Model revheads: Dad and Orlando bonded over bikes

inco/fame pictures


It’s great for designers, and models, to be able to have their nearest-and-dearest with them at fashion shows. The only problem is keeping them away from the press. In Miranda Kerr’s case, after Tuesday night’s DJs show, there were 15 family members in tow. I had a quick chat with dad John Kerr - who revealed there was a little more to the story surrounding those motorcycle pics of Miranda’s bf Orlando Bloom that were shot at Dare Jennings' Sydney motorbike shop Deux ex Machina in May (^).


Is this the first runway show of Miranda’s that you’ve seen?
John Kerr: It’s the first big one that I’ve been to.

Which other shows have you seen?
I’m not sure. Not too many. Only on tv. Like everybody else, sit in the armchair and watch.

It’s a long way from Gunnedah.
Yeah, it’s not too bad. I drove down here last Sunday. Had dinner and breakfast with Miranda and then drove home.

There are quite a few famous Gunnedah girls. One bagged a Packer.
There is. Yes, that’s right.

And one might bag a Bloom?
Yeah, no… there’s some famous people that have come out of the area. There’s also sports people…

So, something in the water?
Must be (chuckles).

Miranda has had a fantastic career.
Oh yeah, yeah… It’s been amazing for her, yes.

She started when she was so young.
Yes she did. It was mainly for Dolly. And then she went and finished school. So she did year 11 and 12. And that’s when she really started to model full-time.

So you have your whole family here?
Pretty much.

How many people are here?
Fifteen of us all up.

Who’s here?
I’ve got my mum and dad. My sister and there’s some other cousins, Therese’s brother and sister-in-law and nephews and nieces.

So a whole family affair.
Pretty much.


john kerr with wife therese and miranda after tuesday night's show

Is there a David Jones in Gunnedah?
No. There might be soon!

Where is the nearest DJs?
I think you’ve got to go to Newcastle. There was one in Tamworth, but I think they closed it down. But yeah, they’re saying they’re opening up a few stores around the place.

And what do you think about Orlando?
He’s a nice guy.

When was the last time you saw him?
The last time I saw him was when he was here. Back a couple of months ago. We went motorbike riding together.

Did you? Where?
We went down south of here. Just trying to think of the place. It’s where they hold some motorbike riding…south of Sydney.

So some sort of competition?
No, no - just him and I.

What sort of bikes?
We rode Yamahas, KDMs, stuff like that.

Do you like motorbikes?
I like riding motorbikes.

What was Orlando like on a bike?
He was good.

How long were you riding bikes for?
All my life.

No I meant how long were you and Orlando riding bikes for?
Oh all day. Yep, all day.

So you hung out, had a few beers?
Yeah, yeah… no it was good.

Does he seem like a bit of a hellraiser to you?
No not really. Pretty sort of down to earth guy. I wouldn’t call him a hellraiser.

Noone had any stacks?
No, not at all. We had special guides. Actually training us how to ride better. So that was good. Because even though I’ve ridden motorbikes all my life, you don’t know everything. You can still teach an old dog new tricks.

Miranda Kerr: I was a teenage political pawn

1997 dolly scan via vogue.com.au


Had a (very) quick chat with new David Jones fashion ambassador Miranda Kerr after last night’s show. I was particularly interested in her take on the recent decision by DJs to ban under-18 models from its runway show. I thought Kerr would be well-placed to comment on the subject given that she made her modelling debut in Dolly at the age of 13 (see above scan^), in a blaze of controversy.

Sadly I am unable to quickly locate the original print stories from 1997. I was however working in current affairs television at the time and I recall the "child porn" outcry.

There is a quote that is widely attributed to Kerr on matter, on the net – the exact origin of which is unclear.

The quote appears on many modelling sites and on what appears to be a Victoria's Secret fan site, under Kerr's Victoria's Secret Angel profile.

Here is the quote:

“They were blowing out [sic] of proportion. In the media at the time they were trying to cling on to anything remotely to do with paedophilia. Dolly is a magazine for teenage girls, not for old men. And I was fully clothed! Doing a winter shoot! They just made something out of nothing.”

The Australia Institute appears to have a slightly different opinion on the subject of children in advertising - even when the children are advertising childrens' clothes.

In its 2006 discussion paper Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of Children in Australia, the Institute pointed the finger at several retailers over marketing material which featured children.

David Jones dropped legal action against the Institute in May 2008.


kerr rocking alex perry last night



Here is the i/v with Kerr done backstage last night, before Kerr was whisked away to other duties.


David Jones recently introduced a ban for under-18 models. You yourself started modelling at 13.
Miranda Kerr: I wasn’t doing fashion parades at that age. I was modelling for magazines that were targetted for young girls.

There was a lot of controversy at the time.
There was. That was running in the media at the time. There were people running for Senate and they were using me as a platform to enhance their own careers basically.

Gemma Ward started her career at 15 – she was in at least one David Jones show.
The thing is that I was always at school and I never let modelling interfere with school and I just modelled for Dolly magazine, which was a young girls’ magazine at the time. I was two weeks off 14.

Do you think girls should be modelling at 14?
Well I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with it. But I think the reason why David Jones has said ‘We’re not having them for the runway show...’ is because, for the runway show, their target audience is women and adults. So that’s why they’ve chosen adults to model for them. So it makes sense to choose adults [who are] over 18.

Front-of-house David Jones

Times might be tough, retail sales might have fallen by their biggest margin in six years and almost half of David Jones market value might have been wiped in 2008, but you couldn't wipe the smiles off the DJs crew last night at the SS0809 season launch.

With the exception of Collette Dinnigan's bodycon glitter finale, DJs looks to be hoping for a trapeze-led recovery.

The trapeze-line shift, voluminous babydoll, sack or smock has been on the retail horizon for well over twelve months. Consumers couldn't buy enough of them - much to the chagrin of many men, who decried their tent-like appeal as sexless. Some hoped to see the back of this trend.

But I lost count of the trapeze shapes last night at DJs.



Even DJs group general manager for apparel, cosmetics, footwear and accessories Colette Garnsey was rocking a hot pink Akira trapeze dress. Here's Garnsey with general manager womenswear David Bush, incoming fashion ambassador Miranda Kerr and the incumbent Megan Gale at the post-show press call:



Searing colour was also big news, the maxidress trend is not going away (as we saw at the Australian Fashion Week SS0809 shows in April), ditto florals, embellishment (even for men), feminine ruffles, a touch of Techno Tribal, leggings and 50s-look full skirts.




With not only the world's tenth highest-earning model as the retailer's new fashion ambassador, but also top international catwalker Alexandra Agoston and hot newcomers Sarah Stephens, Louise van der Vorst and Rachel Rutt, DJs' runway lineup was impressive.

Sarah Stephens:



Rachel Rutt:



Some of the other models did not seem terribly confident at all however. Some also looked a lot older than those models which the fashion crowd is used to seeing in most runway presentations, both in Australia and overseas.

Given that DJs recently banned under-18s from the show - when in seasons past it has employed models at least as young as 15 - that's hardly surprising.










Dinnigan's finale was particularly strong. Of course, she showed embellished cocktail dresses - that's her signature.

But these versions seemed shorter, sharper and more bodycon than ever before. The dresses reminded me of the Flapper showgirl costumes in Chicago.

Backstage @ David Jones

kent vaughan

It ain't Dior - but it might just be Victoria's Secret.

Backstage at the David Jones Spring Summer 2008/2009 show, Sydney, 5th August, with two of Australia's best-known modelling exports - Victoria's Secret Angel/new David Jones face Miranda Kerr and Galliano muse Alexandra Agoston - vamping it up in Jets swimwear and Sydney Mardi Gras headpieces from Priscilla. Shot by makeup artist Kent Vaughan, who worked on the show.

FGI roadshow Part I

fgi


I was honoured to be invited to moderate the industry panel discussions at the “Fashion Flash” trends presentations of Fashion Group International's Australian chapter last week. It was in fact the third time that I have been involved in these panels. And while in seasons past I had only ever attended the Sydney event, this time I did both Sydney and Melbourne. It was a lot of fun – and I made one fascinating discovery.

For anyone not familiar with FGI, it’s a non-profit organisation for fashion/beauty/accessories/apparel professionals which is headquartered in New York and boasts 5000 members worldwide.

It was launched in 1928 and its founding members included Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Edith Head, Claire McCardell and Carmel Snow.

No men? That’s right. FGI was founded as a womens-only organisation – at a time when, as FGI’s current president Margaret Hayes reminded those gathered at the organisation's international conference last November in Sydney, the only jobs that women could get were in the fashion, beauty etc industries.

FGI's first office space was donated in fact by Fairchild Publications founder Louis Fairchild - within his Womens Wear Daily building.

Today FGI's board of directors boasts such fashion/beauty luminaries as Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and Evelyn Lauder and its annual Night of Stars Gala is a big deal in NY.

Oh - and men have since been allowed in.

So as I say, I was honoured to be asked to be involved once again.

The “Fashion Flash” is staged twice a year.

In Australia the event is basically a breakfast (Sydney) or small cocktail (Melbourne) at which FGI’s biannual trends video is shown.

For those who have never seen one before, this trends video is a pretty comprehensive, 40-minute presentation which canvasses the major runway news from approximately 200 shows of the most recent international season.

The videos are narrated by FGI’s longstanding fashion/creative director Marylou Luther and edited in collaboration with a seasonal panel of fashion experts. This season the panel included senior reps from Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and the US magazines Harpers Bazaar and W.

The industry reps later reassemble for a panel discussion following one of the video’s New York showings (I gather they run multiple showings in NY). InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein moderated the most recent NY panel discussion in April.

It's a similar scenario here, only that the Australian industry panellists obviously are not involved in the video's editing process.

Although that said, for the Spring/Summer 2008 video which was shown here in November, shots from Australian designer shows in New York and Paris were in fact included - for the first time in the 20-odd years that FGI has been putting the videos together. This was in honour of the fact that FGI's quadrennial international conference was being held that month in Sydney.

In seasons past, I have shared the podium with local names such as Wayne Cooper, Jayson Brunsdon and Aurelio Costarella.

Last week in Sydney, my fellow panellists were Ivan Gomez from the Vicious Threads streetwear label, eveningwear designer Matthew Eager and tailoring specialist Joe Farage.

Beyond the key highlighted trends which include black, purple, jewel colours, the dress, the jacket, winter florals, embellishment, statement jewellery, the stiletto pump, the clutch purse... it was pretty difficult to ignore two overwhelming messages.

The first was Australian models.

There are more Australian models than ever before on international runways and I lost count of the runway shots of local girls. Given the number of shows featured, and the number of models who walked in the FW0809 season shows, there did seem to be an awfully high concentration of Australian faces amongst the images. And multiple images of several models.

Spot the Australians:











Even harder to ignore was the word Recession.

FGI's FW0809 video was peppered with references to the state of the US economy and the word "Recession", together with phrases such as “austerity chic”.

After the presentation I intro'd the panel discussion with a brief chat about Australian designers in the US, the "disaster" of US retail which some Australians are reporting and some of their respective alternative expansion plans. A case in point, Jayson Brunsdon's new Singapore boutique.

The day before the Sydney presentation, coincidentally, WWD had in fact devoted its cover story to "Fashion's First Aid Kit", together with a graphic of a white doctor's bag and nine key survival points that had been gleaned via discussions with 30 key business leaders.

I read the nine points out - and, amusingly, they wound up in a recording of the following day's presentation in Melbourne (see next post).

The panel then chatted about the coming winter trends but more importantly, the business/retail climate and how each business is adapting.



Among many other points, Matthew Eager (^) mentioned the need to be conscious of price points.



Ivan Gomez (^) talked about diversifying into corporate and other licensed apparel.



And in the experience of Joe Farage (^), the tailoring business is somewhat insulated from economic downturns.

A large percentage of Farage's business (which is split 50/50 womens/mens) is work attire. When times are tough, and for obvious reasons, it seems everyone wants to look their best on the job.













The bag on the left below really stood out. I just couldn't put my finger on where I had seen it before....

Gemma Ward's Black Balloon to hit US - apparently does like to play guitar at 5000metres

bunny bisous

In spite of the fact that Gemma Ward spoke in February about going bush in Australia in the wake of the death of mate Heath Ledger, I was sceptical about a recent blog post which has been doing the rounds, which claims that Ward recently trekked Nepal's Annapurna Circuit.

You would figure that if it had been Ward, there would have been some clear photographic evidence – and not just a long-distance shot of a tiny figure, with the caption “That’s Gemma!”, followed by a second shot on a separate blog of the back of a blonde woman’s head.

Not to mention a highly suspicious Photoshop job (above) involving a modelling image of Ward mashed up against a Nepalese mountain backdrop.

The original post was published on July 9 on a blog called Uncornered Market, penned by adventurers Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll. The story has since appeared on a number of web forums and blogs.

Ward's New York agency IMG told me overnight that noone has so far bothered to check the story's bona fides.

But in the event that anyone is remotely interested in accuracy, here’s the word from IMG – yes it is her.

The reason there are no shots, say Scott and Noll, is because they did not realise who Ward was until after the trek was over.

When Scott and Noll returned to civilisation, they checked Ward's identity on the net, confirming the trekking rumours:

“And we only truly believed them when we connected to the internet and found the photo above. By then it was too late to play alpine paparazzi”.

According to Scott and Noll, Ward “was quite like the rest of us” and:

“shared the same outhouses, slept in the same bug-ridden lodges, ate the same repetitive food (although she did splurge for yak curry when the rest of us were too cheap), experienced the same altitude anxieties and faced the same prospect of being trampled by yaks”.

But a few things did single Ward out from the other trekkers, say the bloggers, who also report that Ward:

• Had a “good hair day” every day, even on days with cold, or no, showers at 5000 metres.

• Had her guide carry an acoustic guitar and spent 5-10 minutes playing after each meal.

• Had a porter carry two “mysterious....fully stuffed body-sized waterproof bags”. (Ward’s comment on the contents: “Stuff”)

• Drank US$5 bottled mineral water while the other trekkers disinfected the local water with iodine tablets or chlorine drops.

Meanwhile Variety reports that North American rights for Ward’s debut feature The Black Balloon, which grossed $2million at the Australian box office, have just been picked up, with a view to an October release in “key US cities”.

Goot to go: Goot on schedule at LFW

josh goot

Josh Goot still won’t return frockwriter’s calls. But no matter. Two days after London Fashion Week organisers told this blog that Goot would be showing in London next month, comes the release of LFW’s provisional SS09 schedule and there is Goot’s name: pencilled in for 9.30am on LFW's closing day, Friday 19th September.

Goot is a three-season veteran of New York Fashion Week, where his small off-schedule shows were at times lost in that city’s gargantuan event - which embraces up to 300 shows a season, two-thirds of them off-schedule.

The designer is about to join a far more compact, manageable, schedule which boasts some of Britain’s most prestigious fashion names.

Yes London Fashion Week is a fraction of the size of the New York, Milan and Paris events. Many buyers and media representatives simply give London a miss and use the week as a breather in between New York and the Milan/Paris juggernaut.

On the plus side, London is regarded as a creative hotbed and there is considerably less competition for media coverage.

Representing a mixture of British fashion establishment and the avant-garde, the other names on LFW's SS09 schedule so far include:

• Marios Schwab
• Christopher Kane
• Richard Nicoll
• Giles Deacon
• Roksanda Illincic
• Luella Bartley
• Eley Kishimoto
• Julien Macdonald
• Issa
• Aquascutum
• Paul Costelloe
• Temperley London
• Paul Smith
• Jasper Conran
• Jaeger London
• Nicole Farhi
• Adidas by Stella McCartney
• Vivienne Westwood Red Label

The only show venue clue listed with Goot's name is "W1" - aka London's West End, which includes Piccadilly Circus, Mayfair, Park Lane, Leicester Square as well as Bond, Oxford, and Baker Streets.

Given Goot's track record, the venue is most likely to be spartan and edgy, as in a small art gallery or a refurbed industrial space. And definitely nowhere near Julien Macdonald's preferred W1 venue: the glitzy ballrooom of the Park Lane Hotel.

Although it will be Goot’s first time at London Fashion Week, he won’t be the only Aussie on the schedule.

Goot will join London-based, Oz-raised Richard Nicoll and also hot newcomer Louise Markey.

As yet unknown in Australia, Markey moved to London in 2003 after completing a Bachelor of Fashion from the University of Technology.

Markey worked for Burberry designing womens' shirts, before undertaking her Masters at London’s Central Central Saint Martins fashion college.

Markey made her LFW debut in February with her LF Markey label, as part of the Central Saint Martins graduation show.

On Thursday 18th September she will be one of four finalists in LFW’s big buzz Fashion Fringe competition.

And then there were two: sass & bide pull out of New York Fashion Week

sarah-jane clarke and heidi middleton/vogue.com.au


Last week frockwriter revealed that just three Australians would be showing at New York Fashion Week’s Spring Summer 2009 season, which kicks off on September 4: NYFW rookie Alice McCall, Aurelio Costarella and sass & bide. That’s compared to six Australian brands in NY two years ago. The sass & bide show news, I also mentioned, came as a surprise, given that I had previously heard they might not be showing at all. Overnight on The Daily – whose parent company IMG operates the NYFW schedule shows – comes word that sass & bide has pulled out of the event altogether.

Although sass & bide's name was certainly listed on New York's Fashion Calendar a week ago, yesterday Heidi Middleton told The Daily:

"After such an exciting year, we've decided to take a break from New York's Fashion Week this season, and focus our energies on a couple of new projects happening over the coming months. We look forward to the next".

In spite of the fact that Perth-based Aurelio Costarella will not only be showing for the third time in New York next month, but he will be showing on the official IMG schedule for the first time – with his show time now listed on the updated NY Fashion Calendar – that news does not appear to have trickled through to The Daily, which also reports:

“Sass and Bide's absence leaves Alice McCall, who is showing for the first time in New York, as the only Australian designer at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week”.

One assumes The Daily has confused McCall with Costarella.

According to McCall, she is not showing on schedule at all - ie in the IMG-operated "Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week" component of NYFW - but off-schedule at the Altman building.

Costarella is the only Australian now confirmed to show on-schedule in New York. And given that he has apparently already paid monies to IMG for the privilege of so doing, it's a bit of an awkward slipup really.

Times are tough at the moment - but particularly in the US.

The sass & bide news comes one day after my story in WWD about the new diffusion label from another stellar Australian jeans brand - 18th Amendment.

Called The Beautiful and Damned, the line launched exclusively in Sportsgirl in Australia this week – and WWD revealed that 18th Amendment owners Rachel and James Rose are currently in negotiations with Topshop for a similar deal in the UK.

There has been plenty of positive press on The Beautiful and Damned launch in Australia.

But as the Roses have found over the past eight months - along with many other fashion players - the US retail climate has been anything but positive.

Rachel Rose told WWD that her company recently pulled out of over 100 US stores and is now attempting to claw back a half million dollar debt out of that market.

Rose told WWD:

“Retail is dire [in the U.S.]. We’re spread across 20 markets, but a lot of Australian labels who may only export to the U.S., I’d hate to think what situation they’re in”.

In a July 18 story about his Singapore store launch, Jayson Brunsdon told WWD that his US store numbers have halved from 60 to 30.

Noted Brundson, of the US retail climate:

"It's pretty bad".

Is Jezebel's model mole looking at a book deal?

jenna sauers/elite milano



If frockwriter’s Sitemeter intel is anything to go by, then perhaps so. Regular readers will recall a recent post which discussed the mystery surrounding the real identity of "Tatiana Anymodel", the anonymous model mole who pens the Modelslips column on the New York-based, Gawker spinoff women’s blog, Jezebel. UPDATE 22/07/09: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.

Frockwriter profiled three models who have been touted on various web forums as potential Tatianas.

As far as frockwriter is aware, only two of the three models already pen their own blogs. The blogs were linked in the post.

Now non-bloggers may be fascinated – or perhaps mortified – to learn just how much information the average blogger is able to glean from their readers.

Services such as Google Analytics and Sitemeter provide detailed visitor information at a glance, including not just IP addresses, but also company domain names, referring sites, entry and exit pages etc.

Two days ago, I was intrigued to spot the name of a major international, US-based, publishing house checking in on frockwriter.

The company representative had gone directly to, and was interested specifically in, just one thread from a fortnight ago: The Tatiana mystery: Is Kiwi Jenna Sauers Jezebel’s model mole?

Jezebel is an extremely high profile blog which, in the space of a mere year, has swept aside millions of other blogs to grab a Technorati Top 100 position, with an authority of 4,399 and a rank of 57.

Paris-based American model/actor Velvet d’Amour recently told me that after one of her recent interviews was picked up by Jezebel and run as a two-parter, she was pursued by two separate literary agents, both of whom seemed confident of securing a book deal.

When I wrote 'The Tatiana Mystery' post, low-profile, New Zealand-born and –raised model Jenna Sauers appeared to be the most likely candidate of the three names put forward – if indeed Tatiana is to be found amongst these three names.

As mentioned in that post, Sauers had already once flatly denied that she is Tatiana - on The Fashion Spot web forum.

In a comment dated July 30 on her own blog, Sauers denied once again that she is the author of Modelslips.

Noted Sauers:

"I’m not the anonymous columnist....There are an awful lot of models who are smart and good-enough writers to do what the Jezebel blogger does, and plenty who are also low enough on the fashion food chain for their on-the-side efforts to go unnoticed. The one reason this whole issue doesn’t bother me is that at least I know everyone within the industry knows this; they spend all day meeting models who read, models who care about politics, models who are passionate about film and who can talk up a storm on 100 topics. I think it’s just non-industry folk who go “Wa-hey! A smart moddle! With her bloggity-bloggin!” and immediately assume I’m Jezebel’s source”.

Tatiana’s latest post on Jezebel meanwhile, dated July 29, discusses dating issues.

Tatiana refers to a recent ex as “The Guy”. And she refers to said ex's disdain of her favourite author:

“My favorite author was someone he, personally, found 'pessimistic and dry', and it spoke volumes about my personality that I attached a 'talismanic authority' to the author's works and persona. ("So," mused a friend, 'if you liked Ann Rice, you'd be too much of a bloodsucker?') I have the wrong color hair and I'm an atheist lacking in appreciation for life's mysteries”.

On July 16 on her own blog, Sauers referred to a recent breakup with a boyfriend.

In a July 19 post Sauers refers to some model mates as "The Lithuanian" and "The Ukrainian".

In Sauers’ own blog bio, she refers to herself as:

“a moderately obsessive Joan Didion fan”.

Sauers also refers to Didion in three other blog posts.

RELATED:
MODEL BLOGS AND BLACKLISTS
THE TATIANA MYSTERY: IS KIWI JENNA SAUERS JEZEBEL'S MODEL MOLE?
ON THE RECORD: JENNA SAUERS
MOE BETTER CLUES?