Model vs Actress - Who is 'on Vogue'?

Niki Taylor (below, in full 90's mode) has spoken out about the increasing numbers of fashion contracts & covers being swooped up be celebrities - mainly, actresses. When asked the question What changes in consciousness would you like to see in the fashion industry?", Niki replied to FutureClaw mag "Put models back on covers of magazines and in campaigns and let the movie stars do movies."

Niki was one of the supers back in the 90's. My favourite Niki Taylor shot is from UK Vogue (top of post). I had it on my wall circa 1992, she's wearing a Vivienne Westwood bustier outfit and is looking very Cindy C - people used to confuse the two of them. It's also great to see Cindy Crawford in the same mag! And to see the 90's supers featuring in the fashion glossies again - Amber Valetta, Kristin McMenamy, Naomi Campbell - and Kate Moss never left!

Niki sometimes modeled with her pretty younger sister, Krissy. Tragically, Krissy died in 1995, from an acute asthma attack stemming from cardiac arrhythmia.

6 Years later, Niki was involved a horrific car crash in 2001, resulting a coma for 6 weeks with injuries to her back, lungs and liver. It took 56 doctors to operate on her spine. This FutureClaw image is a nod to that surgery.
I can see where Niki's coming from - heavyweight fashions mags such as W, US Vogue and ELLE especially have been putting actresses on their covers for a long time now, and UK Vogue and ELLE has started to features actresses a lot more often, with Lily Allen, Demi Moore, Keira Knightly, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, Carey Mulligan, Kate Hudson some of the latest, off the top of my head. And lately, it seems labels and fashion House campaigns feature actresses more often than not - Julianne Moore for Bulgari, Madonna and Scarlet Johannson for Dolce & Gabbana, Victoria Beckham and Sofia Coppola for Marc Jacobs, January Jones for Versace, Lily Allen for Chanel, Leighton Meester for Missoni...it goes on. Let actresses promote other products - like Scarlet's cool campaign for Moet & Chandon, below.

Personally, give me a model any day - we all know that 99% of actresses don't even choose their outfits, yet are lauded as fashion icons. It's duplicitous. At least, for the most part, models actually live and breath fashion, they have access to the best of the best and they innately style themselves to suit. Granted, they have the access to all of the labels - but they still don't need to pay a stylist to dress them in the morning. Look no further than at one of the most admired, imitated fashion icons of our generation for proof - Kate Moss. You can just see her pulling out a fur gilet and her Westwood boots after a night on the booze with the band.

Case in point - the Vogue UK edition with Emma Watson on the cover. A very wishy-washy, drab cover, yet inside is an A-Mazing Testino shoot, Star Girls- 'A Decade of Supermodels' - this Thread from The Fashionspot concurs. One of the model shots should have been the cover. I mean, just take a butcher's at these:

I understand that fashion houses think that getting celeb to front a line will bring in big bucks. But personally, I think let the models do their thing - actresses, stick to your own media!

Kate Moss and Lea T in LOVE

Yay, my fave mag's latest issue is out! the Theme 'This is Hard Core' aligns several of my favourite things - Kate Moss, Mert & Marcus, and Pulp! The song 'This is Hardcore' by Pulp, one of my favourites, is featured in the promo.

Kate Moss on the cover - great to see her back in an edgy shoot, with amazing styling from the faux-hawk to her clear, freckled skin. She looks beautiful. Kate is photographed by Mert & Marcus with Lea T, a trans gender model who is in the process of a sex-change. Lea - born Leonardo - was discovered by Givenchy Creative Director Ricardo Tisci.

LOVE Ed Katie Grand saw Lea (above, second from right) at the Copacabana Pool Hotel, clad Givenchy: "At first I didn’t notice her gender, just that she was wearing Givenchy couture and looked amazing!'"

Riccardo Tisci insists that, despite the impact of the decision, casting a trans gender model in his latest campaign is not intended purely to raise fashion eyebrows. The model, Lea T, is his long-time personal assistant and former fit model - and Tisci insists she perfectly embodies the collection. "She's always been very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic. She's part of the family," Tisci told WWD, adding that including a trans gender person in the campaign exemplifies the masculine-feminine dichotomy that has become one of his design signatures." Vogue.com. French Vogue features a nude Lea T in this confronting image. The fashion industry may discriminate against larger models, but it is admirable that more often than not don't discriminate against gay, trans sexual or trans gender people.

"When you are a transsexual, you look for your future, and you can't see it," Lea told the New York Times. "I thought this would be a nice message for another tranny: 'Look, we can be the same as other girls and boys.' It's small, but it makes you feel like you have a little chance. Maybe a transsexual will open a magazine and think: 'That's cool. We can be whatever we want.' That's why I did the Givenchy campaign." Vogue.com



More power to you Lea!



Here's 'This is Hardcore.' xox

Real girls

Crystal Renn, Tush Magazine, 2010

Carrying on from my previous post, I love a curvy girl. And leading up to Christmas, this email has been sent to me by many a girlfriend. How very true. Curvy girls seem to always be smiling, they look like they shag a lot, eat good food and have a dam good time. Not angsting over how many calories they have ingested and pinching at their skin. Surely the stress would send you to an early grave, if that lack of nutrition didn't first.

It seems the fashion world has taken a shift lately in praise of models who are over a size 0. Last year, Size 18, Beth Ditto appeared on the cover of the inaugural LOVE magazine, and now has her own plus size line for sizes 14-32 at British store Evans.

'Curvy' Lara Stone goes from strength to strength (although she is not exactly large - but is quite Amazonian with those amazing legs and boobs).

Lara Stone, Vogue Italia 2010

Lara Stone, Vogue UK January 2010

In quite a scandalous statement for the fashion industry, in April this year Creative Director of Calvin Klein Francisco Costa vowed not to use any models under a size 0. "Calvin Klein has discontinued their use of the Size 0-2 Models and traded them in for a 2-4...a sign of the times indeed," Even 'Kaiser' Karl Lagerfeld - who has long been a lover of the skinnier models (saying in 2009 "Skinny models just look better") - featured 'plus size' model Crystal Renn three times on his catwalk this year:

The brilliant Andre Leon Talley from American Vogue said "Lagerfeld had cast the show with a slightly more curvaceous model named Crystal Renn, not seen on any Chanel catwalk before. This in itself was groundbreaking for the house, but there was also the return of personality models encouraged to be themselves instead of robotic look-alikes. 'Each girl was cast because of her sense of individuality,' Lagerfeld said enthusiastically."

Crystal Renn for Dolce & Gabbana

Crystal Renn, Vogue Germany, May 2006

Crystal Renn, Vogue Paris, August 2010

Crystal Renn is also a firm fave of Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana and Tom Ford, who says has long been a fashion fave for her crazy curves, although she has shrunk somewhat of late. In her shoot for Tom Ford she is veritably tiny - but I love this shoot for ELLE Canada by Leda and St Jacques. The light, the colour, the angles, the makeup, the clothes,the pretty horses! Absolutely beautiful.

Cystal Renn, ELLE Canada, August 2010

In another leap for normal sized women, Robert Duffy of Marc Jacobs announced in August this year that they will be creating a line of clothes for Size 14. "We are in talks now. For plus sizes," Duffy Tweeted. "Listen, we are in the very beginning stages of talking to a partner about plus sizes...We gotta do larger sizes" Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and YSL are rumored to follow suit. For his Fall 2010 Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs featured 'real women, using famously sexy, curvy models on the catwalk in an homage to 'and God Created Woman':

Alessandra Ambrosio, Coco Rocha, and Adriana Lima walking for Louis Vuitton Fall 2010French babe Laetitia Casta (fresh from her role as Brigitte Bardot in upcoming film) leading the charge, followed by a rare return to the catwalk by 'The Body' Elle MacPhearson and Victoria's Secret gals Bar Rafaeli, and my two faves, Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima.

Laetitia Casta, Bar Rafaeli, Adriana Lima, and Elle Macpherson, Louis Vuitton Fall 2010

Marc says of the show “I wanted a variety of ages and sizes. We set out to cast gorgeous women, women who feel happy to put their make-up on, get dressed up, get all their accessories.” “It’s a bit old-fashioned, I know, but I think it’s nice for a change.” French Vogue used a nude Crystal Renn here, and it is interesting to note that curvy bombshell Penelope Cruz guest edited the issue. Speaking of which, love these actresses with killer curves like Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Sofia Vergara, Scarlet Johansson, Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendes. They have figures like real girls - hips, boobs and bum. Va va voom!

Penelope CruzSofia VergaraScarlet JohanssonChristina HendricksEva Mendes

The welcome return of Gemma Ward

Steven Meisel for Vogue Italy, June 2006

I love Aussie model Gemma Ward. She was the most ethereal, stunning looking model in the new wave of waifs that stormed the scene in the noughties after being discovered in 2002. In 2004, British Vogue listed Gemma as one of 11 models who were "young and right now - the cream of the modelling crop" alongside Lily Cole.

The 1.77m model has the most amazing features, a cross between a porcelain doll, Cate Blanchett's eflin princess Galadriel and Bridgette Bardot. Paul Cavaco from Allure magazine describes her as "etheral, not earthy", and photographer Michael Thompson says "She's an exotic blonde, the rarest of creatures." At the height of her heady career, she graced the cover of Time Magazine's Style and Design issue in 2007.

I recently saw her in the film The Black Balloon and was very impressed. Not only is she stunning, was utterly charming in the film, all lanky legs and other-worldly beauty, juxtaposed with a disarmingly laid-back Aussie twang!

Gemma all but vanished in 2008 with her sudden 'retirement' from the modeling world - made all the more tragic when it surfaced that she had apparently been dating fellow Western Australian Heath Ledger when he died suddenly. Then came nasty reports of weight gain and a meltdown, no wonder the poor girl withdrew from the scene and needed a break!

ID Magazine, February 2008

V Magazine, June 2006

Patrick Demarchelier for Vogue Australia, October 2007

Craig McDean for US ELLE, April 2007

ID Magazine, February 2008



Australian Vogue, October 2007



Patrick Demarchelier for Vogue India, October 2007



Vogue Espana, 2007

Daria Werbowy, Natalia Vodianova, Gisele Bundchen, Isabeli Fontana, Karolina Kurkova, Liya Kebede, Hana Soukupova, Gemma Ward and Karen Elson, American Vogue May 2004

Now comes word that Gemma is returning to the big screen as - what could be more perfect - a MERMAID in the new Pirates of the Caribbean. At still only 23, with any luck we may see her back on the catwalk soon. "I have not 'quit modelling' and my fans back home can expect to see me back at work modelling and acting in the new year," she said in an email to The West Australian. Her latest Tweet says "Sorry guys, I've not disappeared, I've just been a busy luittle bee". We look forward to seeing you back!