Teen model axed from Aussie Fashion Week

A furore has forced organisers of Australian Fashion Week to revoke a decision to feature a 14-year-old Polish model in the event.
Organisers had planned to fly 14-year-old Polish girl Monika Jagaciak to Australia for the fashion week, which starts later this month. It has since released a statement announcing all models must be at least 16.

"In light of industry and community concern regarding the acceptable age for models to appear on the catwalk at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week , RAFW today revised its industry policy," the statement said.

"Effective immediately both male and female models participating in RAFW will need to be at least 16 years of age and must be represented by a model agency."

Concern over Jagaciak's age had been an over-reaction, said Mink Sadowsky, a former model and talent development manager with Chadwick Models. While the Australian industry typically did not use models aged under 16, having supervision of a guardian was more important than a girl's age, Ms Sadowsky said.

"If a 14-year-old wants to get on a runway and put on a beautiful dress, why shouldn't she? As long as she's chaperoned by a guardian or manager.

"It's making a bit of a mountain out of a molehill - I don't think it needs to be made a front-page story, there are other important things going on in the world.

"At the end of the day, I think if the family is behind the talent and the girl has some sense of social intelligence and maturity, perhaps she should be able to model."

Monika Jagaciak has previously fronted a campaign for French fashion house Hermes and been photographed in a white swimsuit being sprayed by a shower jet. Her inclusion in AFW has re-ignited the contentious issue of underage modelling.

London Fashion Week has banned under-16-year-olds from its catwalks and, in France, a licence is required before an under-16-year-old can model. No such licence is required in Australia, but there was a public outcry when 12-year-old Maddison Gabriel won a Gold Coast fashion competition last year.

AFW founder Simon Lock was initially unrepentant about bringing Jagaciak to Australia.

"The designers love these models as coat hangers for their clothes," Mr Lock told News Limited.

"They don't want to exploit their sexuality in any way whatsoever." He said Jagaciak would chaperoned by an agent and had her parents' approval. But Ms Sadowsky predicted AFW might need to reconsider its decision. "If there's an overwhelming feeling that it makes people uncomfortable, then majority rules ... it shouldn't detract from what's a positive event."

The Australian fashion industry was conscious of concerns surrounding underage modelling, and agencies worked hard to protect their own reputations and that of the industry, Ms Sadowsky said.

"I don't think girls are ever put into compromising positions," she said.

Source : Fairfax New Zealand Limited

Outcry In Australia Over Underage Fashion Models

Australian Fashion Week organizers faced a public outcry recently over hiring 14-year-old Polish girl Monika Jagaciak as the top model for next month's event in Sydney. Fashion week chief organizer Simon Lock took a stand on the issue of child models.

Lock stated that there has been criticism of the industry in the past for promoting the Lolita syndrome and then said that was something the AFW would not stand for. The South African Press Association reported that Lock said, "The designers love these models as coat hangers for their clothes. They don't want to exploit their sexuality in any way whatsoever."

One of Jagaciak's recent modeling assignments saw her under a shower posing in a white swimming outfit.

Lock's stand against young models lasted until mid-day, when rather than announce a change of heart himself, the AFW released a statement on his behalf stating that no models under 16 would be allowed to appear at the event and that Jagaciak could stay at school.

The statement said, "Policies are constantly revisited and endorsed by the AFW's industry advisory board to ensure the event best served the industry and reflected community attitudes towards issues surrounding the fashion industry."

This is the second time the AFW has caused a commotion. Last year Lock defended his right to send really thin models down the catwalk. He reportedly said that self-regulation was working and there was no need to ban waifs from working in the industry.

Source : AHN Media Corp

Pirelli refines the art of the girlie calendar

It is elevated to fine art, with famous models posing for top fashion photographers.

All little boys had seen them, stuck to pegboards at the back of a garage, the only bursts of color amid the dank light and grime and tools. Girlie calendars were there to sneak a guilty peek at while our fathers were talking to the mechanic about the ping in the family Chrysler. They spoke to feelings boys had but were thought not of a piece with polite middle-class life. Here, among working men and dirt, was where these thoughts belonged, even if the women on the calendars looked as if they were used to much classier surroundings.

From 1964 to 1974 and then from 1984 to the present, Italian tire company Pirelli has lifted the girlie calendar from those grimy origins, sending its yearly version of the world's most famous models, actresses and other lovelies shot by the world's most famous fashion photographers to a select lucky group.

Every few years, venerable art-book publisher Rizzoli compiles the calendars into ever bigger volumes. The latest edition, "The Complete Pirelli Calendars," weighs 10 1/2 pounds and retails for $85.

There's a case to be made for the Pirelli calendar as having its own niche among the best fashion and glamour photography of the last five decades. The great German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who shot the calendar in 1996 and 2002, says that he has had editorial control to shoot the kind of photos he wants. A calendar initially conceived as a commercial venture has, as Lindbergh says, "become much more of an artistic endeavor."

Italian critic Edmondo Berselli, who contributes an essay to this latest collection of the Pirelli calendar, wrote in an e-mail that the calendar can be read as "the behavioral paradigm of our times: liberty, subjectivism, relativism, tolerance." Berselli's essay charts the increase of explicitness in the calendar over the years and notes the slow inclusion of women of color (an interesting omission because Terence Donovan's abandoned 1963 prototype is the most racially diverse of the calendars; Donovan shot the calendar with only black models in 1987, featuring teenage Naomi Campbell).

There can be little doubt that the legacy and ongoing glory of the calendar are the collaborations between artist and model -- and it's a tribute to the vividness of the women before the camera that they can be called collaborators. Mario Testino, with an obvious nod to the late Helmut Newton, essays portraits of upper-class decadence in his 2001 portfolio, most memorably Karen Elson, oblivious to the guests behind her, looking over her shoulder from beneath Veronica Lake bangs, pulling up her gown to reveal her charming bottom. The late Richard Avedon turned in a stunning 1995 essay on the seasons in which Campbell, daubed with gold leaf, stands for the dying intensity of late August, and Nadja Auermann, looking out from a face mask of icicles, is the frigidity of deep winter.

Lindbergh's two collections both attest to the fascination with behind-the-scenes that have characterized his work. ("Making is more interesting and more intriguing than the result," Lindbergh told me.) Lindbergh's series of models waiting in the desert to be photographed includes indelible images of the glorious Tatjana Patitz, who could be equally at home in Raymond Chandler or Dostoevsky, and, nude but for a pair of heels, an insouciant Kristen McNemeny sitting casually in a director's chair waiting to be summoned. Lindbergh's 2004 Hollywood portfolio features young actresses on a nearly deserted back lot.

If, as Berselli says, photography is about fetishism, then let me pay tribute to my favorite Pirelli image, Lindbergh's portrait of Julia Stiles. Defying convention, Lindbergh shoots her fully clothed in white dress shirt, black trousers and black tie. A plastic foam coffee cup and rolled-up script sit on the loading dock behind her. Standing with her hands in her pockets, Stiles flirts with both the eroticism of the shots of Dietrich in men's clothes and the casual elegance we associate with those off-camera shots of the likes of Gary Cooper. It's at once traditional and subversive, a perfect example of what Lindbergh means when he says he believes the most potent beauty is "grounded in context of the world" and an example of a Pirelli calendar's unabated ability to give pleasure.

Source : Los Angeles Times

Sophie Dahl Fashion Model

Sophie Dahl Fashion Model

Name: Sophie Dahl
Nationality: British (English)
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Date of Birth: September 15 1977
Place of Birth: London, England, UK
Height: 5'11" ; 180cm
Measurements: (US) 36-26-37 ; (EU) 91.5-66-94
Dress Size: (US) 6 ; (EU) 36
Shoe Size: (US) 7 ; (EU) 39


Biography :

Sophie Dahl is an English fashion model and author of Norwegian descent. Her mother is writer Tessa Dahl and her father is actor Julian Holloway (son of actor Stanley Holloway).

Sophie Dahl Fashion Model

Sophie Dahl was discovered by Isabella Blow on a London street at the age of 18. At a voluptuous dress size and 38DD bra-size, Dahl defied the stick-thin modelling status quo; she is largely known for being a plus-size model, although she has since lost weight and is now of similar proportions to other fashion models. Her best-known work was a magazine and poster advertisement for an Yves Saint Laurent perfume called Opium, showing her lying naked on a black velvet sheet. There were many complaints about the advertisement, resulting in its being removed from billboards in the UK, and totally banned in France.

Agencies:

- Take 2 Model Management
- Storm Models
- D Management Group
- Marilyn Agency

Sophie Dahl Fashion Model

Advertisements:

Alexander McQueen eyes, Bali Bras, Banana Republic, Barely There, Boucheron, Burberry, DKNY, Godiva Chocolatier, Jennifer Nicholson, MaxStudio.com, Paul & Joe, Versace Jeans Couture, Windsor, Yves Saint Laurent Opium fragrance

Magazine Covers:

Germany: 'Elle' - January 2003
Germany: 'D' - September 2000; 'Vogue' - February 2000; 'Vogue' - April 2000
Germany: 'Marie Claire' - June 2000; 'Elle' - August 2001, April 2004; 'Vogue' - May 2002, January 2003, November 2007

Fashion Shows:

Ready to wear - Spring/Summer 2001 {Christian Lacroix, Diane von Furstenberg, Fendi}
Ready to wear - Autumn/Winter 2001 {Matthew Williamson}
Ready to wear - Spring/Summer 2002 {Imitation of Christ}
Ready to wear - Autumn/Winter 2002 {Gattinoni, Zac Posen}
Ready to wear - Spring/Summer 2003 {Diane von Furstenberg, MRS, Matthew Williamson, Zac Posen}
Haute Couture - Autumn/Winter 2003 {Jean-Paul Gaultier}
Ready to wear - Autumn/Winter 2004 {Esteban Cortazar, Matthew Williamson, Sand}
Haute Couture - Autumn/Winter 2004 {Jean Paul Gaultier}

Source : http://www.sophie-dahl.com