Smoking hot mama Miranda Kerr

steven meisel via mayfrayn/tfs

She has yet to grace the cover of her home country edition, but September is shaping up as the month in which Miranda Kerr hit the big time in the international Vogue stakes, with three editorials inside the September edition of US Vogue and the September covers of both Vogue España and now Vogue Italia. Shot by Steven Meisel in 3D, even Kerr’s pooch Frankie gets a lookin on the Italian cover. It wasn’t the Yorkshire terrier that grabbed frockwriter’s attention in two images in the accompanying 12-page editorial, however, but a cigarette (above, below). And it's not the first time Kerr has been photographed smoking this year. In June, she appeared topless, cigarette in hand, in issue 114 of French magazine Numéro. 

Codie Young covers Vogue Australia

Earlier this month, frockwriter revealed that 17 year-old Sunshine Coast schoolgirl Codie Young would be gracing the cover of the October 2010 edition of Vogue Australia. Well here it is, courtesy of the Facebook page of Viviens Management (and swiftly spreading across the net) supplied by Vogue, a much better quality version. Incidentally, Young wears the same embellished Fall/Winter 2010/2011 Miu Miu dress that appeared on the covers of four international fashion titles in August, twice in lilac and twice in orange. Shot by Nicole Bentley, the image is part of a 12-page story called 'Lace value' which also features Rosemary Smith.

The eyes have it: Ksubi's 2011 eyewear campaign

Given that Ksubi resurrected itself from the ashes of liquidation earlier this year, bought by a consortium for $5million after collapsing under a $9million debt burden, you have to wonder if the metal eagle on the ‘elnath’ aviators in the brand’s new 'eye eye' eyewear range is a wink from co-founders Dan Single and George Gorrow. Either way, good to see Ksubi moving forward. The campaign was shot by Kane Skennar and stars Heidi Harrington, Rosemary Smith, Dion Antony, Jann Cruraszkiewicz and model-of-the-moment (and Single squeeze) Bambi Northwood-Blyth. See below for the entire campaign. And frockwriter’s Posterous for some behind-the-scenes shots. At A$289-329 a pop, they sure beat premium jeans. Available next month at David Jones, General Pants and Ksubi’s stores – including the relocated Paddington boutique at 140 Oxford Street (formerly Kit Cosmetics) and from mid October, Ksubi's new store in the new Westfield Sydney. 

Lewitt responds to the Abbey Lee Kershaw film flak, suicide prevention experts weigh in

Earlier this month frockwriter reported that a South Korean fashion brand called Lewitt had engaged American photographer Ryan McGinley to shoot a short film starring high profile Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw. The film, which depicts Kershaw climbing to the top of a building, hesitating whilst anxiously looking down and then hurling herself over the edge, with the fall documented in slow motion to show multiple clothing changes, seemed like an odd concept for promoting fashion to young women in a country that boasts the world’s highest female suicide rate. Odder still, given that seven models - including South Korea’s Daul Kim – committed suicide over the past two years. Four, by jumping. Kershaw subsequently revealed that the film was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. McGinley has still not responded to frockwriter’s questions. But Lewitt did finally get back to us – albeit apparently via its advertising agency. We received the following response from a South Korean company called Intoo Creative. Since we have had no prior dealings with them, we did seek to confirm with the Lewitt HQ that it was in fact an official company statement. In ten days there has been no response. So here goes:

Andrej Pejic channels Ziggy Stardust for Vogue Paris

Australia’s edgiest new modelling star, Andrej Pejic, was the talk of the town at last month's Paris mens shows. Frockwriter mentioned at the time that he had just worked with a well-known photographic duo for a major international magazine. Well that magazine is the just-launched September edition of Vogue Paris and Pejic features in a 16-page fashion story called 'Rive gauche et libre'. Shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and styled by no less than Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld, the story was inspired by '50s chanteuse Juliette Gréco and '70s gender bender Ziggy Stardust and also includes Malgosia Bela, Daphne Groeneveld and transsexual Givenchy muse Lea T. But make no mistake, Pejic is the star of the story. He not only opens and closes it, but accounts for almost half the images (below). Click here to see the entire spread. And stand by to see what role Pejic may play in the S/S 2011 womens show season, which is about to kick off in New York. Not to mention the November edition of an equally high profile international womens' title, for which he has just been shot by an even bigger name, opposite a top female cast. He also features in an upcoming spread in Arena Homme Plus. 

Jennifer Hawkins puts the Love into Lovable with an Uncle Terry-style "porn star" campaign

Lots of buzz yesterday over the launch of Lovable’s new Love Colour collection down on Bondi Beach. The new lingerie collection is based around sorbet colours and so Lovable ambassador Jennifer Hawkins and a gaggle of lingerie-clad models doled out ice creams - and lingerie - from a Mr Whippy van. Most interesting of all: the set of campaign images that was released online overnight and which according to Lovable, will appear in next week’s editions of Grazia, Cosmopolitan and Shop Til You Drop magazines. Conceived by Sydney-based Studio Woo and lensed by Australian fashion photographer Simon Lekias, the shots depict the former Miss Universe horsing around with a blueberry milkshake, a watermelon wedge and an ice cream cone filled with lemon sorbet. It’s the way Hawkins is holding the cone that grabs your attention. The cone is not far from her mouth, her mouth is wide open and sorbet is dripping down her arm. The Lovable press release describes the images as “cheekily suggestive”. Everyone to whom frockwriter showed the shots this afternoon concurred they are highly suggestive: of notorious American photographer Terry Richardson. And we all know what Richardson would be suggesting the cone and the white sorbet would be in this scenario. Warning NSFW photos.

Too cool for school: Julia Nobis covers Oyster au naturel

Since she first rocketed into fashion orbit back in February, booked as a Calvin Klein New York Fashion Week exclusive, there has been no stopping Julia Nobis. Burberry is the latest major fashion name to be seduced by her edgy, tomboy vibe, for its Fall Burberry Black collection lookbook. Tomorrow, the 18 year-old  lands on her second magazine cover (after last month's cover of another, much smaller, Australian magazine Love/Want): Oyster issue #88. Here is a first look, together with a sample of the 12-page “J for Julia” editorial inside. Shot in lowres and without makeup by Rene Vaile, Nobis posed in and around her childhood Sydney home – that's her poster-plastered bedroom - with her little brother making a cameo. Nobis wears some of her own clothes in the shots including, hilariously, this Rose Bay Secondary College polo shirt, above, complete with Year 12 farewell tributes – signed less than 12 months ago. One tribute reads “You are cooler than cool”, demonstrating that well before she was discovered by RUSSH, Dazed & Confused, i-D, Prada and Australian, British and Italian Vogue, even her schoolmates thought she rocked. 

Florence and the Willow publicity machine

She's no Lady Gaga, but upwardly mobile 23 year-old Brit Florence Welch is definitely becoming a style stakes contender after the roaring success of Florence and The Machine's Lungs, one of the best-selling albums of 2009 - and to date, 2010. Handy then for Australia's Kit Willow that Welch has apparently become such a fan of the brand. For Welch's just-wrapped Australian tour, she chose five dresses from the new Eclipse collection from Willow's showroom, wearing two on her two appearances on Seven's Sunrise breakfast show and this 'Art of Shadow' laser-cut Lycra dress, above, at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Saturday night. Obviously the garments were gifted - which would be music to the ears of her record company which, the singer reports, recently had to put the brakes on her spending.

Valley girls

Had a bit of a manic Tuesday. Flew to Brisbane to moderate and talk at a fashion seminar convened by the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE. The panel included sass & bide’s operations manager Stephen Carter, who regaled the room with details of the brand’s manufacturing logistics, quality control, what designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke look for in hiring and the revelation that the latter prefer to move on to new designs, rather than repeat best-sellers in-season. Also on the panel: Brisbane-based Subfusco designer Joshua Scacheri, Ethical Clothing Australia’s Emer Diviney and Molly Williams, agent Jess Meester, Hot Tuna founder Jo Meldrum and Bright Bots designer Jodi Baker. Dashed from TAFE straight to Scacheri’s boutique in hip Brisbane fashion hood Fortitude Valley, where who should be waiting but surviving Australia’s Next Top Model Cycle 6 contestants Kathryn Lyons and Amanda Ware, together with ANTM model mentor Josh Flinn.

And now for a commercial break

mad men barbie/amc

Just a quick post to flag a few changes to frockwriter. First up, as you will see, a slightly tweaked template. Please bear with me as I iron out the bugs. Secondly, back on July 4 I mentioned that frockwriter might one day go pro. Well this is that day - at least, for a trial period. To the right, you will notice a new addition to the layout: our first ad. In the interests of transparency, I just wanted to clarify a few points upfront. In so doing, I am not attempting to criticise choices made by any other bloggers. People make their own decisions, based on their own circumstances and business models. So here goes.

Booked: Museyon's 'City Style' taps Sydney as a global fashion capital

Mitchell Oakley Smith isn’t the only Australian getting published by an international imprint. Paul Bui, former editor of Australia's longest-surviving indie fashion magazine, Oyster, now working as a freelance stylist and writer, has penned the Sydney chapter of the upcoming City Style: A Field Guide to Global Fashion Capitals. The book is being published in October by New York-based Museyon Guides, which commissioned hipsters in eight cities to write about their local haunts, hotspots and fashion creatives. Bui joins Tokyo-based Brit Dan Bailey from the Tokyo Dandy blog and New York-based Laia Garcia from Geometric Sleep and writers in Milan, London, Paris, LA and Stockholm. Designers profiled include Rad Hourani, Danielle Scutt and Australia’s Kit Willow. Interesting to see Sydney make the global fashion cities cut yet again, after popping up in the top 10 Fashion Capitals list published by Texas-based Global Language Monitor in both 2008 and 2009 (with the launch of the 2010 list imminent). 

Codie Young cracks the cover of Vogue

thom kerr

Well it seems a Vogue exclusive is not Codie Young’s only coup. The 17 year-old Sunshine Coast schoolgirl, who has been modelling for just four months and is currently appearing in a series of editorials exclusive to Vogue Australia, is due to appear on the cover of the October 2010 edition. That's what frockwriter's sources report editor Kirstie Clements told "20-30" people, including Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, at the Valentino retrospective launch at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art on Friday night as she introduced Young to the room. Young was Clements' special guest at the event. No response yet back from Vogue's rep Now confirmed by Vogue. Young’s Gold Coast-based mother agent Summer Fisher from Busy Models says she knew she had a potential star on her hands when she spotted Young en route to the movies at Maroochydore’s Sunshine Plaza in April and hooked her up with New York model agency DNA (and Viva in Paris/London), before even signing Young herself.

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).