Megan Gale, Courtney Eaton join Mad Max 4. Abbey Lee Kershaw cast as "The Dag"

Filming continues apace in Namibia on the fourth instalment of George Miller's dystopian action flick Mad Max: Fury Road and the production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell has finally coughed up a few details. Chic Management confirmed Abbey Lee Kershaw had been cast, but now comes news that Kershaw's co-stars include two other Australian models, one a very big name down under.  

From ANTM to ICU: Alice Burdeu's adventures in Ellison-land

screen grab, 'an ode to the muse'

Becoming the winner of the Australia's Next Top Model series can lead to many things. An international modelling career, if you are lucky - and it looks like the Australian show's winners are having more luck than most at the moment. Over the weekend at Melbourne's Australian Centre For The Moving Image, Cycle 3 winner Alice Burdeu made her screen debut - well, at least her film festival screen debut - at Justin Watson's and Alastair McCann's No Home fashion film festival, as part of the cultural calendar of the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which officially kicks off tomorrow. Burdeu is the star of a short film called 'An Ode to the Muse', that was shot by Melbourne's Tooth & Claw collective for Sydney fashion label Ellison. For anyone who didn't catch No Home, here is a first look at the film. It's an intriguing little plotline.

Girls on film at the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2011

screen cap 'catwalk' via 123nonstop.com

Arguably more fashion-specific documentaries have been lensed in the past four years, than in the last two decades combined, with offerings including Lagerfeld Confidential (2007), Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007), Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008), The September Issue (2009) and Picture Me (2009). That's not counting the recent proliferation of fashion shorts and videos, whose distribution has obviously been facilitated by the net. For anyone who is interested in seeing some older examples of the frockumentary genre, in addition to some less high-profile recent examples and who happens to be in Melbourne next week, this year's L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which officially kicks off tomorrow - and which frockwriter will be attending as a guest of the organisers and Tourism Victoria - has an abundance of offerings.

Gemma Ward turns 23, gets cast as a princess in Jack the Giant Killer?

paolo roversi/vogue italia via virtue or vanity

Gemma Ward turns 23 today. As a birthday present, could she have been cast in yet another US blockbuster? Ward recently shot scenes for Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, in which she plays a mermaid. Now her IMDB [Internet Movie Database] listing is listing her as a potential cast member of New Line's Jack the Giant Killer, which is to be directed by Bryan Singer and is scheduled to start shooting in the northern spring. A remake of the 1962 film of the same name, Jack the Giant Killer recounts the story of a boy who rescues a princess from evil sorcerers. Ward would of course make a fabulous fairytale princess. But given that at least three names are still being mooted for the lead male role - Alex Pettyfer, Aaron Johnson and Max Irons - it sounds like not a great deal is nailed down. Ward also recently auditioned for Max Mad 4: Fury Road, however so far not much appears to have come from that. Frockwriter has attempted to reach Ward’s LA management, with as yet no luck. In the meantime, many happy returns.

Stolen Girlfriends Club has ordered 1000 jam jars for its Sydney party, but there won't be any Stolen Generation T-shirts

stolen girlfriends club AW11/kent vaughan

Next Thursday, Auckland hipster collective Stolen Girlfriends Club will stage its second Sydney shindig in five months, this time to unveil a new short film shot by renowned Kiwi snapper Derek Henderson, to promote SGC’s new Heavy Metal jewellery line. The film stars photogenic Kiwi lovebirds Dempsey Stewart and Jasper Seven modelling the inaugural collection, We Are Ugly But We Have The Music (below). Frockwriter has previously documented SCG’s predilection towards serving alcohol in jam jars at events and next week will be no different with, we are told, 1000 jam jars ordered for the occasion. One thing we won’t be seeing at the event, however, is an “I belong to the Stolen Generation” T-shirt, as appeared on SGC's runway in Auckland last month. 

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:

Nom*D's renegade chic

Yesterday, Dunedin's Margie Robertson presented her Nom*D collection in exactly the same venue used by Zambesi on the previous evening - Auckland's SkyCity Theatre. Zambesi being of course designed by Robertson's sister, Liz Findlay (we'll get to Zambesi when we have more time). Instead of a traditional runway show, Robertson presented an eight-minute film from Auckland filmmaker Kirsty Cameron, accompanied by a few models in Nom*D's 'Turncoats' collection of fabulous recoupage chic, which included dresses fashioned from socks, nighties and other sundry intimate apparel - all styled back by NZ's premier stylist, Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, with gladiator spats, an intriguing series of fringed, sporran-like leather purses (which weren't purses at all) and a painterly beauty look, created by Margo Regan.

It's what you could call a perfect indie fashion/film hookup.
Cameron is an erstwhile costume designer herself, whose credits include Whale Rider and the sci-fi vampire thriller Perfect Creature.

Sadly, frockwriter missed the show because we were tied up with a live cross to TVNZ, but here is an exclusive portfolio of Nom*D's own shots from the fittings.

Apologies to those who may have spotted a player for the Turncoats film in frockwriter's feed yesterday. Something was wrong with the embed code so we eventually took it down. Hopefully will have it back up soon.






























all shots: nom*d

Fashion's Nordic horror fetish rocks on

supreme via models.com

Closely following the release of the spooky, Paul Rowland-lensed supplement to V Magazine's issue 61, which showcases models from the New York agencies Supreme and Women by way of "corpse paint" makeup and styling that appear to have been directly inspired by the Norwegian black metal scene, comes Supreme's model showcards for the New York Spring/Summer 2010 runway season. The makeup and styling are equally horrific and coincidentally, the photographer is Scandinavian: Swedish-born Hanna Linden. Horror is a dominant theme in Linden's work, which has depicted nightmarescapes haunted by masked, spectral figures, with titles in one 2006 New York exhibition including "Death Gate", "Death Upon a Black Horse", "Playing Dead" and "Skeleton Creek". Linden, a fan of the Davids Lynch and Cronenberg, described her work to PAPER magazine as "dystopia after a catastrophe".

For sure, the horror film genre has enjoyed a resurgence over the past decade and given its popularity, it is perhaps surprising that it has taken this long to hit fashion.

Could the current economic climate of doom and gloom have anything to do with things? September's W magazine for instance also delivers a Craig McDean spread of a down-on-her-luck Sasha Pivovarova, dressed as a stylish vagrant in shredded luxury shopping bags.

Scandinavia, as it emerges, has quite a vibrant horror film culture.

After the Japanese and South Korean horror waves that delivered film franchises such as The Ring and The Grudge, some horror aficionados are tipping Scandinavian horror as the next big wave. This follows a spate of recent Scandinavian horror releases, including Let The Right One In, Dark Floors and Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow Nazi zombie spoof, which had its world premier at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

This is not the first time that horror has raised its hand in fashion this year.

Some might recall Steven Klein's "Lara fiction noire" editorial in the February edition of Paris Vogue, for which Klein shot Stone in a horror-inspired, and quite bloody, series of images depicting simulated violence. Although the original series ran on Klein's website, some images were reportedly censored from the magazine.

It's interesting that Supreme believes this is the best way to showcase its models to prospective clients. Of course, the series is bound to stand out amongst the myriad of agency showcards that do the rounds at this time of year, with agencies vigorously competing for a slice of the season's runway action.

But while most shots are clearly in the fantasy realm, a couple look like outtakes from a community service announcement about domestic violence.

Click here to see the full series.

Charlotte Dawson was a Marc Jacobs muse?

Well, for fifteen minutes at least. Here is a series of screen caps from an episode of Andy Warhol's 1980s MTV series Fifteen Minutes, filmed in January 1987 and which features the former Ford New York model, now Australia's Next Top Model judge, modelling one of Jacobs' earliest collections. The underwear-as-outwear-themed collection includes the Freudian Slip Dress, emblazoned with a Sigmund Freud caricature. Dawson was one of three models cast for the show. Twenty three year-old Jacobs conducts the interview astride a ladder. And if you find the photo shoot antics of the ANTM contestants amusing, Dawson and co are required to climb the ladder after him. It's one of three episodes of the MTV series that will be screened by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) next week under the umbrella title Marc Jacobs' New York, as part of ACMI's week-long Marc Jacobs on Film festival during Melbourne Spring Fashion Week.

Yes, that's right, an entire week of films - six in total - dedicated to Jacobs' work.

Frockwriter buddy Bryanboy, in whose honour the ostrich skin 'BB' bag from Jacobs' FW0809 collection was named, has been flown down by ACMI to open the festival on Saturday night.

Click here for the full schedule and ticket details.
















all images: screen caps from 'marc jacobs' new york', courtesy ACMI