Givenchy's gender bender

mert + marcus via givenchy

With all the buzz about androgynous Oz model Andrej Pejic at the recent Fall Winter 2010/2011 menswear collections in Europe, it's been easy to overlook Givenchy's intriguing FW1011 womenswear campaign. It's not news - WWD reported it back in May - but alongside several high profile women, including Australia's Catherine McNeil (below), Givenchy creative director Tisci also cast his longtime muse, assistant and fit model, transsexual Lea T, nee Leo (second on the R, above). “She’s always been very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic” Tisci told WWD. That was until Vogue Paris just published the following shot of Lea in its August edition. (warning NSFW).

Nicole Kidman's burning ring of fire

We know about the Great Wall of Sutton Forest – a 250m long, 2.5m high dirt wall erected by Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, to shield their 100 acre Bunya Hill property in the NSW Southern Highlands from the prying lenses of Sydney’s notoriously aggressive paparazzi. Not to mention their fourth line of paparazzi defence: a line of conifers they subsequently planted between the dirt wall and two fences (to which another barrier of green shadecloth has since been added). You have to wonder what the "Kurbans" would make of what frockwriter can reveal is the latest installation to be made adjacent their property: a monster, 4m high, 6m wide bonfire, erected on the grounds of their next-door neighbour, the Sutton Forest Inn and looking their hillside mansion straight up the barrel.

From the shop floor to page one

Long time, no Southern Highlands update. That’s the picturesque countryside located just over one hour by car from Sydney, to which a bunch of Sydney fashion (among other) folk have migrated for weekends - or else, for good. Last October, frockwriter revealed Australian politician and former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward channeling Mad Men in a fashion spread for the second edition of new Highlands mag SoHi, which attracted further coverage (and demands by Goward FYI to remove our post). Nothing too controversial for the third edition which came out on the weekend, with Sydney deliveries due this week (or buy from the website). Just convos with three treechangers (James Roberts, Dave Penn and Sal Farrow), a craft collab with Tamara Maynes and a story about gardening as schizophrenia therapy. “You know, the usual country concerns presented in a twisted way” says Exeter-based founder/editor Rebecca Wolkenstein. But there's a great untold story in the edition's cover star, Sofia Olson, who also appears in a fashion editorial inside the magazine (below), shot by John Laurie and inspired by the work of another SH local, artist John Olsen. 

Tiah Eckhardt, the new face of Eres lingerie

Back in January, frockwriter first mentioned that our well-placed sources had Australian model Tiah Eckhardt replacing Lara Stone as the new face of French luxury lingerie brand Eres. Last week we confirmed it. It's big news for Eckhardt because Eres is a high profile brand and, well, the incumbent is currently ranked the world number one on models.com. Below is the complete Fall/Winter 2010 2011 Eres lingerie campaign, shot by David Bellemere, which has just gone up on the Eres website (hat tip to Isaac for the headsup). Eckhardt shot the campaign in January, three months after giving birth to Finley Victoria, her daughter with model Patrick Delaney. Just three weeks after giving birth, she shot this Alex Goddard music clip.

Australia's next top Photoshop job?

foxtel via sassi sam

As frockwriter’s Twitter flock may have spotted, last night we headed to the Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 6 launch at the heritage-listed Inglis Stables in Randwick. The season begins on Tuesday 20th July at 7.30pm on Fox 8. Although we weren't exactly invited (we tagged along with a friend), co-hosts Alex Perry and Charlotte Dawson don't appear to hold a grudge over this blog's coverage of last year's Cassi van den Dungen fracas - which was ignited by incendiary Facebook comments made by Perry and Dawson and resulted in quite some publicity, not to mention the threat of a defamation suit against Foxtel by van den Dungen’s agent. The duo ran over to crash one model shot we were setting up, mugging for frockwriter's camera, with Dawson noting, “We thought you’d like to include us as well!”.

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.  

Bluralism, apparently now also a legit advertising medium

etro via TFS

Each time frockwriter has brought this subject up over the past 15 months, it appears to have rattled the cages of the flat earthers, who like their photography crystal clear. The deluge of blurry images taken on cellphones at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in April 2009 - christened "Bluralism" - was denounced as "a demonstration of the failure of new media". Three months later, when we reported that New York’s Stephen Weiss studio had staged an exhibition of artists' cellphone images, one commenter noted “New media is an interesting, rapidly expanding force... but how does this compare to that of other entities that actually create imagery that has a lasting impact culturally”. What to make, then, of the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 advertising campaign from Italian fashion brand Etro, which bears a distinct resemblance to blurry, amateur, backstage cellphone photography? Irrespective of whether or not a cellphone was actually used for the job, or the effect was achieved in post-production, that's precisely the look Etro appears to have been trying to achieve. Those crazy Italians. Further details on the campaign, ie names of the relevant creatives, have yet to emerge.

First look: Julia Nobis and Broed Dillewaard for Marcs Spring Summer 2010/2011

In 1979, the late Marc Keighery founded Australian sportswear brand and retailer Marcs. Almost exactly two years to the day since Keighery lost his battle with cancer, frockwriter can reveal a new Marcs campaign for SS1011 - one of the best campaigns the brand has produced, if not the best. Shot by New York-based Australian photographer Beau Grealy in and around Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge and the historic Rocks precinct, it stars two of Australia's hottest new modelling stars, Julia Nobis and Broed Dillewaard.

BVLGARI's LOLCATS

Leos don’t start celebrating their birthdays until later this month, so what’s with all the lions? After last week’s eight tonne, 40-foot golden lion presiding over the Chanel haute couture show in Paris – closed by Karl Lagerfeld muse Baptiste Giabiconi in a stuffed lion’s head – comes the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign for Italian luxurygoods brand Bulgari. We’ve already seen American actor Julianne Moore nude in Bulgari’s Spring/Summer 2010 campaign, paired with a couple of Australian sulphur-crested cockatoos. For the winter campaign, which was also shot by renowned fashion snapper duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and is due to break in September issues, Moore teams up with a couple of adorable lion cubs. No idea what PETA has to say about it but if the cubs could speak, the expressions on their faces seem to be saying "MEH".

Yes, Emma Balfour did shoot Céline's Fall/Winter 2010/2011 advertising campaign

212 @ modernparty.cn via the fashion spot

On June 1, frockwriter mentioned that our well-placed sources had spotted veteran Australian model Emma Balfour shooting the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 campaign for French luxury brand Céline in New York alongside at least one other model. The first images of the Juergen Teller-lensed campaign have just surfaced and voilà Balfour, together with Martiniquais/French model Sigrid Agren (below). This is a huge coup for Balfour, who popped back up on the modelling radar in September 2008 during New York Fashion Week in the Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang shows. Pushing 40, she was old enough to be the mother of her teen runway colleagues. By the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season in February/March this year, which boasted Stella Tennant, Kristen McMenamy and Elle Macpherson, among others, Nineties modelling faces had made a small, yet significant, return to the runways - not to mention the ad pages. Here is 39 year-old Tennant in Balenciaga's FW1011 campaign.