Action Jackson

johan sandberg via models.com

So the Spring/Summer 2012 shows kick off in New York overnight. As anticipated, a contingent of antipodian models is in situ, preparing to sink its teeth into the season. Some are international runway vets, others newbies, eager for a blockbuster first season. After turning down one blue chip European brand for two recent shoots and planning to wait until January to head offshore, Penrith’s own Krystal Glynn has had a change of heart and is in New York now. Stand by to see just where she pops up over the next four weeks. Ditto 17 year-old Brisbanite Nicole Pollard. Both Glynn and Pollard have been nominated by influential New York casting director Michelle Lee as two of Lee's top 12 new girls to watch for the season. Joining this burgeoning Aussie/Kiwi model posse is Jade Jackson from Melbourne. Modelling for one year, the 20 year old former nursing student, who is repped by Viviens in Australia and One Management in New York, was so under the radar in February this year, she managed to walk in 10 Fall/Winter 2011/2012 shows, including Richard Nicoll, Jaeger and Haider Ackermann, unbeknownst to most Australian modelwatchers (including frockwriter).

Portmans takes Abbey Lee Kershaw back to her roots, taps Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Louise Roe to boot

While frockwriter noted that Abbey Lee Kershaw had signed on as the autumn/winter 2011 face of Australian high street chain Portmans, we haven’t touched the story in the interim because well, images of the Nicole Bentley-shot campaign have pretty much been everywhere since its January 27th launch. But here’s something that caught our attention: a sneak peek at Portmans' secret second winter shoot that Kershaw has just done in New York, this time with a US team headed up by photographer Matt Jones. Same stylist, however, Harpers Bazaar Australia fashion editor Christine Centenera (which just goes to show that it’s not only in Paris where salaried magazine staff moonlight as stylists on the campaigns of advertisers). And miraculously, Kershaw is rocking her original long-haired coiffure in these images: mousey blonde, with pastel highlights and bangs. A Portmans rep assures us that this is merely a wig and that Kershaw - who, as we first reported, is ditching New York Fashion Week to appear with her boyfriend’s band Our Mountain at its three London gigs next week - still has a platinum bob. Perhaps Portmans figured Kershaw’s platinum locks would blend into all the snow in and around the Meat Packing District location? 

The big league: H&M launches a plus size collection for Spring

Karl Lagerfeld severed ties with H&M in part because the company wanted to produce his collection in large sizes, while he was reportedly only interested in designing “fashion for slender and slim people”. But it seems the Swedish fast fashion behemoth hasn’t let this rain on its plus size parade. From early March, H&M will offer a 20-unit capsule collection called, simply, Inclusive, which will be available in sizes 32-54 and sold exclusively online (these would appear to be Swedish sizes, which equate to an Australian 6-28). Many thanks to Runway Revolution for the headsup. Why online only? In 2008, when Australian designer Leona Edmiston decided to double her size range to a 24, coincidentally she also only offered the larger sizes online, after her research indicated that many larger women felt uncomfortable in boutiques. 

Portmans signs Abbey Lee Kershaw

david jones SS1011 backstage/frockwriter

How nervous are Australian retailers about the imminent arrival of Zara early next year? Wetting their pants, some might surmise, given the news that Australian mid market fashion chain Portmans has just signed homegrown modelling superstar Abbey Lee Kershaw as its autumn/winter 2011 campaign face. As revealed by frockwriter yesterday, Kershaw was recently involved in a cycling accident, injuries from which may have precluded her involvement with Chanel's big Pre Fall 2011 runway presentation in Paris on Tuesday. Kershaw is, after all, one of Chanel's advertising faces this season. Nevertheless, she has just arrived downunder and according to our sources, will shoot the Portmans campaign in Sydney next week with Nicole Bentley. The campaign is due to roll out from January 31st through until May and we hear Kershaw will bank at least six figures for the job, minimum A$120,000. This is a large sum for a single season Australian campaign. 

Stella McCartney for Target redux - two weeks in, already marked down

As reported by frockwriter on October 1st, the second Stella McCartney for Target Australia collection was due to launch in 102 stores on October 29th. Last Thursday, Target told Ragtrader that 20percent of the stock had sold out on its first day and that the company was “extremely pleased” with the reaction. Five stores were singled out for special mention, where the 42-unit range had reportedly performed the best. Adelaide's Target Rundle Street, slap bang in that city's busiest shopping precinct, clearly was not one of them however. Because when frockwriter was in town last week for the Adelaide Fashion Festival and checked the store on November 9th, it looked to have almost the entire collection still hanging - and noone looking at it. Five days later, at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney – one of the stores flagged by Target as having experienced the highest demand – we couldn’t help but notice this 20percent off banner, top, in the middle of McCartney’s section. And this is what the Stella McCartney section looks like today in Target Rundle Street (below) - after the entire McCartney promotion was moved away from the front of the store to join the rest of the womenswear offer, reports our SA fashionista-on-the-ground, Selena Battersby.

More Boutiques.com: You can also shop their looks for less

 
Yesterday frockwriter revealed the name of Google’s new fashion e-tail venture Boutiques.com, which is launching tomorrow in New York. It was in fact a world scoop........by about 40 minutes (WWD had a page one story in yesterday’s edition). Today we can add some more info. The site, we understand, is moving very rapidly towards the unveil and its offer now embraces boutiques curated either by - or around - 76 celebrities, 27 retailers, 55 designers and 12 bloggers. But the list of designers simply reflects those names who have thus far, apparently, agreed to participate in the venture. A designer directory lists over 200 designer names (including Australians Bassike, Willow, Thurley, sass & bide, Lover and Ksubi). But even that doesn’t embrace the full scope of the Boutiques.com offer, because products from a raft other brands and outlets that are not, it seems, officially involved, are also featured. They include US-based fast fashion chain Forever 21, the bête noir of the US fashion industry, which has been the target of numerous trademark/copyright infringement lawsuits initiated by US designers - including participating Boutiques.com designers Diane von Furstenberg and Anna Sui. 

Clipped: Lanvin for H&M

Excited by Stella McCartney for Target Australia mark II? Try Lanvin for H&M. Here's the capsule collection video starring Hannelore Knuts, Jane Schmitt, Tati Cotliar and Natasha Poly, just launched online. The collection, which consists of 30 pieces and 15 accessories for women and 25 pieces and 10 accessories for men, will launch in 200 countries later this month: reportedly November 20th in Canada, for some reason and then November 23rd in the rest of the world.

Stella McCartney for Target redux

You've had three years to recover from the first Stella McCartney for Target Australia hysteria. Gird your loins for SMFT Mark II. In what could best be described as a Target-ed launch tonight, the Australian discount department store invited six local bloggers to the Altona mansion in harbourside Point Piper, to unveil the fruits of its second Stella McCartney capsule collection. The interstate bloggers were flown in and put up overnight at a 5 star. Noted one invitee, Sam Winter aka Sassi Sam, "we were treated like rock stars". Frockwriter wasn't there, but we can confirm that the fashion editors of at least three major Australian newspapers not only were not invited, they were given zero information by Target about the launch. Nevertheless Grazia Australia broke the news on Twitter and has a story next week (update 02/10: vogue.com.au and The Sydney Morning Herald both have the story today - although info for the SMH story was not provided by Target). The bloggers report they are being paid to write posts and must submit copy for approval. While they're busy doing that, here is a first look at the 42-piece collection (which is already on Target's website), to be sold in 102 Target stores and online from October 29. It ranges from $20 for a headband up to $299 for a silk dress and includes some kickass cropped cigarette pants, blazers, skinny jeans, tulip skirts, lace and satin blouses and some quite beautiful dresses, including one French blue lace cocktail dress with sweetheart neckline and a heavily-embellished shift. 

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.

You've got to hand it to Supré

They do have a knack for a catchy, opportunistic, T-shirt graphics.

Supré hearts Michael Jackson

Well that was quick. The King of Pop has yet to be laid to rest - or plastinated performing the moonwalk, pending which reports you believe - but already today in Sydney, Australian highstreet chain Supré had an $18 'I (broken) <3 Michael' T front and centre at its Westfield Bondi Junction boutique. According to a Supré sales consultant the shirt was whipped up at lightning speed by a local supplier. Stand by for a raft of global Jackson tribute merchandise. After the shot was tweeted by frockwriter, Real Living magazine deputy ed Natalie Walton offered the following theory for Supré's turbo speed-to-market: "maybe leftover from Hutchence's death???"

Prada says jump - Sachi asks 'How high?'

From Rodarte to Prada to.............Sachi. While we're on the subject of killer heels, these are the culprits from el cheapo Australian shoe brand Sachi which prompted three models to crash and burn on the Auckland runway at last week's Annah Stretton show.

Given Sachi's current season Givenchy gladiator shoe boot knockoff, they were most likely modelled on a luxury brand.

Inside the media centre that afternoon, I did have to laugh when I overheard a publicist say Stretton was utterly mortified to learn that the model stacks dominated post-show dialogue.

Like, they were going to talk about the clothes?


annah stretton AW09/the dominion post

Gladiators of the high-low shoe biz, Myer salutes you!

givenchy backstage, paris, 03/10/07

I thought something looked awfully familiar about the fetish footwear on Myer's runway on Wednesday night. And look, yes I know, every man and his dog has been doing some sort of gladiator shoe or boot of late. It's definitely a trend with, er, legs. One that's been running in fact for several years now.

But something really resonated with me vis-a-vis that specific gladiator shoe boot which appeared in several early sections of the show. Including the opener, Jennifer Hawkins' pretty new Cozi swimwear collection:


news.com.au/charlie brewer

According to the show program (and confirmed by one of the show's stylists) the shoe in question was made by Sachi, the budget Australian shoe brand.

The reason why it looked so familiar was not just because of the omnipresent gladiator trend. There were some quite specific design features.

The heavy ankle cuff with a chunky ankle strap.

The oversized buckle.

The intricate, interwoven straps covering the front of the foot.

The cone heel.

Then I had an epiphany. It started with the letter G.

The Sachi shoe bore an uncanny resemblance to a gladiator shoe boot presented last October in Paris by French luxury brand Givenchy for Spring/Summer 2008:



I had eyeballed the Givenchy shoe, alongside numerous other gladiator boots, at close range backstage during the show.

I photographed the shoes and then blogged a post on Givenchy's gladiator-inspired footwear.




As for the Sachi shoe, you can just see the details in Charlie Brewer's Myer runway pic above. However I managed to find a close-up of what I believe could be the shoe in question on the blog of Oz shoe guru Imelda, who previewed Sachi's SS0809 collection:


imelda

Givenchy’s gladiatorial SS08 shoe collection has proven a celeb hit over the northern summer, snapped on everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Charlize Theron and Rihanna.

Outside Australia, Barneys and Shopbop were selling Givenchy's gladiator shoe boot for US$995-1000. According to Imelda, nothing in the Sachi collection is over A$219.95.

Sachi's prices are of course a far cry from those of the European luxury brands which Myer also offers its customers. A case in point Givenchy. Which, funnily enough, Myer also sells.

Even funnier are the following Myer program credits which accompanied other segments of Wednesday's show.

The dresses in the Nevenka and Arabella Ramsay sections were teamed with a "Givenchy demi wedge".

Accompanying Wayne Cooper's white tuxedo suit was a, wait for it:

"Givenchy gladiator flat"

Get it while it's Goot: Target stitches up another designer dynamo

We've seen McCartney-mania. Is it time for a Josh juggernaut?

Two months after Target shelves around the country were stripped bare within minutes of the arrival of a Stella McCartney collaboration collection, Target Australia plans to unveil a top secret project with one of Australia's brightest fashion lights, Josh Goot.

UPDATE: 16/05/07

Well don't say we didn't warn you................ Finally today, the worst kept secret in the Australian fashion industry - thanks to this blog's big mouth - was laid out in the open for all to see.

Yes indeedy, Target Australia has stitched up Josh Goot for a special limited-edition collaboration range. It's a lot smaller than the range Stella McCartney did for Target earlier this year - 12 pieces, as opposed to 42 - and it remains to be seen of course whether the Josh Goot name will resonate as well as McCartney's with Australian consumers, and if the latter will scratch each others' eyes out to get a piece of it in "selected" stores when it launches on June 19. As happened in a number of (the 100 designated) Target stores, with the McCartney mania of March 12th.

But with a veeeeeeery similar looking Josh Goot silver trench coat selling at Browns Focus in London right now for GBP290 (A$692), A$129.99 for the Target version looks to be one hell of a saving. The trench is the exxiest item in Goot's Target range, with prices starting at $59.99.

With racerback tanks, leggings, pencil skirts, cardigans, blazers and yes the infamous jersey trench coat in a colour palette of grey marle, silver, navy, black as well as Kelly green and a cobalt blue - all in a Tencel/wool blend, and in sizes from XS-L - Goot is pushing the signature 'tailored comfort' look of his first range shown in Sydney in May 2005.

As evidenced by the new collections shown in New York in February and Sydney a fortnight ago, he's moving on from that ever-so-slightly. That said, the theme of the latest collection was "future Roman sport". Let the Tarjay games begin.

ORIGINAL BLOG: 26/04/07

Target is the principle sponsor of Goot's Fashion Week show on Thursday May 3 at 9.00am - and its logo appears on the invitation. But although neither the Target or Goot camps were spilling any other beans this afternoon, Fashion Season has learned that a Josh Goot/Target collaboration is due be either announced or else unveiled at Target in mid May.

It won't be without precedent of course in this market. Last year Target unveiled several styles from three other Australian labels, Alice McCall, Tina Kalivas and TL Wood, under the Designers For Target umbrella. A Target spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny whether Goot was the only Australian fashion brand involved with this latest Designers For Target project.

"I can't tell you anything other than Target are supporting me on this show" Goot told Fashion Season. "It's great to have their support - I think they've shown a commitment to young Australian designers over the past year".

The Stella McCartney range was sold in 100 Target stores around Australia. The 42-piece collection ranged in price from $29.99 for a scarf to $199.99 for a trenchcoat. Selling out in some stores within minutes, according to a Target source it was the retailer's most successful sales day ever in this market.

So just what might Josh Goot For Target look like? Dripping, most likely, in the designer's signature urban sport aesthetic.

Goot, now 27, made his runway debut at Fashion Week in May 2004 with a print-heavy streetwear brand called Platform. Launched a few months later his eponymous collection boasted a leitmotiv of "tailored comfort", with a simple concept: constructed wardrobe classics of the type normally made from woven fabrics, the trenchcoat, the blazer and trousers etc..., but fashioned instead from cotton jersey T-shirting. The entire, machine-washable collection came in grey marle, charcoal marle and silver. It earned Goot the 2005 Tiffany & Co Young Designer of The Year Award.

Goot's May 2005 Fashion Week show made an impact here and several months later, the front cover of high-profile US industry newspaper WWD. The brand was immediately picked up by prestigious London retailer Browns Focus and then swiftly by other key international retailers, notably the Colette emporium in Paris and Henri Bendel in New York.

In September last year Goot debuted at New York fashion week - with US Vogue later heralding him as the designer who kicked off the SS07 season's urban sport mood.

Goot showed for the second consecutive season in New York in February. He is committed to showing back in New York in September.

"This is the fourth show we've done in a year which is insane and it won't happen again" said Goot of next week's show, his southern hemisphere SS0708/international resort collection. "I felt that I hadn't finished the job here in this market. As far as positioning the brand and expressing the brand philosophy and mapping out our distribution, all these types of things, I think we have a little way to go, and hopefully the show will be another piece in the puzzle".

Apart from whatever promotion Target may be planning for the Goot project in mid May, could next week be the last Josh Goot show downunder?

"I wouldn't want to say that because that's got a lot of finality to it" said Goot. "I really enjoy showing here. It's in a sense much easeir than showing overseas. It's your own backyard. And I know how much of a role the Australian industry played in helping us build this brand. We've enjoyed a lot of support and in a sense I feel like showing once a year [here] is the least we can do to I suppose keep everyone's interest and kind of say thank-you".


Original post and comments.

Let them eat Target: The high-low shows of Proenza Schouler

Of course I wanted to see the Proenza Schouler show. Who wouldn't? That's the hybrid label of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Both 28 and in business for just five years, already their show is one of New York Fashion Week's hottest tickets - rendered even hotter this season by virtue of their new deal with Target.

I had read about but not personally witnessed the sales floor frenzies that have erupted on every occasion that so-called "fast" fashion retailer H&M recently launched a collection tie-in with a big design name such as Karl Lagerfeld or Viktor & Rolf. Released simultaneously in a number of stores, the merchandise reportedly evaporated within hours. It's a scenario that is sure to be played out in April once Britain's TopShop unveils its Kate Moss collaboration - and of course potentially also next month in Australia, once Target Australia unveils its just-announced tie-in with Stella McCartney.

But I managed to see the Proenza Schouler for Target hysteria in situ. Tagging along with a mate - Melbourne-born, Tokyo-based Vogue Nippon international fashion coordinator Leeyong Soo - I trekked down to SoHo store Opening Ceremony on fashion week's first weekend. The store was having a preview of the PS for Target range a few days before it went into wide Target release. And I can report that it was pure pandemonium. You would have thought these people were starving refugees getting food drops from an aid agency, so voraciously were they crawling over the racks and grabbing armfuls of merchandise: stripey long-sleeved Ts, rope-print singlets, purple palm-print totes and cotton sundresses with embroidered bodices. The designs were cute. The prices, even cuter: US$39.99 apiece for a sundress and tote and US$16.99 for a long-sleeved T. Sources say 10,000 units were sold over the three-day preview

"If this was in Tokyo I wouldn't normally be buying this - I don't normally pay more than $5 for anything" confessed Leeyong, a vintage flea market hound, part-time fashion designer (who has just launched a new label called new Fourth Daughter) and dead ringer for a young Faye Dunaway. "It's just the fervour of it all".

Eventually overwhelmed by the same fervour, I purchase three items.

A couple of days later, there I am outside the Proenza Schouler show proper. It's off-schedule and they are about to close the doors. And of the myriad shows I try to catch all week, as it turns out, this is the only one I don't manage to crack. And I'm not alone it seems. When the glass doors shut and then rudely (although I am later told it is specifically for the purpose of lighting), screens suddenly come down, a dozen or so media reps are left outside in the foyer straining to catch a glimpse of the show through a chink in the blinds - and whinging. They include representatives of London's Independent newspaper, a well-known New York fashion writer who walked away from the venue, I am told, "in tears - because she knows them personally" and a female television journalist who is doing a Proenza Schouler feature. Although backstage beforehand filming what are called "first looks" (first outfits), this presenter found herself barred from seeing the show.

The show finishes. The lights and screens come up. The doors swing open. I step inside, collect a program and head backstage where the designers are in the middle of a series of pre-organised interviews - including one by the same female anchor who had been snubbed from a personal view of the show. While she may not have been, clearly all her free publicity is warmly welcomed.

"What am I supposed to say if they ask, 'What did you think of the collection?'" she asks one of the PR reps. No reply.

I crash the interview line and score a chit-chat. Frankly, if I had a choice between seeing the season's 'high' PS show and getting the one-on-one here - or make that one-on-two - I'd take the interview.

Here's what Jack n' Laz had to say:

Now look I'm sorry I didn't see the collection - sadly your PR flacks wouldn't let me in. What was the design impetus?
Hernandez: We were just kind of interested in the idea of warmth and the idea of things that felt just cozy and warm and Fall-like. And we were looking to find a hook for that feeling and we were looking to the world of interiors and the idea of these cozy, amazing, beautiful rich homes. And then a lot of wallpapers, and the idea of the damask came from that. And a lot of the fabrics were kind of inspired by upholstery fabrics actually.

Just looking at the show notes, even before I heard you say the term 'high-low' in the interviews you've just been doing here, I noticed that you used crocodile and also Swarovski crystal in the collection and I planned to ask you about the 'high-low' concept. It's interesting because of course you've just done this line with Target.
McCollough: Yeah, we kind of knew that that was coming out too right around now, it just came out a couple of days ago. That's more the low end of the spectrum. So it was kind of nice to do something the complete opposite to kind of show our diversity.

What does it represent to a young label to be able to score a deal like that with a major distribution outlet like Target?
McCollough: It's great. We're a small company so we obviously have no money for advertising. So that's a really great way to get your name out there, to really expose you to different markets where they haven't seen you. Especially now that we're about to launch a lot more accessories and develop the line in different areas.

Hernandez: But it's also within our spirit, you know? The whole idea of high-low as we said before, it's something that we feel really comfortable with, we feel really comfortable with like wearing like a baggy, kind of dirty T-shirt with long sleeves under a croc trench, like that's cooler with your boyfriend's pants. Those contradictions and that feeling is kind of what we're about.

But you could do your own diffusion line.
Hernandez: We could totally do that but we don't have the budget to do that yet.

McCollough: We want to wait a little longer, expand our collection line..

Hernandez: It's either producing a hundred jackets as opposed to like 10 thousand jackets.

What's the hardest thing about being a new brand in the American market and trying to break through? You've done it very quickly in four/five years.
McCollough: I don't know what the hardest thing is... it's just like, running a business in general. No matter what you're doing, it's difficult to kind of keep it going. As I said it's great to like get our name out there. It's great exposure. For a small company you don't really have options to kind of expose yourself in such a high magnitude, which someone like Target can do.

Hernandez: That's our biggest challenge. Like for us as designers, we're creative people. But the reality is it's also a business. So how do you balance the creativity with the business side of things? So that's always the toughest thing. And thank God we have a great business person who works with us so it's really split down the middle, so we can really focus on just creating.

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