Chesty Bond market

Australian women were all over this week’s haute couture runways in Paris - playing tag team, in fact, with their male counterparts, who wrapped up the Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear menswear season in the City of Light last Sunday. Aussie male models continued their assault on the menswear market, with at least nine names nabbing blue chip shows in London, Milan and Paris. Leading the pack, once again, was Brisbane’s Angus Low who walked in 16 shows, with fellow Brisbanite, Joel Meacock and Byron Bay’s Kye D’Arcy, hot on Low’s heels.

Low, a Spring/Summer 2012 face for Lanvin and Lanvin Eyewear, recently popped up in models.com’s Top 50 Men rankings, the second Australian man to enter the list. Low is ranked the world number #30, while Andrej Pejic is ranked the world number #18.

Tall, bean-pole lean, with chiselled features, Low – who we chatted to in May in Sydney – certainly has the 'high fashion' look.

And while other Australians are rising up quickly behind him, some may be hampered by their athletic physiques it seems. Australian men, we hear, often do not fit into menswear samples at editorial shoots and show castings.

More than one has a sporting background. Two cases in point, Zac and Jordan Stenmark from Sydney, who reportedly gave up AFL scholarships to pursue modelling full-time.

Joel Meacock, who is currently studying Sport Science at Pennsylvania University on a soccer scholarship, opened three of the four shows he walked in over the past fortnight in London and Milan, both opening and closing the Calvin Klein show as a Milan fashion week exclusive – his second exclusive with the brand in fact in six months.

"I've gone from doing nothing, sitting on my couch playing Xbox to travelling around the world, meeting all these amazing people and having these amazing experiences” Meacock recently told frockwriter, in a phone interview from Pennsylvania - adding that although he is having the time of his life, weight has nevertheless been a definite issue for him in modelling.

“Before I left [Australia], I sent off my pictures to 2Morrow [agency] in Milan and they sent them off to Calvin Klein and they said ‘Yeah, you have to lose 10 pounds’" said Meacock. "I mean I was athletic, I was a thin person. I lost all my chest and my back. That was the main thing - trying to get the clothes around the back of my chest in the shirts and stuff. And apparently my butt was too big. Which is really hard, because there was nothing there in the first place but apparently that was too large.

"But then I got over there and they said, ‘Man you’re way too skinny’. And I said, ‘What are you talking about? You told me to lose all this weight!’. I just went on this really strict diet, I ran a lot, and didn’t eat carbohydrates, typical model things. I ended up losing about 7 kilos over a month - over Christmas. My family would be eating these massive roasts and I’d be sitting there eating like a salad. I got to Milan and they told me I was too thin, so they gave me some protein stuff and told me to bulk up. All the guys were quite large. When I got to Paris, all the guys were so tiny, they were like sticks. It's crazy”.

Here are their Spring/Summer 2013 show lists:

ANGUS LOW

Xander Zhou
Lee Roach
Jonathan Saunders
Matthew Miller
J.W. Anderson
Richard Nicoll
Jil Sander
John Varvatos
Daks
Raf Simons
John Lawrence Sullivan (opened)
Rynshu
Paul Smith
Lanvin
Damir Doma
Dior Homme

KYE D’ARCY

Topman Design (opened) 

J.W. Anderson
Spencer Hart
Lee Roach
Thom Browne
Corneliani
Moncler Gamme Bleu
Missoni
Etro
Louis Vuitton
Kenzo

JOEL MEACOCK

Hackett (opened)
James Long (opened)
Calvin Klein (opened and closed)
Louis Vuitton

TOM BULL

Giorgio Armani
Philipp Plein

JACK VANDERHART

Richard James
Givenchy

ADIN TAYLOR

Damir Doma
Kenzo

ZAC STENMARK

Calvin Klein
Smalto

JORDAN STENMARK
Calvin Klein
Smalto


FRANKIE ELLIS-GALATI
Givenchy (opened)

photo gallery:

1/ angus low, jil sander – style.com

2/ joel meacock, calvin klein, supplied

3/ kye d’arcy, louis vuitton – style.com

4/ frankie ellis-galati, givenchy – style.com

5/ jack vanderhart, givenchy – style.com

6/ zac stenmark, calvin klein - supplied

7/ tom bull (right), giorgio armani – getty via daylife

8/ jordan stenmark, calvin klein – supplied