Grazia stops the press

The hits just keep on coming for ACP's apparently unstoppable fashion weekly, Grazia, judging by this mock newspaper promo mailout (above) just sent to advertisers by ACP and which floated frockwriter's way on Friday afternoon. Evidently jack of all the negative press coverage, ACP decided to go into the news business itself. And guess what? When it comes to Grazia, it's all good news!

The headline blasts:

"Grabbing headlines for all the right reasons!"

Underneath, a score of more good news headlines, which include the revelation that television advertising is due to recommence in March.

Among the bullet points:

"Blitzing the newsagents with sexy solo point of sale initiatives"

"Increasing presence at premium supermarket checkouts and reading centres"

"Grazia.com.au stronger than ever - 16million page views and 1.5million unqiue browers since launch"

And the pièce de résistance:

"Advertising revenue surpassing all expectations"

Given how many names of industry experts and authorities are rattled off, it's a wonder that grazia.com.au could not ID a photograph of Australia's hottest new modelling export, Myf Shepherd, two weeks ago. But look, let's not dwell on that. With one fashion staffer recently moving off the masthead and into a consulting role - Lenna Boord - perhaps Grazia's authorities just have a little too much on their plates.

You can’t blame ACP for wanting to make its own headlines, considering how bad some of Grazia's press has been.

First there were retrenchments, amidst rumblings of 150 job cuts, at ACP parent PBL – with Grazia’s future mooted to be uncertain.

Then there was the rumour that the magazine might move monthly.

The rumour was swiftly refuted by ACP Magazines' Publishing Director Women’s Lifestyle Pat Ingram - shortly before ACP made the announcement that Ingram had decided to transition to retirement.

Most recently came the news that Woolworths plans to move Grazia from the prime checkout position in “the majority” of its 780 stores to the general magazine section, due to slow sales, with predictions that circulation figures for the December quarter will be lower than the 70,000 of the initial audit.

As noted by Australia's leading fashion media-specialist blog, Girl With A Satchel, advertising/promotional pages accounted for a mere 10percent of Grazia's recent issue #27, compared with 38percent of the launch issue and 19percent and 23percent of the September 1 and December 1 issues respectively.

“But it is just hanging in” one industry analyst told frockwriter.

Obviously there was some terrific news for Grazia in November, with the news that the magazine had “hit launch expectations” by achieving its target circulation of 70,000+ copies for its preliminary Audit Bureau of Circulations audit, based on an average of the first 10 weeks of sales.

According to Nielsen Online data, the grazia.com.au website generated 9,830,512 million page impressions in the first three months, a result Pat Ingram described as “incredible”.

Indeed some considered the news so incredible that they bitched about the figures on GWAS, accusing ACP of manipulating figures.

Friday's even more terrific Grazia news coincided of course with some very bad news for the media sector.

News Corporation announced a 42percent profit nosedive, the company's biggest trading loss in its 50 year history: a $US5.9billion first half net loss (A$9.2billion), due to a second quarter net loss of $US6.417 billion ($A9.82 billion).

News Corp’s Wall Street Journal subsidiary announced 25 job cuts, with the title’s newly expanded retail and luxury division the hardest hit. Sending tremors through the fashion business, those departing include the WSJ’s 23 year veteran fashion reporter Teri Agins, for whom the WSJ’s fashion round was original created in the 1980s.

Earlier in the week ACP’s PBL stablemate Ninemsn announced 20 job cuts.

The news that ad revenue at Grazia is "surpassing all expectations" follows the release of the March issues of Australian Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, whose bumper ad pages from luxury fashion and beauty companies suggest that both magazines are defying the global economic meltdown.

Given today's media story in The Australian however, which cites one industry source claiming that LVMH Group, the world's biggest luxury conglomerate, has cut its Australian advertising budget by 30percent, it's more than a little confusing trying to work out precisely what is going down.

Another local media industry insider told frockwriter that "distress rates" have become the new black in the Australasian fashion and beauty media, with 25percent off ad card rates offered by some outlets - with last-ditch, last-minute offers of 40percent off not unheard of.

Blue jean babies

levi's via nicola formichetti

Two weeks ago frockwriter shared Myf Shepherd's surprise new denim campaign, Superfine. But now here finally are the first shots from the denim campaign that we knew she had bagged all along for Spring/Summer 2009, Levi's 501. The campaign was shot by David Vasiljevic and Shepherd stars alongside another hot new modelling name, Josh Beech - the lead singer of British rock band Snish.

Models are now gathering in New York for next week's kickoff of the Fall/Winter 09/10 runway season.

Following on from her stellar debut haute couture season in Paris last week, stand by to see how Shepherd fares in her second ready-to-wear season - and what other new Australian faces may be about to emerge.


levi's via nicola formichetti

Swim Fashion Week: First look at the schedule

zimmermann

Frockwriter mentioned Swim Fashion Week in November. That is, the very first swimwear-dedicated Australian fashion trade showcase, which is due to run from February 25-28 at Sanctuary Cove, on Queensland's Gold Coast. Well hot off the BlackBerry and apparently yet to land on the Swim Fashion Week website, here is the first look at the official schedule.


WEDNESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY
2-10pm: Designer suites @ The Hyatt
6-10pm: Designer pavilions on The Lagoon
7.30pm: Zimmermann

THURSDAY 26TH FEBRUARY
10am-10pm: Designer suites @ the Hyatt
2-10pm: Designer pavilions on The Lagoon
4pm: Seventh Wonderland
6pm: Whitesands
8pm: Lisa Blue
10pm: Hotel Bondi Swim

FRIDAY 27TH FEBRUARY
10am-10pm: Designer suites @ the Hyatt
2-10pm: Designer pavilions on The Lagoon
4pm: Watersun
6pm: Ed Hardy & Christian Audigier
8pm: Anna & Boy
10pm: TBC

SATURDAY 28TH FEBRUARY
10am-10pm: Designer suites @ The Hyatt
10am-10pm: Designer pavilions on The Lagoon
10am: Group show (Inikib, Karen Nielsen Swimwear, Wahine)
12noon: New Generation (Sol Bellow Swimwear, April Hewat, Kooey, Aguaclara, Colin Heaney)

The Sunday Telegraph checks up on "this frockwriter blog"

the sunday telegraph

Frockwriter applauds the practise of thorough checking. There can never be enough of it. That said, we could not help have a chuckle at a communication that has wafted our way via the Texas-based language analyst Global Language Monitor, the source of frockwriter’s Fashion Buzzwords story on Tuesday. The organisation was contacted by Elle Halliwell – who sources indicate is The Sunday Telegraph’s “new Melissa Hoyer/Kate Waterhouse” (ie the paper's main fashion writer) and whose first column, we understand, is to be published on Sunday. Halliwell wanted to verify the bona fides of frockwriter’s info, because the paper is interested in the story for this Sunday’s edition. It’s the wording which tickled our funny bone: “I was wondering if you could confirm that this Frockwriter blog is correct” (followed by an excerpt from Tuesday's post).

Look thanks for the interest in the story, to which you will note frockwriter beat The Sunday Telegraph by five days. We will take a bet that frockwriter will not be getting a mention.

At the bottom of Tuesday's post, Global Language Monitor was provided as the source of the information. And frockwriter understands that this blog, along with Reuters, were the first two global news outlets to have the report prior to a wider release. We beat Reuters as well apparently.

Memo to Halliwell: that's fair enough that you might not a/be familiar with the blog, because let's face it, plenty are not. And or b/be willing to take our word for something. Because frankly, why should you?

Frockwriter welcomes the arrival of any general newsroom-trained journalist to the fashion round, because we feel the round should be accorded more gravitas. Notably, in Australia.

We particularly enjoyed Halliwell's (above-linked) January 25 expose “Dogs becoming dumb and dumber” and feel that its brilliant observations could quite possibly be transferred across to an analysis of the profession of journalism period.

From the story:

“EVER wondered why Fido and Muffy prefer the toilet bowl to the water dish? Well, the truth could be that they're just airheads.

“A Swedish research scientist has discovered that the current generation of pedigree dogs, normally social and curious creatures by nature, are disinterested, shy and less responsive to commands than their ancestors.

“The study found show-quality and "handbag'' pooches were the most likely to lack the instincts of previous generations, which were bred for their strength, hunting and working abilities, rather than their looks”.

London Fashion Week turns 25, goes to ELLE

john galliano for ELLE UK


London Fashion Week (February 20-25) is 25 years old this year. To mark this auspicious occasion, ELLE UK commissioned four commemorative covers for its March 2009 issue from four Brit frock stars: John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney and Christopher Kane. Hilariously, of course, only one of these names considers London Fashion Week a suitable showcase for their main line collection: Kane. With Galliano, McCartney and Westwood having long since buggered off to Paris (Westwood shows only her Red diffusion line in London). Knowing how exasperating some of the London PR contingent can be, frockwriter does not blame them for heading to more business-nosed waters. Here are two covers. Note McCartney has deployed a Beatles T-shirt on hers. And Westwood, interestingly, opted not only to provide a cover, but also a mini DIY manifesto for looking fabulous during hard times.


stella mccartney for ELLE UK


Westwood's DIY manifesto reads:

“In these hard times – Dress up. Do it yourself!”

With a few suggestions:

Necklace out of safety pins
Badges (preferably with political slogans)
Kerchiefs worn as knickers (good for disco or beach, or tied up as a bag)

The wording "we also offer..." does make it look like a bit of an opportunistic ad but hey, challenging times call for creative strategies.

Given, however, that one of Westwood's prefab sartorial solutions does not sound like it involves much value-adding, it's difficult to fathom why the cash-strapped would be heading to Westwood to pay full price for the look:

"Metres of precious silk thrown over ourself & attached to our body with hidden strings = evening wear"

The manifesto concludes with a plea on behalf of Westwood's fave prisoner of conscience, Leonard Peltier, the notification that $30billion per year is needed to save "the rainforest" and, naturellement, a flying cock.

Serpentine gallery

the selby

Mark 'The Cobrasnake' Hunter and his party shots of Australian models have become regulars on this blog since frockwriter first went live in July. And so it was with some interest that frockwriter stumbled upon the following Hunter photo portfolios on a blog called The Selby, a kind of Vogue Interiors for the urban hipster set. This time the camera was turned on Hunter and some family members. The photos, and accompanying mini interviews, posted in the last six months (there is no clear timeline on the shots), reveal some other facets to the party reportage king.

Some of the more interesting shots include an amusing portrait of what looks to be a teenage Cobrasnake off to the Prom with his date (pictured at the top of this post).

Also a shot of Hunter sitting on a children’s single bunk bed with cartoon bed linen. It's not clear if this is Hunter's own bed or that of the child of a flatmate.

Grandmother Renee, meanwhile (pictured below), lives in quite a glamorous Santa Monica apartment, decorated with a Chinoiserie theme.

Grandma's advice for Hunter on matters of the heart?

“Play the field. Be really sure ‘she’s the one and don’t marry until at least 35”.

Renee also makes some interesting revelations about Hunter’s business acumen, which it seems was evident from an early age.

Renee tells The Selby:

“Mark was always the ‘coolest kid’ -- adorable, smart — and very loving. He was always extremely ‘enterprising’. When he was about 9 years old, he bought a large bag of candy from the 99 cent store, and sold the individual pieces to the kids at school for a quarter each”.

the selby

Then there is the pic portfolio of Hunter's beloved grandfather “Boppy”, who signs his name on the attached questionnaire as Karl Littner.

There are some very sweet photos of Littner, including several in which he sports some Cobrasnake merchandise and one photo which may be Hunter at his Bar Mitzvah.

It is not clear if Littner is Hunter’s paternal or maternal grandfather. Either way, he lives independently of Renee - in a more modest, loft-like LA affair.


the selby

Most grandparents are proud of their progeny.

But frockwriter can’t help thinking that Hunter’s chosen profession may hold some extra significance for Littner.

Littner gives enough details away on his questionnaire to identify himself as a holocaust survivor whose moving life story has been well documented elsewhere online.

Littner was born in Auschwitz (aka Oswiecim/Oshpitzin), Poland in 1924 and spent several years interned in concentration camps.

In The Brown Picture, one chapter of Littner's memoir which was published online as part of the Fairfax Community Adult School's Life Story Writing Class, Littner talks about his grandfather Akiba Enoch, who emigrated to Chicago in 1910 to make a new life and sent photographs back to his Polish family as mementos.

Enoch returned to Poland 10 years later and Littner distinctly recalls viewing one such sepia-tinted photograph at the age of six.

Many family records were lost in the years 1939-1945, during which time at least 10 members of Littner’s family were wiped out.

But one of the sepia photos turned up again in 1970 via family members in Israel.

Through it, Littner says that he felt an instant reconnection to his identity, so much of which had been eroded by his horrific wartime experiences.

Writes Littner:

“My dignity, all my documents, my birth certificate, my name and my whole family and the life as I knew it, all ended in a moment of time. The inhumane conditions, the hunger and the random damaging beatings, sometimes over the head, made me worry that I would be unable to remember my name, my birth date, my grandfather's brown picture, and who I am.

"In the 1930s, when I was a 6-year-old child, we did not make too many photographs; but the ones I saw, including my grandfather's brown picture, I never forgot; it was imprinted in my memory forever”.

Rod Blagojevich, fashion icon?

tom ford via wwd.com


Ah yes Tom Ford has done a Karl Lagerfeld/Hedi Slimane by lensing his own advertising campaign. Yesterday WWD got the scoop on the SS09 campaign for Ford’s menswear line, which bows in March issues, stars Jon Kortajarena and Karen Elson and was shot by Ford. Ford told WWD, “I wanted to create clean, straightforward shots of a handsome man in beautifully cut clothes. Simple, clear, and fresh.” There was no mention by Ford of any specific inspiration and frockwriter cannot help thinking that the outlets which have since picked up the story may have overlooked the elephant in the room. Is frockwriter the only one to notice that Kortajarena’s scenester coiffure seems uncannily reminiscent of one Rod Blagojevich? Blagojevich being of course the recently ousted Illinois governor who is facing federal corruption charges, including accusations of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. It’s not like Blago’s hair has not been in the US news of late.



getty images via the cut

In an earlier WWD story on December 11, the flamboyant chestnut 'do with bangs prompted the following comments from the hair styling industry.

Calvin Klein’s hairstylist Roberto Nova:

“Ugh....there’s no name for that”

Jennifer Anniston’s coiffeur Chris McMillan:

“Jack Lord from ‘Hawaii 5-0’ called. He wants his look back.”

And hair stylist to Meg Ryan, Courtney Love and Hillary Clinton, Sally Hershberger:

“It’s very dated. And it looks like a wig.”

And Womens Wear Daily is by no means the only US news outlet to discuss Blagojevich's hair.

From a cartoon competition in The Washington Post to identify the best Blagojevich hair caricature, to a score of stories and headlines, the controversial 'do has evidently been, well, front of mind for not just Blago.

The Dallas News called Blagojevich:

“The politician with America's Most Important Hair“

In a story entitled "Big hair, big head, big bozo: That's Gov. Blagojevich", The New York Daily News noted:

“Now we know why Blago has such big hair. It's to cover his great big empty head”

During a studio interview with Blagojevich, The View co-host Joy Behar could not resist touching the merchandise, telling her co-hosts:

"Where do I get the chutzpah to touch this guy's hair? It's like I have this little kid inside me that just wants to do it."

Meanwhile, The Chicago Sun Times dedicated quite some space to an analysis of the coiffure, asking the probing question, “Is Blago's hair a sign of sickness?”.

The Times interviewed several psychologists, who concurred that the trademark "glossy locks...perfectly sculpted in rain or snow" may be a sign of a narcissistic personality disorder.

Clinical psychologist Scott Ambers told the paper:

"It's all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw.... This grandiose sense of self . . . doesn't carry the implication that [Blagojevich] is a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest he has a really overinflated view of his own importance".

When the corruption issues are dealt with, needless to say, Blago would be infinitely better suited to a gig in the fashion industry.

Yes we can do without: Top Fashion Buzzwords of 2009

michelle obama rocks H&M/nitrolicious


Global Language Monitor is an Austin, Texas-based not-for-profit which tracks and analyses language. Back in July frockwriter provided a preview of the organisation's Top Fashion Cities of 2008 - on which list Sydney ranked seventh after New York, Rome, Paris, Milan, London and Los Angeles. Well now here is a preview of GLM's just-about-to-launch Fashion Buzzwords of Fall/Winter 09/10. Words were nominated by the global fashion media and then run through GLM’s Predictive Quantities Index, a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print, electronic and online media. Perhaps not surprisingly in this dire economic climate, Chiconomics - or how to dress well on a budget - is number #1. Michelle Obama comes in at number #2.

We have yet to see Obama sporting any gladiators (#5), one of the biggest shoe trends in quite some time. Obama is nevertheless a Recessionista (#6) who is well versed in Chiconomics, having championed looks from fast fashion (#15) retailers such as J Crew and H&M throughout Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Designer fashion does get a lookin on the list however.

Lemongrass, the colour of the wool lace coat and dress made by Isabel Toledo for Michelle Obama to wear on January 22nd, comes in at number #10.

And the Series 4 winner of US Project Runway, Christian Siriano, makes the list at number #8 thanks to his trademark "ferosh" - a term Siriano coined to describe any fashion look that is particularly strong and which is now on high rotation across the fashion blogosphere.

Pretty sure this is a world preview.



1. Chiconomics

2. Michelle Obama

3. Sheer

4. Metallics

5. Gladiators

6. Recessionista

7. Voluminous

8. Ferosh

9. Shoe Boot

10. Lemongrass

11. Draping/Grecian/goddess

12. Eco-Fashion

13. On Trend

14. Ethnicware

15. Fast Fashion

16. Fruit Salad (or Macedonian/mixed prints)

17. Tie-dyed silk

18. Muffin top

19. Palettes

20. Tribe



SOURCE: GLOBAL LANGUAGE MONITOR

Gutter photojournalism: Zippora Seven hops on the Cobra train

the cobrasnake

No sooner does Stephanie Carta reimage herself with a solo cameo on the runway of last week’s Givenchy haute couture show in Paris, than another antipodian clotheshorse is caught offguard by Mark 'The Cobrasnake' Hunter looking trashy. The images depict the 17 year-old New Zealand model Zippora Seven sitting in a Bondi gutter, chugging back a bottle of Cooper’s Pale Ale. They were taken just prior to Christmas at the launch of Hunter’s 'Too Young' exhibition at Ksubi’s Bondi store. Considering last year's furore sparked by a topless image of Seven in Australia's RUSSH magazine - which image also included bottles of Moët champagne, prompting Moët and The Sebel to distance themselves from the controversy - one might assume that Seven, or her management, would be a little more vigilant vis-a-vis her public image.

Frockwriter confirmed that the woman in the image is in fact Seven with Seven's Australian agent Priscilla Leighton-Clark.

Leighton-Clark was unaware of the photogallery prior to frockwriter's call, but confirmed that Seven was in town on November 26th and also identified the man in the blue shirt.

The man's name is apparently Jack and he once briefly worked at Priscillas.

Leighton-Clark told frockwriter:

"Unfortunately, yes it is her. I'm responsible as much as I possibly can be, but I can't hold their hands when they go out. Zippora is 17 years old [as of September 08] and she has been living in Paris away from her family. Sure the girl shouldn't be sitting in the gutter drinking a beer. But look it's one beer. It's underage of course but I'm not going to judge her for drinking one beer".

In May last year RUSSH found itself the target of an Australian Classifications Board inquiry over a Derek Henderson image of the then 16 year-old Seven, topless and sharing a bubble bath with 15 year-old male model Levi Clarke.

Four bottles of Moët champagne were visible in the foreground of the picture and Clarke’s eyes were closed in the shot, prompting some to suggest that Clarke looked as if he had passed out.

Although RUSSH was eventually let off the hook over a loophole - the magazine was deemed “unsubmittable” - the incident prompted much handwringing from Seven’s various agency reps, including Priscillas.

Leighton-Clark told The Daily Telegraph:

"I can't be on every shoot. Had I known it was to be a topless shoot, (Seven) would never have done it."

derek henderson/RUSSH via fashionising.com


This is the fourth controversial set of Cobrasnake images in five months to involve Australasian models – and the second set of images to involve a minor.

In July last year, as reported by frockwriter, Hunter photographed the then 16 year-old Australian Tallulah Morton at a party in Paris looking inebriated and clutching a magnum of Absolut vodka.

Morton was featured on The Cobrasnake again in November at a NO magazine party in Auckland, holding what looked to be a mixed drink.

NO magazine declined to respond to frockwriter's enquiries as to whether the magazine had served alcohol to minors at the party or on other related Auckland shoots/events that week.

Stephanie Carta, who is also represented by Priscilla's in Australia, was photographed on New Year’s Eve at Club 77 nightclub in Sydney’s Kings Cross, looking very much the worse for wear and being supported by friends.

Last month, Nicole Trunfio was photographed at a party in Byron Bay, clutching two bottles of Corona beer.

The photo was published 24 hours after US cable network BRAVO announced that Trunfio was due to be the new model mentor for the 2009 US season of Make Me A Supermodel.

Coco Fan Tutte

Here is a sweet video made by some fans of Canadian supermod Coco Rocha, after Rocha invited video submissions from the readers of her Oh So Coco! blog. Considering that the eight week old blog already boasts 568 followers, it’s safe to assume that Rocha may have received quite a few. Rocha's brief: “I want to see YOU making movies of us”. It’s kind of hard not to like Rocha. She writes for, thanks and engages her fans – as opposed to penning tortured self-analysis. And she does not seem to take herself too seriously. She goofs it up. She hoofs it up Irish dancing. And perhaps most interesting of all, Rocha has managed to climb to the top of her profession without being hyper thin - indeed, even going public on the industry pressure to “look anorexic” and the retouching that is commonplace in fashion magazines. In many ways Coca Rocha is a kind of everywoman in an industry which excludes anyone who is not beautiful, tall, hyper thin – and, in western markets at least, predominantly white. Set to Britney Spears’ Piece Of Me paparazzi lament, the video was created by “olivercyyu”, who describes himself as a 16 year-old Canadian.

“A lot of time and effort has been put into this so please consider watching it” notes olivercyyu in the YouTube intro.

Intercut between still shots of Rocha and what look to be olivercyyu’s friends are a series of supers:

“What we think of modelling”

“Being a good role model”

“Can be a wacky way of expressing yourself”

“MODELS EAT!!!!!!”

“Doesn’t mean being SKINNY!”

“Modeling is for all races”

“COCO ROCHA, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!”

“You are a great role model :)”

Well, they can dream.

And with the media and retail foundations of the fashion industry rattling in the wake of the world economy tailspin, it will be interesting to see just how many marketers are listening to them.