Rose scholar: Imogen Morris Clarke for Jigsaw Australia Autumn/Winter 2012

Jigsaw Australia hired Jacquetta Wheeler to front its Spring/Summer 2011/2012 campaign. Now for Autumn/Winter 2012 the brand has tapped another English rose: doe-eyed beauty Imogen Morris Clarke. Bursting onto the fashion radar during the international Spring/Summer 2009 show season, Morris Clarke, now 19, has walked for some of fashion’s biggest names and booked campaigns for BCBG Max Azria, D & G, Jaeger London and Pringle of Scotland, among others. After a two year near modelling hiatus while she focussed on tertiary studies, she brings a touch of the Brit It girl to the duffle coats, '40s tea dresses and redingotes of Jigsaw’s terribly English winter collection. Here is a first look at the Stephen Ward-lensed campaign, which goes into Jigsaw stores around Australia tomorrow.  

Flame war - Elliot Ward-Fear and Thom Kerr do battle for Autumn/Winter 2012

Elliot Ward-Fear’s moment in the sun has been a long time coming. The 23 year old NSW TAFE graduate, who hails from the picturesque Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney, has yet to make a standalone runway outing in Australia. That’s due to change in late April, when he is scheduled to stage his solo Australian Fashion Week debut. Ward-Fear’s first two collections didn’t generate any wholesale sales, just a few private commissions. But they did score quite some publicity – thanks notably to an edgy campaign for Autumn/Winter 2011 from Australian fashion photographer Thom Kerr. After skipping one season altogether, Ward-Fear is back in the game with an Autumn/Winter 2012 collection called Flame, which comes accompanied by yet more conceptual Thom Kerr imagery. Here is a first look at the lookbook, starring New Zealand’s own comeback queen, Liv O’Driscoll. 

Is Andrej Pejic about to sign a fragrance deal?

jean paul gaultier FW1213/getty via daylife

Frockwriter was interested to watch the following story on Andrej Pejic which aired overnight on Sept à Huit on France’s TF1 Channel. The story followed Pejic in fittings and rehearsals for Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fall/Winter 2012/2013 menswear show last week (above) and Friday’s Michalksy womenswear show at Berlin Fashion Week. During one scene filmed inside his Paris agency, New Madison, a booker revealed that he has been booked for this week’s haute couture shows. One specific haute couture show is possibly a safe bet: Jean Paul Gaultier’s show on Wednesday. This time last year, Pejic famously closed Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 2011 haute couture show in a wedding gown. In signing off, the Sept à Huit anchor dropped another tantalising morsel of Pejic gossip in his voice-over: “He will sign, in several weeks, his first contract to lend his image to a major perfume brand”. UPDATE 23/02: Sources say the contract is for Jean Paul Gaultier's new menswear fragrance Kokorico. UPDATE 21/03: Now confirmed by Gaultier. 

Man up

Australian women have become a force to contend with on the international runways, now here come the guys. The Fall/Winter 2012/2013 menswear shows are currently underway in Europe and while there is no sign so far of androgynous superstar Andrej Pejic (who nevertheless looks like a sure bet for at least Jean Paul Gaultier), in his place is a cadre of antipodian Adonises with chiselled jaws and razor-sharp cheekbones. At least thirteen to be precise. This time last year, Calvin Klein booked Jack Vanderhart as an exclusive for its menswear show. This season, the brand had three Australians, all on exclusives: identical twins Zac and Jordan Stenmark, who opened and closed the show and Joel Meacock. Overnight, on the first day of the season's Paris leg, the Stenmarks opened a second show: Nicola Formichetti's sci-fi Mugler show. Meacock is confirmed as a Paris exclusive for Louis Vuitton later in the week, opening the show no less. 

Carl Kapp's couture capers in KL

via balik pulau

A burgeoning Aussiewood fanbase already lusts after Carl Kapp's chic draped silk evening gowns and killer tailoring, but now Kapp can add political stylist to his repertoire. On December 30, the South African-born, Sydney-based designer (pictured below, backstage at his debut Australian Fashion Week show last May) took a call from someone claiming to work in the Malaysian government, asking about the availability of limo parking near his Paddington store/studio. Shortly afterwards, Kapp found himself receiving a party of six and being introduced to the "the First Lady of Malaysia", Rosmah Mansor (above). Kapp was told that the group had come straight from Sydney department store David Jones, which is in its first season selling Kapp's brand. Having apparently become so smitten with his collection, Rosmah wanted to see more. After making multiple selections in Kapp's Paddington store, which was already filled with regular customers, he proposed a far more civilised private appointment. SEE UPDATES BELOW.  

To Marcs with love

Another day, another Australian Autumn/Winter 2012 campaign reveal. After casting Julia Nobis for two seasons, opposite rising Oz stars Broed Dilleward and Nick Hinman, sportswear chain Marcs upped the ante last summer with five fresh Australian faces. Creative director Rachel Allen has gone for a multi-girl and –boy look yet again for AW12, this time with four models: in her second Marcs season, Chic's upwardly mobile Nicole Pollard, alongside the 2010 winner of the Girlfriend Model Search, Jemma Baines, Belgian Cesar Casier and Brit Sid Ellisdon. Shot by Steven Chee at two Sydney cafes – Mohr Fish in Surry Hills and Coffee Tea & Me in Redfern – the styling and indeed collection proper have a cool Sixties vibe. To be sure, there’s a hint of Burberry here. And while mid market Marcs is by no means selling luxury handbags, the brand's leather goods - which are designed by Brydie O’Neil and start at $79, maxing out at $249 – are not only looking pretty sharp, but, unless frockwriter is imagining things, far more centre stage than ever before. 

Emma Balfour gives David Lawrence a code red for Autumn/Winter 2012

Happy New Year to frockwriter's readers. New year, new look for Emma Balfour? Behold a first look at a red-headed Balfour in the Autumn/Winter 2012 campaign for David Lawrence, her third consecutive campaign for the Australian sportswear brand. Shot, once again, by Georges Antoni, this season’s DL backdrop is the spectacular Seidler House in Joadja in the NSW Southern Highlands. Built in 1999 by Australia’s most iconic architect, the late, Viennese-born Harry Seidler and now operated as a private hotel, the luxury residence and its 147 acres of natural bushland setting provide a stunning backdrop to the brand’s winter collection, which includes some pretty cool handbags. As a redhead, the fortysomething Australian mother of two - and recent face of Céline - looks a little like a hybrid of Rene Russo and Alice Burdeu. But it’s just a wig apparently.