Andrej Pejic is shooting a reality television show

vestal magazine via models.com

It was only a matter of time, surely, before Andrej Pejic scored his very own reality television show. In July last year, in fact, he hinted there had been an approach, when he put the question to his Twitter followers “Should I do a reality tv show? I mean what would I have…. to say”.

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. 

Andrej Pejic on Sunday Night

neil barrett FW1112 backstage/sonny vandevelde

Gird your loins, Andrej Pejic fans. Next Sunday, on Australia's Seven Network, the first comprehensive television profile of Pejic will go to air on the Sunday Night program (6.30pm). A Sunday Night crew embedded themselves with Pejic during his most recent tour of fashion duty at the Paris mens shows - during which he walked for a number of designers, but was notably cast by Jean Paul Gaultier as James Blond and then the following week, as the traditional bride of Gaultier's haute couture show. From castings to fittings, photoshoots, backstage, front-of-house and interviews with some of the world's leading fashion commentators, it's going to be a fly-on-the-wall look at a pretty fascinating fashion moment. Sunday Night just ran an in-show promo at the end of its first show back on air tonight after the summer hiatus (video and screen grabs below). Relieved to finally be able to talk about this after several weeks of intense work.

Andrej Pejic celebrated Australia Day on a Paris haute couture runway in a wedding dress

now fashion

While many Australians were celebrating our national day with a bbq, minutes ago Andrej Pejic just did something a little different: he walked in Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 haute couture show in Paris. Closed it in fact, as the traditional bride. Yes, a day after the designer finally unveiled his much-anticipated Spring/Summer 2011 ready-to-wear advertising campaign starring Pejic and Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova and almost a week after Pejic closed Gaultier's mens Fall/Winter 2011/2012 show dressed as a woman, Gaultier and Pejic just made a little more gender-bending music together. And they may have just made fashion history together to boot. Givenchy deployed its muse and advertising face Lea T, a transsexual (and technically a pre-op transsexual) in the brand's most recent haute couture presentation. That was, however, a static display only, not a show. Frockwriter is not sure that any couturier/couturière has ever previously sent a man down his/her runway in womens' clothing. And certainly never in a wedding dress. The collection was inspired by British punks and French showgirls, with the models sporting mohawks and Pejic trailed by a highkicking cancan girl. There was no soundtrack, just the soft drawl of no less than French screen legend Catherine Deneuve reading out the names of the garments, one by one, with the models each carrying a corresponding number - the way they used to do it half a century ago, in the golden days of the couture. Below are what appear to be three recent backstage shots of Pejic taken by a French photographer - and possibly before this show. They were posted at the same time he was in hair and makeup. Vive la Liberté.  

Trench coat glamour mafia: Andrej Pejic and Karolina Kurkova for Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2011

A matter of days after Andrej Pejic strutted Jean Paul Gaultier's Autumn/Winter 2011/20112 menswear runway in Paris as both a man - and a woman - and twenty-four hours before the designer's feverishly-anticipated haute couture womenswear show, Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 campaign images starring Pejic and Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova have finally landed. With the designer himself joining Twitter to excitedly unveil them. Shot by high profile photographic duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, the campaign consists of two black and white images of Pejic and Kurkova, both in fishnet stockings and wearing matching trench coats from the Spring/Summer 2011 womens collection (as first revealed by Kurkova just before Christmas in a Tweet from the set). In one shot, they are kissing. Who's the prettier of the two though?

Andrej Pejic is James Blond

sonny vandevelde

After a big London booking delayed his arrival in Milan earlier this week and only ultimately walking in one show there - Neil Barrett - Andrej Pejic finally made a spectacular entree to the Fall/Winter 2011/2012 Paris mens show season overnight at Jean Paul Gaultier's show. As both a man - and, surprise, surprise, also as a woman. Inspired by legendary British spook James Bond, the collection was opened by a pistol-packing macho model in a tuxedo. Pejic was second out, also in a tuxedo, but with the shirt louchely loosened to bare his chest and his signature platinum blond locks parted to the side, softly curled and tumbling down over one shoulder à la Veronica Lake. Thence followed a suite of other tuxedo-inspired looks, including some deconstructed tuxes, obviously a Gaultier trademark and yet more examples of the controversial "shuit", or men's shorts suit, which has been gaining popularity on the mens runways for the past few seasons. Presumably more in keeping with Bond's action sequences, a number of sportier ensembles also hit the runway, featuring sprayed-on motocross leggings teamed with glam, gilt bomber jackets and jean jackets festooned with metallic sequins. 

Andrej Pejic: Shooting Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2011 campaign with Karolina Kurkova, rattling rednecks from Sydney to Serbia

karolina kurkova's facebook

Overnight Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova published a shot of herself and a Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2011 campaign co-star on Facebook and the cat is out of the bag and all over the net. Australia’s Andrej Pejic is also in the campaign. That’s the second big international SS11 campaign booked by Pejic to which frockwriter referred in our post on Tuesday. It is unclear at this stage if the JPG campaign features any other models beyond Kurkova and Pejic. But both do look to be wearing similar pleated trench coats – which were prominently featured in Gaultier’s SS11 womenswear show in Paris in October. The garment does not, however, appear anywhere in Gaultier’s mens SS11 collection, which was shown in Paris in June and which, as you may recall, Pejic in fact walked. What conclusion can we draw from this? That, unless Kurkova posted a staged teaser shot, Pejic may well be modelling womenswear in this campaign. Stop the press. 

Beth Ditto backstage at Jean Paul Gaultier - Spring/Summer 2011

jean paul gaultier SS11 backstage/steve wood

Jean Paul Gaultier is no stranger to runway diversity, having sent arguably the world's most high profile plus size model, American Crystal Renn, down his Spring/Summer 2006 runway in October 2005. The following year, plus-sized Paris-based American actor Velvet d'Amour made her Gaultier appearance (here is the interview I did with her at the time). Yesterday Gaultier upped the plus size ante by having no less than three plus size models on his Spring/Summer 2011 runway in Paris: Renn, Marquita Pring and Beth Ditto, the frontwoman of US indie rock outfit Gossip, who opened the show and later delivered an a cappella performance. A photographer mate, the inimitable Steve Wood, just zipped me these backstage shots of Ditto with Gaultier and some other members of his show cast, including Sasha Pivovarova and Eliza Cummins (but no sign of former Gaultier face Tallulah Morton, who is in Paris at the moment).  

Ajak Deng: Civil war survivor, aspiring supermodel, breadwinner for eight

david jones SS1011 backstage

Frockwriter was preoccupied with a fulltime gig during the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 season, so we missed quite a bit of news. Including two new rising Australian modelling stars, Adelaide’s Emily Wake and Melbourne’s Ajak Deng. We did include one mention of Deng in our preliminary SS10 Australian model wrap just after New York Fashion Week, her first international show season, in which she did just a handful of New York shows (and we originally got her surname wrong*). However it was during the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 shows in February and March when Deng really grabbed the industry’s attention, walking in over 20 shows. These included blue chip names such as Lanvin, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier and Chloe – the first black girl to walk the latter’s runway in nine seasons in fact, prompting New York Magazine to ask in June, “Could Ajak Deng be the next Alek Wek?”. Like Wek, Deng is a Sudanese refugee. But while Wek’s family fled the war-torn African nation for the UK, Deng’s family settled in Melbourne in 2004 – among an estimated 23,000 Sudanese refugees who arrived in Australia from 2002-2007. Sixty-two percent are aged 24 and younger and 45percent of the settlers are believed to be female. Like Wek’s story – which Wek recounted in her autobiography in 2007 – Deng’s story is remarkable. The second of eight children, Deng lost her mother to malaria at the age of 12 while living in a Kenyan refugee camp and took charge of her infant sister. Three years ago her father moved back to Sudan and her stepmother left to join him. Since she was 16, Deng has been financially responsible for her seven siblings.  

Jean Paul Gaultier's Perla

Turbans were piled high, shoulder pads took on lives of their own – right down to the elbow - and Dita von Teese stripped down to a black beaded corset, thong and suspenders on the runway – all to promote, presumably, a new collaboration between Jean Paul Gaultier and Italian luxury lingerie brand La Perla. Call it Marlene Dietrich with multiple personality disorder, Gaultier’s haute couture offerings, just off the runway in Paris, were a mixed bag of Forties Hollywood glamour, Lido showgirl and Mortitia Addams. As with Dior’s floral extravaganza on Monday, colours were intense, from poison green to chartreuse, cobalt blue and orchid. It now remains to be seen which contemporary Hollywood icons have the chutzpah to pull these looks off on the red carpet. Head to Now Fashion to see the complete collection.

Andrej Pejic mixes it up at Jean Paul Gaultier

jean paul gaultier SS11/style.com

Who was the intriguing, androgynous blonde at Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring/Summer 2011 menswear show in Paris overnight? Melbourne’s Andrej Pejic, that’s who. Frockwriter knew it would not be long before Pejic appeared on a major runway and there he is in three outfits at JPG. Update: Pejic reports that he will also be doing John Galliano's show today. Since first popping up on our radar at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week last year, as reported by frockwriter, Pejic shot a 14 page editorial for Australia’s RUSSH magazine and headed to London, where the 18 year-old was snapped up by Storm Management. Pejic, whose mother agency in Australia is Chadwicks, is now repped by New Madison in Paris and I Love Models Management in Milan and has shot for Dazed + Confused Japan (see below), London-based magazines Libertine and Wonderland and Martyn Bal. Stand by for what could be his biggest career break to date: editorial (including a cover try) just shot by a major international photographic duo for the September edition of a major international fashion title.

Move over ANTM, the latest Priscillas star is footy royalty Emily Trimble-Thompson

Well Australia’s Next Top Model might be over for another year, but before Cycle 5 winner Tahnee Atkinson starts the rounds under contract to Priscillas Model Management, the agency has a new breakout star. Eighteen year-old Emily Trimble-Thompson appears on page one of US fashion ‘bible’ Womens Wear Daily today, a shot taken during Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture show in Paris overnight. With just a few lowkey RAFW shows and editorials for RUSSH and Grazia, the Melburnian redhead has so far been under the radar in Australia. But things may be about to change. Although Trimble-Thompson did walk at the haute couture this time last year, she has just moved to Paris, where she has been signed with Ford, in addition to London’s Storm agency. Beyond yesterday’s JPG score, upcoming work includes an editorial in Dutch ELLE. Trimble-Thompson is the daughter of the late Australian rules "superstar" Len Thompson, who was best-known for his career with the Collingwood Magpies. Perhaps his daughter may follow suit in the modelling biz.

Jean Paul Gaultier sponsored by ice creams - New York mag mistakes them for condoms

style.com


Well so far this week at the Paris haute couture shows we have seen Christian Dior downsize its usual big bucks runway spectacle to a low-key presentation in the rooms above the Dior shop – and hack off half the outfits to send models out in their underwear. Christian Lacroix present what may have been his very last collection, after declaring bankruptcy. And now on the closing day of the haute couture schedule, the pièce de GFC résistance: Jean Paul Gaultier's show not only appears to have been sponsored by Streets’ Magnum ice creams, he actually walked down the runway to take his bow holding one. And if that wasn’t absurd enough, then this just-posted report in New York magazine’s The Cut blog, provides the following, hilarious, coda. Evidently Magnum ice creams are not well-known in the US. Because when The Times of London Tweeted that Magnums were being handed out to showgoers – New York magazine assumed The Times was talking about “Magnum condoms".

And didn’t seem to think much of it really. Even though a condom brand sponsoring a presentation of six figure ballgowns isn’t, well, something you see every day. Particularly when it's not your garden variety condom, but a brand of extra-large frangers that are marketed by Trojan.

Things aren’t quite that bad yet but who knows what the Spring/Summer 2010 Ready to Wear season will bring.

Ready-to-wear is one matter. That is, mass-produced, off-the-rack clothes that you can buy in boutiques and department stores.

By the same token however, up until now, you never saw much sponsorship collateral at shows in the big fashion cities - as distinct from RAFW in Sydney and London Fashion Week, where the brands are much smaller. This is because, presumably, the companies behind the big brands a/have the marketing budgets to spend on fashion shows and moreover b/consider that additional sponsorship collateral would only serve to undermine their branding.

Haute couture is a little different.

To begin with, the sample collections are far more expensive to produce. These are hand-crafted, often heavily-embellished garments that will be sold on a made-to-measure basis only. The more elaborate dresses - for example, Erica Packer's Christian Dior haute couture wedding dress - involve hundreds of hours of handwork. Hence the six figure price tags.

With money no object and, theoretically, no practical/commercial restraints on a couturier's imagination, haute couture is supposed to represent the absolute "dream" or essence of French fashion.

Yes, there are super-rich clients who can afford it and who keep the business going (as mentioned on Monday, Chanel reports that 2008 was a record year for its couture division). However haute couture is essentially an image proposition: a glamorous, and terribly expensive, loss leader that is used to promote the more lucrative volume divisions, ie the ready-to-wear, the accessories and of course, the far more accessible fragrances and beauty products.

But while the former president of the ice cream division of Unilever now runs one of the world's biggest luxury conglomerates - Gucci Group's Robert Polet - so far not even Gucci, which is ready-to-wear only, has considered aligning itself with ice creams.

You have to wonder what the very image-conscious Paris shows organising body, the Chambre Syndicale de la haute couture Parisienne, thinks about Gaultier's flagrant Magnum sponsorship - and whether it enhances the image of the struggling haute couture industry, or in fact cheapens it.

Moreover, what does Hermès think about it?

Not only is Gaultier creative director at the French luxury leathergoods brand, last year Hermès increased its stake in Gaultier's own company from 35-45percent. If Gaultier is flush with funds, why did he seek assistance from Streets?

Click here to see the Jean Paul Gaultier collection, which included the week’s omipresent power shoulders, trench coats – including a nifty trench bodysuit – bodycon, fur, Sydney native Alexandra Agoston-O’Connor in a pair of croc overalls and Melbourne native Emily Trimble in a mullet version of the trench. That is, miniskirt at the front, party at the back - a trend also witnessed at Chanel. Given that it means less ultra-expensive, hand-embellished haute couture fabric overall for the dresses in question, perhaps we can also blame this trend on the economic climate.

New York Mag, pls see below for some Magnum comparisons.

A Magnum ice cream:


wikimedia

Not to be confused with a Magnum condom:


allcondoms.com

Trench wore fare

lanvin SS10/reuters via daylife

The mens Spring/Summer 2010 season is a matter of hours from wrapping up in Paris and the full-legged trouser that we highlighted on Friday has been omnipresent over the past three days. Providing a counterpoint to the season’s other big trouser story – the cropped pant – full-legged trousers have been seen in almost every collection. Lanvin added a high waist to its versions – with Clark Gable moustaches enhancing the '30s vibe. Another major SS10 trend seen at Lanvin: the lightweight trench coat. At Burberry, the trench is a trademark. But there have been many versions in Paris, including this putty-coloured trench (above ^) with contrast grosgrain piping. Jean Paul Gaultier also showed a piped trench on Thursday.

From Goot to Gaultier? Tallulah rising

Tallulah Morton in Jean Paul Gaultier's FW0809 haute couture show, July 2nd/Style.com


Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière has Stephanie Carta. Could compatriot French designer Jean Paul Gaultier also be going for an Oz model muse in Tallulah Morton? Three years after the now 16 year-old first emerged at Australian Fashion Week, opening Josh Goot's debut AFW show, Morton appeared in not one but two Gaultier shows in Paris over the past week.

First up, she was one of a handful of female models in JGP's SS09 menswear show. Then on Wednesday, Morton walked in his haute couture show [above^].

Morton moved to Paris in February and is now repped there by the Marilyn agency. She walked in an impressive ten FW0809 shows in her first Paris season, including Christian Dior, Ungaro, Kenzo, John Galliano, Hussein Chalayan, Gaultier and also Hermès, whose creative director is of course....Gaultier.

This now makes in fact four Gaultier shows for Morton in the space of four months.

According to Vikki Graham, who heads up Morton's Sydney mother agency Scene Models, Morton was recently handpicked by Gaultier to appear in an upcoming Hermès retrospective editorial feature in Paris.

Graham reports there is quite some new Morton fashion editorial about to hit the stands, including Italian fashion magazines Muse and Velvet. Morton is due to appear on the latter's August/September cover and in 18 pages of editorial.

After her appearance at Goot's AFW debut - and tipped as "the next Gemma Ward" - the subsequently much-hyped Morton appeared in a multitude of Australian fashion editorials and advertising campaigns.

In September 2006, when she was still only 14, she made her international runway debut at the SS07 shows in New York. Two weeks later she failed to show up on the European runways.

According to Graham this was primarily due to the restrictions imposed on under-16 models in Europe, notably Paris.

With models such as Tanya D working steadily across the world from the age of 14 however, it is clearly not impossible for under-16s to get the appropriate paperwork cleared.

In Paris that season, one casting source told me that he believed the real reason why Morton failed to take off on the Paris runways was because she was "too chunky".

Experience is increasingly dictating of course that in Paris/Milan model biz speak, "too chunky" may be code for "you don't look anorexic".

So, did Morton "tone up" as they say in the modelling biz? Or has she simply finally emerged in the right place at the right time?

According to Graham there were never any weight issues. Morton lost "maximum two kilos" prior to her Paris move, said Graham, but that was due to a new training regime.

"It was more about trying top get her into toning up her teenage body and getting her into good [eating] habits" noted Graham. "Not a single agency said to me that she needs to lose weight".

She added, "What they all said was, 'Get her here as soon as you can'".


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TFS

Gaultier’s biggest winner: Runway star Velvet d’Amour

Day three of Paris Fashion Week and the skinny model debate had been raging for a fortnight. Ever since in fact the publicity-challenged Madrid Fashion Week decided to tap into one of the mainstream media's fave fashion subjects - underweight models - by banning anyone with a BMI below X. Conveniently of course, the Top Ten runway stars always seem to skip Madrid.

What a delight then to meet Velvet d'Amour, Jean Paul Gaultier's US-born, Paris-based, larger-than-life runway star (who made one exit).

And while she's not going to be putting Daria, Gemma, Snejana, Irina and co out of business any time soon, the Gaultier show was nevertheless d'Amour's second major Paris runway appearance in twelve months. Upon fleeing the backstage media scrum, I encountered d'Amour near the front door exit and couldn't resist stopping to have a chat.

ARE YOU A MODEL OR ACTRESS?
I push size acceptance along and kind of help the diversity of beauty. That's my main goal in life.

DO YOU LIVE IN PARIS?
I do. I just did a film called Avida, that was produced by Mathieu Kassovitz and it was Benoit Delepine and Gustave de Kervern [directing] and Claude Chabrol was in it. It's quite a surreal kind of Bunuel-type film, black and white, very profound.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN PARIS?
Eleven years now.

AND YOU MODEL?
You know, I do everything basically. I've modelled in two shows, I've been acting... It was actually contemporary dance that initially took me in.

MAY I ASK WHAT SIZE YOU ARE?
Sure you can definitely ask what size I am. I'm damned proud of my size. I'm a 3X/4X in American. Which is probably, I mean I weigh probably 290 pounds, I'm 5'8".

IN USING A LARGER MODEL SUCH AS YOURSELF DO YOU FEEL THAT GAULTIER IS GENUINELY ADDRESSING THE SIZE ISSUE OR DO YOU THINK IT COULD BE JUST A TOKEN THING?
Well no, what's important to me is the fact that in Spain they had this thing about the models being too thin. If you tell me somebody's too thin, if you tell me somebody's too fat, you're still being prejudiced. The point is, is diversity. Realistically there is much more thin women than fat women in the modelling industry.

LAST WEEK DOLCE E GABBANA SENT OUT MODELS WITH PADDED CORSETS TO GIVE THEM "J-LO" ASSES. BY THE SAME TOKEN THEY COULD SIMPLY HAVE USED LARGER-SIZED MODELS, NOT JUST PADDED SKINNY ONES. DO YOU WORRY THAT YOU'RE BEING USED AS A PUBLICITY GIMMICK BY FASHION DESIGNERS?
No not at all. The reason that I don't feel that is because regardless of even if they were to be using me as a gimmick factor, there are women who will be touched by what I did and I mean, the film [Avida) actually went to Cannes. So I had a dress and I was on the red carpet at Cannes and there were blogs for BBWS [Big Beautiful Women] that were saying, "Oh my gosh, Velvet was on the red carpet and she was showing her arms". Which is something I don't ever think about but it takes you back to the time when there are a lot of women who won't show their arms. So the fact that something as simple as that can be so meaningful to people who... if you're genuinely obese, like genuinely obese people, and there are more and more obese people in the world, some of them are afraid to go outside because they are so harrassed.

THE REST OF GAULTIER'S SHOW SEEMED TO BE ABOUT SPORT. IT OPENED WITH A TABLEAU OF FITNESS EQUIPMENT AND A SOUNDTRACK TALKING ABOUT AEROBICS AND WORKING OUT. IT DOESN'T QUITE GEL WITH THE CONCEPT OF OBESITY.
Yes but I think the reality is that if you're big, you're not sporty. I happen to swim 120 laps three times a week.

THE AVERAGE DOCTOR WOULD HOWEVER SAY THAT OBESITY IS NOT HEALTHY PERIOD, FOR YOUR HEART, BLOOD PRESSURE ETC..
Certainly and the average doctor would be the average doctor in doing that. Because I have no high blood pressure, I have no high cholesterol. And the reality is there's going to be fat people... like there always have been fat people, there always will be fat people.

THERE JUST SEEM TO BE A LOT MORE OF THEM NOWADAYS.
Certainly and you do see more of them these days and that's probably a part of the reason that they're maybe incorporating me, I don't know. I mean I think he's probably incorporating me because I have an amazing personality and I'm very fun and I'm a diva at heart. I think it is actually more about that than my size.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT TV PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE BIGGEST LOSER? DO YOU THINK THAT THEY'RE A GOOD IDEA IN ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO LOSE WEIGHT?
If you track the people who lose weight on those programs, they all gain it back. And so I think statistically the amount of people who actually genuinely lose weight and don't gain it back, is very rare. And I think what you should be working towards in my personal opinion, is not necessarily being fat or being thin but being healthy. And if someone feels badly enough, if you say, "You're so fat"... Have you ever been a fat person going to a gym? It's ridiculous. You go in and you are totally scoffed at. And humiliated. Because the people who are in the gyms, if you live in the city, Manhattan or wherever, they're very look conscious so it takes a very strong person to be able to go and to exercise. Most people my size primarily should be swimming because it's too much weight for your bones and that. So when you go swimming... I mean a fat person in a swimsuit... come with me swimming some time and you'll see that people will obviously laugh out loud when you walk right by. I can take it because I am very happy in my own body but there are so many women who can't which, if you add that to the fact that they're not going to feel comfortable exercising, then they're not going to be healthy.

BUT DO YOU THINK THAT LARGER PEOPLE... AND THERE ARE OF COURSE MUCH LARGER PEOPLE THAN YOU...
You can say fat people, that's OK.

...WHO CAN'T WALK BECAUSE THEY ARE SO LARGE, WHO CAN'T GET ON A PLANE BECAUSE THE SEAT ISN'T BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE THEM... DO YOU THINK THEY SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO CELEBRATE WHATEVER SIZE THEY ARE - OR BE ENCOURAGED TO LOOK AFTER THEIR HEALTH BY LOSING WEIGHT?
I think that they shouldn't be judged that's what I think. I think that's there's always going to be people who for whatever reason are going to be very different and that certainly is one of those, you know, extreme situations. I think what makes me very upset is seeing the programs that are based on these people where they have them naked and they're photographing them with video cameras. And we're made to be... made fun of. That makes me very upset.

BUT OBESITY IS IN FACT KILLING A LOT OF PEOPLE.
No I think if you look at what kills you as an obese person, it's really yoyo dieting that kills you. Because it changes your electrolytes and that's the factor that comes into play where you have heart attacks. If you stay relatively fat and you work out and you're healthy, then there's less chance of you having a heart attack. What gives you a heart attack is constant yoyo dieting, losing massive amounts of weight, gaining massive amounts of weight. For me, I went on Fen-Phen at one point in my life. They told me, "It's just going to be like you have a blood pressure drug, everyone has high blood pressure, you happen to have obesity, you're going to take it for the rest of your life, that's going to be that". And I went on it, and it was only after I lost 80 pounds in a matter of months, that thereafter everyone was like, "Well you know... it's causing holes in people's hearts". So the fact that it was the fastest-approved drug in American history only because they wanted to you know, address, quote unquote, obesity, they didn't make any research in it. So they're killing obese people because of that? That's ridiculous. And for me, what it is, it's the judgment. Because you can look at me and say "OK, you're fat, you're obese, therefore you're unhealthy". How many people here [at the Gaultier show] snort cocaine? How many people here drink? How many people here smoke? I mean it's ridiculous. So it's this health judgment based on initial appearance that I find so condescending. Because noone really has any idea what my health is versus anyone else's health.

HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU ARE IN FASHION SHOWS AND YOU'RE SURROUNDED BY SKINNY MODELS?
Oh it's great, I love it.

THEY MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY BE ANOREXIC - BUT MOST ARE NEVERTHELESS SKIN AND BONE.
You know, I think that a lot of them are just naturally thin. And I've got no problem with that.

SOME AVERAGE-SIZED WOMEN WHO ARE A LITTLE BIT LARGER THAN THE NORM FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AROUND THIN WOMEN.
Oh I don't, I love it. Well see I started out photographing models and that's actually where my size acceptance came into play. Because I was shooting models and I was not feeling good about my body and I was shooting women who were the ideal of beauty. And I was thinking, "They're not happy with themselves". And that's what was amazing to me, that was a huge revelation in fact. That here I was with these ideals of feminine beauty and they hated their bodies. Now if these women who are the ideals of feminine beauty of our society hate their bodies, then what exactly is going on?

THEY ARE IN FACT UNDER PRESSURE TO SAY THIN. MODELS ARE OFTEN TOLD BY THEIR AGENTS TO LOSE WEIGHT, SOME ARE EVEN TOLD TO HAVE LIPOSUCTION.
Oh yeah. I know of some models who are supermodels who have had liposuction, for a fact. And it's sad really because for me, it's a question of the more women you know, [who] don't like their body, the less energy they're going to spend on really using their genuine creativity and not wasting it on their looks at all times. Certainly looks are important but there are so many women who obsess, who speak constantly of dieting, constantly of losing weight, and their perception is, if they are a certain size, they will be happy. Much in the same way, that in some societies, if you're rich you will be happy. But that's not the essence of happiness.

PRESUMABLY GAULTIER HAD TO MAKE SOMETHING SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU. DO YOU GET TO KEEP IT?
Yes he did have to make something special for me. I'm sure I probably will. Initially I wasn't meant to keep [John] Galliano's because the historian wanted to keep it and my corset was underneath it, however John being who he is ended up giving it to me which is very kind of him.

DO YOU FEEL THAT DESIGNERS CATER ENOUGH TO LARGER SIZES?
I feel that the sexuality of bigger women is what is sort of sad. Because I feel that sexuality is power in some sense in women, whether we like to agree with that or not, I think it's true. And I think that either women who are fat.... If you put "fat" in the website you'll see porn, porn, porn, porn... So either total porn or they're totally asexual in muumuu's. And if they're on a television show they tend to be the third wheel, they tend to be not really addressed as sexual beings. So I think for me that's kind of the fine line that I'm trying to get in. And that's what I think he [Gaultier] saw in my portfolio because I'm an artist at heart. What I've done is... basically why I'm even here... I mean I'm 39. So in my book I've done like a swimsuit shoot with me and sort of taking the piss. Like trying to do Sports Illustrated with my body. Because I'm blessed with a quote, unquote, pretty face where people would accept it, it's an easy way for me too...

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RECENT SKINNY MODEL DEBATE?
I think what's interesting about it is you can't say anyone's too skinny or too fat. I think you saw when I came out, the reaction [applause] and I think that people just want diversity, you know.

SURE, HOWEVER VOGUE PROBABLY ISN'T RUSHING TO USE LARGE WOMEN ON ITS COVER.
I think American Vogue probably wouldn't but French Vogue... I was in the February issue. Based on the Galliano show, [fashion photographer] Nick Knight took some of us and we actually wrote our dreams. So if you go to www.showstudio.com, go into the archives and there is a piece called Editing Fashion and you can listen to my dream.

YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU HAVE SOME AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS.
Well... I just want to say that Australian men are fucking hot. And I'm very sorry actually because I loved Steve Irwin, as a typical American, and I thought he was an amazing person. And actually it's funny, you're going to think this is very silly but I was talking to [fellow Gaultier catwalker] Gemma Ward and I said that I dedicated my runway to Steve Irwin.

THERE WAS SOME INDUSTRY GOSSIP THAT SHE HAD SKIPPED THE MILAN SHOWS BECAUSE SHE HAD PUT ON WEIGHT.
Oh no way. Gemma is not a fatty let me tell you right now.

HOW DID YOU DEDICATE YOUR SHOW TO STEVE IRWIN?
Well no, I was just talking to some people and I said that he was just such an amazing person and I felt like he lived his life so fully. And I felt like that's how I live too and so I just thought I'm going to dedicate this show to Steve Irwin. In my heart, when I go out there I'm going to have his spirit and I did damn it.

JUST WATCH OUT FOR THE STINGRAYS.
That was tragic and I'd never even considered stingrays are anything to be scared of. It wasn't his fault. We can't blame him. He's teetered over fucking Great Whites and nothing's happened to him. I think you can't blame somebody for their death. What was meant to be was meant to be. He thought he was going to die young, he lived a great life...

Did you see Dita [Von Teese, in the audience]? Dita does great porn, I have one of her videos.

DO YOU DO PORN?
No I don't do porn. Why, do you want to do one with me?

I THINK YOU MIGHT SQUASH ME.
I think you might like it.


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