which supplied a Photoshopped image to frockwriter. Noone would have been any the wiser had the original not been one of the shots released by Kadel to models.com on Friday (top), with jewellery attached. In a second, less confronting, topless shot of Kershaw, this time sitting on rocks at a beach with McNeil, looking like a pair of mermaids, the magazine has left Kershaw's nipple, nose and belly button rings unretouched.

Vogue Australia reaches modelling nirvana via Greg Kadel

Herewith a selection of images from Greg Kadel's 28-page Come as you are editorial starring Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw for Vogue Australia's 50th birthday edition, including five as yet unpublished images. High profile US modelling website models.com unveiled four of the images overnight Friday and they have been travelling across the net in the interim. The only place they don't seem to have had much play over the past three days is in News Ltd's Australian newspapers, which is curious given their unfettered access to the material - while every other outlet had to wait until today. You’ll have to beg, borrow or steal a copy from Vogue Australia subscribers, who receive their issues today, to see the remaining pages. The issue hits newsstands on Wednesday.










all images: supplied by vogue australia

Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw steam it up for Vogue's 50th

greg kadel via models.com

In one of those frustrating moments that one encounters whilst straddling old and new media, on Thursday I was given 13 out of 28 pages of Greg Kadel's edgy 'Come as you are' spread in the upcoming September edition of Vogue Australia, which is out August 5 and celebrates the title's 50th birthday. As I tweeted before the launch, the story stars model mates Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw, who appear semi-nude in several shots. But while both models have disrobed for international magazines, even recently posing topless together in Terry Richardson's 2010 Pirelli calendar, you could count the number of times Vogue Australia has published arty images of bare breasts on one hand. Most likely, on several fingers. It's a beautiful editorial and one that Vogue's critics, who accuse the magazine of being staid, boring and useless, might well hope signals a gutsy new direction. I was given permission to blog the shots after Monday. Overnight, Kadel released four shots to models.com so they are now in the public domain.

Click here to see the rest.

Interestingly, MDC gave its blog post on Kadel's images the headline "Rubyfruit jungle", an obvious reference to McNeil's dalliance with Australian television personality Ruby Rose Langenheim.

This episode has provided an interesting illustration of how old media struggles to grasp the way new media works.

At time of writing this post News Ltd had yet to publish a single image of the September covers on any of its websites, including vogue.com.au and The Australian, in spite of the fact that the latter paper had first dibs on images of the covers in today's edition. For domestic readers who had access to the print edition, that is.

International publishers were offered the images for use on Monday - three days after the covers were first unveiled, effectively creating a double embargo.

Fashion fans, meanwhile, have already scanned the covers from today's print edition of The Australian and the images are wending their way across the net.

So much for control.

Cate Blanchett and David Downton, the cover stars of Vogue Australia's 50th

vogue australia via wwd.com

Vogue Australia has just unveiled its 50th anniversary edition at a launch party in Sydney. And what a commemorative edition. The cover, make that covers – there are four - depict Australian actor Cate Blanchett, although not photographed, as is the norm with fashion publications. In a bold move by Vogue Australia, all four covers are hand-drawn by UK-based illustrator David Downton, who is well-known for his celebrity portraits - which have included Blanchett in the role of Elizabeth I - and whose fashion clients include UK Harpers Bazaar, Chanel and Harrods. Although heavily supported by art directors in the early 20th century, fashion illustration was eventually overshadowed by photography. In spite of the emergence of influential illustrators in recent decades, including the late Andy Warhol and Antonio Lopez, Ruben Toledo and latterly, LA-based newcomer Danny Roberts, fashion magazines have been reluctant to fully re-embrace illustration. The record 360-page edition, on sale August 5th, also features a 28-page editorial shot by Greg Kadel, starring Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw. Another story, modelled by Karlie Kloss, showcases 10 swimsuits created for the issue by Chanel, Dolce e Gabbana, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, Frida Giannini for Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Bally, Burberry and Max Mara.

In Vogue: Christina Carey

greg lotus

Christina Carey has been flying under the radar for some time. If you can call being the face of Japanese beauty giant Shiseido low profile. Still, Carey's sophisticated look - which is evocative of that of 1940s model Lisa Fonssagrives and other faces of the glory days of haute couture – has definitely taken some time to catch on. Carey’s show tally for FW0910 earlier this year, for example, embraced a mere handful of names. Well after spending four years shuttling between Paris, New York and Milan, perhaps things are about to change for the 23 year-old Melbournite. Here are three shots from a 20-page editorial spread in the upcoming August edition of Vogue Italia. Shot by Greg Lotus (with the complete editorial on his website), it stars Carey alongside Belarusian supermod Tanya Dziahileva (above L) and a third model. It is Carey’s second Vogue Italia spread this year, after Tim Walker’s Fairy Time story in February.




greg lotus

The September issue mystery

sarah stephens on set shooting vogue italia/modelfeed

Ellen Von Unwerth has already photographed Sarah Stephens twice: for the May 2008 issue of Russian Vogue and the September 2008 edition of Mixte. Now the sultry Melbourne-born brunette is about to complete a von Unwerth hat trick: an editorial for an upcoming issue of Vogue Italia. Stephens even logged shots of herself on set on Model Feed. But while any editorial in Vogue Italia is a great get for any model, mystery surrounds the cover of VI's September 2009 edition following a gossip snippet blogged by models.com’s Wayne Sterling, whose sources say the issue is “a multiple cover extravaganza” involving two blondes and “a surprisingly unique choice of a brunette”. There are, of course, lots of brunettes.

In Vogue: Myf Shepherd

vogue australia via chic blog


Well the tabloids might be all over her private life, but Myf Shepherd just cracked her first Vogue cover: the July edition of Vogue Australia. She is wearing what looks suspiciously like an outfit, or part thereof, from the Romance Was Born SS0910 show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. Coincidentally, Shepherd was front row at the RWB show at the Sydney Theatre Company on April 30th, sitting with the Vogue team. It only took a year for Vogue to put to her on there (having previously only used Shepherd on the cover of a racing fashion supplement and editorial features), but better late than never. Makes a very nice change to see an Australian model, brand and indeed, cover, on an Australian fashion glossy. Bravo.