Catherine McNeil covers Vogue Australia (again)

vogue australia via chic management

Well we did say last month that Catherine McNeil looks to be enjoying a brand new lease of life, with a new love interest in the form of 21 year-old British model Miles Langdon. And now her great 2012 run with the Vogue brand - which has seen three spreads in the Australian, French and Chinese editions so far this year - continues next month with the November cover of Vogue Australia. Believe it or not, this is McNeil's sixth cover of the Australian edition. The last being in February 2011.  

Girls on the Avenue

The beginning of this month kicked off with a manic week in which frockwriter flew to Brisbane, Adelaide and Auckland in the space of five days for three separate events – in each case as the guest of the respective organisers (but just to clarify, no appearance fees). Before heading to New Zealand Fashion Week, I was in Brisbane on August 29 to facilitate the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE fashion industry panel for the third consecutive year. Then on September 1, I headed to Adelaide to see an in-season fashion showcase called Fashion Avenue that is now in its third year and is organised by Pride Models, one of the two major modelling agencies in town.

Backstage at Riddle Me This - NZFW AW13

I loved everything about the Riddle Me This show on Wednesday. The brand was launched by Mount Maunganui-based Liz Turner in 2008 and the fresh, young, high street vibe of its Autumn/Winter 2013 collection was brilliantly accentuated by the styling of New York-based expat Zara Mirkin, one of numerous, young New Zealand creatives who are finding their feet internationally and who will bring back home some invaluable expertise. On hand were some other local stars such as up-and-coming stylist Thistle Brown - who we first met at last year's event when he called himself Duncan Lamont Brown and who we have a hunch might not be too far behind Mirkin in heading offshore - as well as hair director Lauren Gunn from Sebastian/Stephen Marr and M.A.C. makeup artist Josie Wignall. Great energy - and great backstage vibe. 

Backstage at Zambesi - NZFW AW13

As anyone who is following my Twitter, Posterous and Facebook feeds already knows, I am currently in Auckland covering New Zealand Fashion Week – along with numerous other Australian and international media reps, as a guest of the organisers. I am attempting to see every show and file in real-time as I go. I am also shooting backstage with a DSLR, but this obviously requires a/backstage access and b/time to produce galleries. As I have pointed out on numerous previous occasions during fashion weeks, when you are a one-man band it's impossible to do everything. Just on real-time access to the event, it's worth noting that some NZ designers seem to be a little twitchy regarding pre-show Twitter coverage this year. Hard to say why as it's most certainly not the first time Twitter has been at the event. Perhaps there's just a greater volume of it. If they want to limit backstage access pre-show then that is entirely their choice. Brands such as Burberry, which now Tweets its entire collection from backstage before the models hit the runway, take a very different approach. Here is the first gallery: taken at Monday night's Zambesi show.