Campaign Videos

It's a video day today. We have three new videos to go with some of Freja's recent campaigns. First, thanks to a lovely anonymous commenter on the previous post (thank you!), a new Harry Winston behind the scenes campaign video has surfaced:

This videos accompanies the gorgeous and cheerful print campaign that was released late last year. Freja is just as cheerful and radiant on film as she is in the campaign images. Definitely a nice treat for any Freja fan, especially since we get a rare glimpse of her lighter side, with a cute baby and yummy looking cake thrown in for good measure.

The second two videos are part of Freja's recent ad venture with H&M. We already saw two videos featuring Freja in dresses, and now we have this one featuring her in trousers alongside Anne and Martha:

The last video is part of H&M's newly released "The Pants Collection" campaign:

Freja looks particularly great in this video. She's charming, effusive, quirky, and spontaneous. She looks just as comfortable dancing around in those pants as she does strutting down the street in her boots and leather jacket. She's come a long way this past year and I'm just so happy that I get to witness this change in her career direction because it's what I've been longing for. No longer pigeonholed, but instead exploring new avenues, new opportunities and new expressions of her many sides: feminine, commercial, mature, modern, and playful.

Freja is indeed the girl that can seemingly do everything and anything. Her career seems to have rebirths and rejuvenations just as often as she cuts and changes her hair. So where will we be in a year? I have absolutely no idea, but I'm betting that it will be somewhere new, exciting and unexpected. :)

Image Credits: hm.com
Video Credits: Harrywinston Youtube channel, hm.com

FTV Countdown

This is what all fans wait for. A glimpse at the person behind all the clothes and makeup; the person off the runway and behind the scenes.

This season Freja comes in at #2 on the FTV countdown, up a spot from #3 last season. Bear my cheesiness, but she's like a fine wine, getting better with age. ;)

She also takes the top spot for the city of Milan. No interview; just a compilation of catwalk looks starting at 13:30:

Here are a few things that caught my attention:

-It's funny how we go from always napping backstage at Marni, to literally jumping up and down with energy this season @ 1:15.

-Perhaps we should expect a career transition into music very soon. After all, Freja has a DIY home studio with a plethora of guitars, a piano and drums. That doesn't simply sound like something she does casually on her off days--seems more serious than that to me.

-Oh, so those combat boots Freja was sporting everywhere this past season are Balmain. Who knew? So Christophe makes a $1,000 version of something Doc Martens makes for $100. I'm totally side-eyeing Decarnin right now.

-About a year after her initial move to New York, Freja is moving again. This time to Brooklyn. Why does it feel like everyone and their mother is moving to Brooklyn these days? It's not like the rent is any cheaper...

Anyway, it's always a pleasure to watch these videos. Most of the time, models are seen and not heard, so it's a treat when FTV puts these out after each season. If you have some time to kill, take a look at the rest of the girls making up the top ten.

10. Kasia Struss
9. Ginta Lapina
8. Karmen Pedaru
7. Julija Steponaviciute
6. Monika "Jac" Jagaciak
5. Lindsey Wixson
4. Frida Gustavsson
3. Caroline Brasch Nielsen
2. Freja
1. Karlie Kloss

It's a solid list and I'm happy to see girls like Julija and Karmen included. There are others I could do without, but you win some, you lose some.

Image Credits: afashiontale.dk, bellazon. Videos courtesy of Fashiontv Youtube Channel

Campaign Miscellany

-Valentino has released a backstage video from their F/W 10.11 campaign:

You can see Freja, Tati and Jac hard at work posing and working those camera angles. Most of them time I always find behind the scenes stuff infinitely more interesting than the actual final product, and this is really no exception. The film is in color and you get to experience that lovely dimension here, while it was sadly lacking in the print ads. We also lost a lot of the beauty and impact of the setting. Up until this campaign, the Valentino headquarters located in the Palace Vendôme had never been privy to public eyes. Did you see the gilded gold mirrors and marble busts? That kind of stuff is amazing, and color images would have done more justice to their beauty and history. I just think that if you're going to debut a place with such history behind it to the public eye, you should execute it with more venerability and deference.

-Freja is the face of two different Korean brands this season. Full image sets have been released and you can see them in their entirety at tFS. Small previews below:

ab.f.z

SJ SJ

Freja looks beautiful as always, but there is nothing groundbreaking going on here. And frankly, that isn't what I expect from foreign campaigns. The brands who can afford to hire international models like Freja are usually pretty commercial and mass-market in their respective countries. And when you deal with mass-market you deal with straightforward, broad appeal. No boundaries pushed, no predilections offended. You're trying to sell clothes to as many people as possible, and when you're not aiming for a very particular section of the population, you're aiming for the biggest chunk of it. Exclusive vs inclusive. Specific vs broad. High fashion vs mass market. Funny how Freja is seemingly considered commercial in Korea, while here in the US she's seen as more of an edgy, fringe model. Go figure.

Image Credits: ab.f.z via tFS members Jet luk, sj-sj.co.kr via tFS members candlebougie

Hexa by Kuho - Behind the Scenes

Thanks to a lovely (but anonymous) commenter in this post, I was directed to these behind the scene videos of the preparations leading up to the F/W 10.11 Hexa by Kuho show held back in February. I don't know how you guys find this stuff, but I'm sure glad that you do and that you're kind enough to share! I've said it before and I'll say it again, this blog would be nothing without you readers. :)

Kuho is a well known designer in Korea. Last season marked his debut show in America and Freja had the honors of closing said show (no surprise there as Koreans really seem to be turning out to be her biggest fans). Since these clips are subtitled in Korean, my guess is that they're part of a documentary released over there. I think there might be a few Korean readers out there....if so, do any of you know where this is from? Or what it's for? EDIT: It's a behind the scenes feature that came on a supplement DVD with this month's Korean Harper Bazaar.

This second part is very interesting because you can see Freja all throughout looking as if she's about to pass out. She's doubled over a lot of the time, surrounded by people who are fanning her. Since I don't speak a lick of Korean I have no idea what's really going on, but it's obvious she wasn't feeling well before the show.

If you can remember all the way back to February, you'll recall that Freja did not walk in Rag & Bone, which was very unusual since she's usually a regular and David and Marcus are fans. She also showed up on the model board for Yigal Azrouel, yet she did not walk that show either. Both shows were held on that first Friday of NYFW, a day Freja missed completely. But she showed up on Saturday at Alexander Wang. So.....what happened in between the Hexa show that Wednesday and the Alex Wang show that Saturday?

Models are just regular people, albeit very tall, very beautiful, very slender people. They have off days, they get bitchy, they get impatient, and they get sick. I think this is just a case of the common cold. It seems like Freja got sick, took a few days off (which would explain her absence at certain shows), and then came back to have her best runway season in a long time. So now we have some kind of idea of what happened back in February. Although 6 months later, it really doesn't matter, does it? I guess this means that all of you who were freaking out over Freja losing favor with the Rag & Bone boys can rest easy now. ;)

Anyway, thank you anonymous commenter for the lead, and to youtube user dmdkd10 for uploading the videos!

Long Awaited

This is another one of those times I'm cursing myself for not checking off the box next to "French" on the list of courses to take in school. If anyone has any significant insight into what the narrator, designers or other people in the video say about Freja, please feel free to share. In the meantime, just some thoughts on "Les Filles en Vogue" and huge thanks to tFS members Valentine27 and FrenchCactus for graciously taking the time and effort to upload the film and share it with all of us.

PART 1:

PART 2:

PART 3:

Models are poked and prodded backstage so much more than I ever thought they were. It must drive them crazy to basically have no personal space for the duration of the shows. And it's interesting to note that three is Freja's lucky number. Hence the three lines tattooed on her finger and the three circles on her wrist. Any other threes you can think of?

PART 4:

Freja is so relaxed and so nonchalant about everything. I can see why she's so appealing to the people she works with and for. There is a calming, soothing nature about her that comes across so well here. I can only imagine how attractive it is to be around in real life especially during a hectic show season. But I think it's important to note that this nonchalance should not be confused with apathy. Even though Freja may not show it in conventional ways, I do believe that she is invested in and enjoys her job as a model. In the past five years I think we've seen her accept her own role in the industry on her own terms. It was a process that took time and the onset of maturity--two things not often granted to models.

PART 5:

She's deeply entrenched in the midst of all the action, but her demeanor is such that she appears to be floating above it all, slightly detached. She personifies the meaning of her tattoo "float" to such a perfect degree. And now I understand why it's on such a prominent location of her body.

PART 6:

After watching this all, the following quote is what particularly stuck out to me:

"I don't think you should let anyone dictate what you should do with your own body. You do sell your body as a product but it's still yours. I mean.....my body....I get to do with it what I want."

What an interesting thing for a model to say, and perhaps the reason why Freja has been labeled as the "rebel" throughout her career. You can sense the conflict that she must feel towards her role as a model. One the one hand, it's a job that has given her success and access to the comforts life can offer. On the other, it has required her to give up part of her autonomy and individuality. Relatively speaking, it's a tough position to be in and there's an implicit struggle in Freja's words and a yearning to reconcile the two conflicting factors.

The sentiment Freja shares about her body is a perfect microcosm of the feeling that I (and I think many of you) have towards the fashion industry as whole. There's an internal conflict that perhaps all of us feel towards fashion at one point or another. Assuming that you're open-minded and liberal (as most people in fashion tend to be) the industry's tendencies towards sexism, racism, ageism, and sizeism are all political and social issues we fight against in our daily lives and denounce in our beliefs. Of course women should be treated equally and schools should be integrated. The color of skin shouldn't affect a person's place in life, nor should the size of their waist or the wrinkles on their face. Yet you look at the fashion industry and all those things are reflected back in the worst possible ways. (i.e. Terry Richardson, white-washed runways, the fact that a size 4 is considered to be "curvy," etc...) But because this is fashion and we love it and get so much enjoyment from it, we accept it's negative aspects in ways that we'd never allow in other avenues of our lives.

I don't know....maybe I'm only speaking for myself here. Although I do feel that this is the same type of conflict that Freja expresses in regards towards a model's relationship to her own body. We might appear to be complicit with the industry's discriminations, but hopefully we'll actually end up being subversive in the end. Just like Freja tattoos her body to regain the autonomy she loses every time she's required to become the "blank slate," I hope that some of us will leave positive marks that eventually change the industry's way of doing business.

On a less serious note, I have to say that I'm in love with Sasha now. I nearly died from laughter when they show her at the very end trying to close her beat up suitcase plastered with random stickers. She comes across as such a lovable, genuine, fragile, yet strong woman. She's an individual through and through and I find her personality incredibly endearing and addictive. As a matter of fact, all the models come across very well. Vogue Paris has a wonderful feature on their hands, and I sincerely hope they decide to do this at least every year, if not every show cycle. It's a win-win for everyone. More press for the magazine, more press for the models, and more fodder for the increasingly model-obsessed fans like us out here.

And Freja, I know it's your body and all, but geez girl.....at least try to pace yourself with the smoking. Your fans want you around for a long time to come!

All in all, my expectations were met with this film. It was entertaining but also thought provoking. It changed some of my opinions, but for the better. And it instilled in me an even deeper sense of respect and awe for the models who are able to endure and persevere season after season. What about you? Your thoughts? Changed opinions? Anything?

News Bytes

-To coincide with the arrival of spring accessories on his e-commerce site, Alexander Wang is releasing a behind the scenes video of his SS10 runway show. Style.com has a short preview which you can see above. It's only 45 seconds and you can see Freja about 16 seconds in. The full version will be released Monday on Alex's site, and if the preview is any indication, it looks like we'll get plenty of Freja to satisfy our backstage curiosities.

-Freja moved up a rank to a solid number 4 on models.com Top 50 Models list. Lara, Anja, Natasha, Sasha and Raquel are the only ones before her. If I recall correctly, Freja's career high position was number 2, but I could be wrong. Any one remember? Anyway, as long as she keeps working at the same pace and level that she's been at for this past year, I don't see any reason why her rank wouldn't gain one or two more spots. However, I'm not sure she'll ever reach the number 1 spot. Freja's a wonderful model, but let's be realistic; you have to be damn near iconic (I'm talking within the industry here, not just with fans) to reach that spot and her quantity of work just doesn't add up. If Meisel shoots her for a Vogue Italia cover, US Vogue puts her on their Models of the Moment issue, Nick Knight features her on ShowStudio monthly, and she lands blue-chip ad campaigns beside Chanel then we'll talk. Until then, it's not gonna happen. (Prove me wrong Freja, because I would be happy to eat my words.)

-You can see preview images of Freja's new Vogue Nippon editorial shot by Terry Richardson here and here. Being that the images are low quality, I'm pretty much ideologically opposed to everything that Terry Richardson stands for, and I need a break, I'll spare you the long write up about this ed...not that any of you were dying to read it in the first place I'm sure.

-New York Fashion Week officially beings in 12 days on February 11th! We'll likely see Freja touch down for her first show Friday night at Rag & Bone...that is, assuming she's going to walk this season. I don't see why she wouldn't, but with Freja I've always come to expect the unexpected. And the SS08 and SS09 seasons are always fresh in the back of my mind, making me hold my breath in hope that she doesn't unexpectedly skip out again. We'll see. After all, life's pleasures are derived in anticipation.

Image Credits: imgmodels.com

Backstage at Fendi

If you have 50 minutes to spare and any real interest in how a fashion show is put together, you have to watch this documentary from the Sundance channel called "The Day Before Fendi."

It's very rare that we get such a detailed look at what goes into the preparations for a fashion show and what the backstage looks like on the day of. I found this documentary to be utterly enthralling and informative. I was awed, and even found myself nearly moved to tears at the passion, emotion and charm of the people who work in the atelier. Their dedication to and love of their work is admirable and something we should all be so lucky to find. And if it wasn't already evident before, it is completely evident now: women are the absolute backbone of the fashion industry, both as it's consumers but more importantly as it's producers. The Italian women in the video are simply amazing in their talents and yet they seem so humble. They represent everything that is good about the industry: loyalty, skill, craft, dedication.

Anyway, since this is a Freja blog here are the places where you can catch (very quick) glimpses of her. Seriously, blink and you'll miss it.

Part 5
1:46-2:00: Freja and Cat are in the background as they arrive for the show. Then Freja stops to get some food.
2:45: Freja is getting her makeup done.
8:15: She's greeting Karl.

Part 6
3:00: Freja is standing backstage, looking so calm amid all the chaos.
4:00: She's in the lineup of models doing the final walk.
4:36: She's backstage just after the show ends.

I mean it. If you have any interest in fashion at all beyond Freja, watch everything. You will not be sorry. Sundance will also be airing documentaries for Sonia Rykiel, JPG and Proenza Schouler. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some kind soul will upload them to youtube, because if this Fendi doc is any indication, none of these should be missed!