Ryan McGinley's "suicide" video was inspired by Alice in Wonderland - Abbey Lee Kershaw

On Sunday, frockwriter posted a new video shot by Ryan McGinley that stars Abbey Lee Kershaw and advertises a South Korean fashion brand called Lewitt. In the vid, which was uploaded by a South Korean YouTube member, Kershaw climbs a building, pauses while contemplating jumping and then hurls herself into the void - with slomos of various outfit changes. It seemed like a bizarre concept for promoting fashion to young women in a country that boasts the world’s highest female suicide rate. And an even more questionable choice, given that seven models - including high profile South Korean Daul Kim – have committed suicide over the past two years. Four of them by jumping. The post divided opinion. Some slammed the video. Others slammed frockwriter, dismissing it as a non story. The latter might want to take up their beef with the plethora of other outlets that have since picked the story up. Those who linked back to FW include Perez Hilton, Pedestrian, Fashion Copious, Germany's Les Mads and Dutch news site nu.nl. UPDATE 09/08: In spite of the fact that Lewitt removed Kershaw's image from its website last week, with McGinley also having the video pulled from YouTube, the video is now online on the lewitt.kr website, complete with stills. Still no response, however, from either McGinley or Lewitt.

Super Tuesday at David Jones

 

Tremendous effort this morning from David Jones. The retailer's corporate stewardship might be under a dark cloud of controversy at present thanks to a sexual harassment suit, but as far as fashion shows go, it was the best DJs show that this journalist could remember. "I'm rolling with the punches" new ceo Paul Zahra told frockwriter before the show, when asked how he is coping with his baptism of fire. Beyond the scandal that prompted the "mutual termination" of Zahra's immediate predecessor Mark McInnes on June 18 - which culminated in yesterday's shock news that the retailer is now being sued for A$37million - the company also had to contend with the sudden withdrawal of its expensive new fashion ambassador, Miranda Kerr, just a fortnight before its biggest fashion showcase of the year, after she eloped with her Hollywood fiancé Orlando Bloom. The solution: wheel in some supermodel replacements. 

The Gap is opening this month in Australia - it's just not sure where

American retail juggernaut The Gap is leading the fast fashion charge to Australia, opening its first store downunder this month. Spain's Zara is also en route, ditto Japan’s Uniqlo. But is the first Gap store due to open in Melbourne, as advertised - or Sydney? Looking at The Gap’s website (screen cap above - click to enlarge; tks to Guy Willis for the tip), you’d be forgiven for thinking the company hasn’t got a blinking clue which city is which. Behind the “Melbourne” sign on the left are three Sydney icons: the Opera House, Centrepoint Tower and what appears to be Aussie Stadium. Behind the "Sydney" sign on the right are three Melbourne icons: a green tram, the Arts Centre spire and what looks very much like the Docklands. To Gap’s credit it did get the correct Luna Park – that’s Melbourne's version on the left. And that appears to be a sliver of Melbourne's Flinders Street Station behind that. Unless, of course, it’s Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building. Could The Gap please sort itself out stat. We’re pretty laid back, us Aussies, but there is a minor difference of 1160kms between the two cities.

Abbey Lee Kershaw helps glamorize model suicides for a South Korean fashion brand

lewitt.kr

Frockwriter can't help thinking this is the kind of PR that David Jones doesn’t need but hey, don’t shoot us. Abbey Lee Kershaw, one of the retailer's high profile ringins who is due to fill in for newlywed Miranda Kerr at Tuesday’s fashion showcase, has arrived in town looking like a rock star, with a genuine rockstar in tow - her boyfriend, Our Mountain frontman Matthew Hutchinson. Coinciding with Kershaw’s arrival comes news of a short film made by American photographer Ryan McGinley for a South Korean fashion brand. The film depicts Kershaw fleeing some unidentified adversary by climbing to the top of a building and jumping off – several times, to show the fall in slomo in various outfits. Frockwriter is waiting to hear back from Kershaw’s agents and McGinley. In the interim, it’s worth noting that South Korea has the highest female suicide rate in the OECD. The country’s most high profile modelling export, Daul Kim, committed suicide eight months ago (although not by jumping), part of an alarming new trend of model suicides – most of them by jumping. (UPDATE 02/08: Twenty-four hours later, the only party we had managed to reach was Chic Management in Sydney, which reported it has "no information". UPDATE 04/08: Abbey Lee Kershaw reveals the inspiration for the video was Alice in Wonderland).

Nicole Trunfio is "stepping in" for Miranda Kerr

david jones AW10/getty via daylife

On Wednesday frockwriter asked, Is Nicole Trunfio Miranda Kerr’s understudy at David Jones? Trunfio had arrived in Sydney a full week ahead of DJs' August 3rd Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway show – while her high profile runway colleagues Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw only arrived over the last 24-48 hours. Sources also reported Trunfio has been booked for in-store signings, she Tweeted that she was excited to be “part of the David Jones family” and she features heavily in DJs SS1011 catalogue. Well lo and behold, if the headline on a page one splash of the first edition of tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper doesn't read, “Nicole Trunfio – The next Miranda Kerr”. While inside, a story entitled "DJs next supermodel" reports “Nicole Trunfio is the heir apparent. David Jones has recruited the Aussie supermodel to lead its spring/summer fashion parade on Tuesday, stepping in for newly married Miranda Kerr”.

In 2007, Gemma Ward was the world number one model. Three years later, three Australians are in the Top 15. What are the odds?

 
Some don’t much care for the ranking system deployed by New York-based modelling industry website models.com. On more than one occasion on this blog, critics have called out MDC's 1,2,2,3 system (or "dense" ranking, as distinct from 1,2,2,4 or "standard competition" ranking) saying it just isn’t cricket. But it is MDC's opinion and that opinion tends to be highly valued in the industry. And it's worth noting that as of 24 hours ago, in the site's hotly contested Top 50 working models section - which calculates a model's 'authority' rank via their latest blue chip ad campaigns, magazine covers, major runway bookings and editorials, as distinct from pure earnings, which is how Forbes ranks models - there are now three Australians in the world Top 15. Abbey Lee Kershaw is #5, Catherine McNeil is #12 and in the space of a fortnight Miranda Kerr has jumped forward to #15, thanks to recent alliances with high fashion names such as Balenciaga, Prada and Jil Sander (as distinct from her more lucrative commercial work with Victoria's Secret, which has earned Kerr the ninth spot on Forbes' Highest Earning Models 2010 list).  

Catherine McNeil to get her own issue of Vogue Australia

coacd

David Jones will not be the only Australian fashion institution to showcase Catherine McNeil next week. Frockwriter's sources report that McNeil is the cover star of the September 2010 edition of Vogue Australia which is due out August 5. Not only that, McNeil also appears in approximately three (large) editorial spreads within the issue. It's the first time since the Gemma Ward issue of December 2005, our well-placed sources claim, that Vogue Australia has dedicated so much space in one issue - roughly 80percent of the fashion pages - to a single model (with newcomer Codie Young also featuring). One might also recall the Lara Stone-dedicated issue of Paris Vogue in February last year. McNeil of course cracked the cover of Paris Vogue very early on in her career: September 2007. And she is no stranger to Vogue Australia, having previously graced the covers of three other editions. Not only will this be her fourth Vogue Australia cover, it will be her second this year, after the January 2010 edition. UPDATE: Here is the cover, leaked overnight by McNeil's US agency Next on Twitter. And here is a behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot.

Now even Palazzo Versace's pool boy can wear Versace

Palazzo Versace opened in 2000 on Queensland’s Gold Coast, reportedly the world’s first first completely fashion-branded hotel (the second edition of which will soon roll out in Dubai). Where else would it open? The Gold Coast is the native habitat of Meter Maids – those permatanned and mostly blonde, gold lamé bikini-clad, tiara-rocking parking samaritans who were first introduced in 1965 in a bid to raise the region’s profile (and put coins in expired meters). Donatella Versace would be right at home there in other words. Anyhow, 10 years down the track Donatella has designed some new clobber for her staff. This is the first time, a Palazzo Versace spokeswoman insists, that Versace has focused her design attention on all 28 staff categories, from the front desk right down to housekeeping (whose uniforms apparently incorporate the same lilac deployed in Versace’s SS10 season) to the pool boy and girl. Front office uniforms feature structured, gathered shoulders and narrow patent leather belts. All uniforms boast the Versace Medusa logo on buttons and all womens’ uniforms will be adorned with the satin “Vanitas” bows that featured in Versace’s Fall Winter 0910 main women’s collection. Behold a first look at what we are told are Donatella's own sketches and photos of the various uniforms. Frockwriter loves the Olga Sherer legs on the illustrated figure with the pantsuit. The big question now is: when will Donatella turn her attention to the Meter Maids?

There's no other store for maternity wear like David Jones?

The KerrBloom camp can run, but it seems it can’t hide, from those pesky pregnancy rumours. This morning, Miranda Kerr’s publicist Carlii Lyon was still adopting a no comment position on the now deafening chorus of claims that the real reason behind Kerr’s and Bloom’s elopement – and her withdrawal from next Tuesday’s David Jones Spring/Summer 2010 runway show in Sydney – is because she is three months pregnant. The US press is now running hot with the story, after US Weekly yesterday quoted an unnamed friend  confirming the pregnancy, while OK! Magazine quoted a Victoria’s Secret colleague, Jessica White, proclaiming, so discreetly, “She’s preggos!”. With The Sun quoting hotel staff. Today’s mail delivery of the David Jones Summer 2010 “Brand Book” unfortunately did not really do much to help quell speculation. Not surprisingly, it features Kerr on the cover. But inside, Kerr shares quite a lot of space with Nicole Trunfio and Viviens’ Allegra Carpenter. And while Kerr often does share the catalogues with other faces, notably when it comes to showcasing the junior fashion lines, Trunfio seems to be unusually prominently placed here, which may suggest she is poised to assume a greater DJs role.

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?