Freja in WWD

WWD just came out with their end of the year wrap up issue, and guess what? Freja is featured inside with a short article entitled "Great Dane":

"It’s been a busy year for Freja Beha Erichsen. At 23, this Danish model’s career is on a hot streak. And that’s not simply because she’s Karl Lagerfeld’s current muse. Erichsen has popped up in 10 advertising campaigns and shot almost 40 editorials since January. She equally fascinates editors, stylists and designers, and has appeared in five of the past six issues of French Vogue alone.

Erichsen’s tomboy looks — not to mention 16 tattoos — give her an edgy, androgynous mystique. But her charm is also influenced by the attitude she cultivates in her extracurricular activities: The wannabe rock star plays the drums, piano and guitar.

In 2010, Erichsen walked 80 shows and opened and/or closed 30. Lagerfeld summed up her appeal last April: “I just think she is the most modern girl and the most elegant person."

2010 really has been her year and it's nice to see more people recognizing that, including a very industry-news based publication. It's one thing to hear me talk over and over again about how great Freja is, but it's another to hear it from WWD. :) She's been working hard since 2005, always a bit under the radar; but that definitely changed this year. So congratulations Freja. I hope you're enjoying yourself wherever you are. And may the accolades and recognition continue to come in.

Image Credit: wwd.com

Random Bits: The Start of SS11 Edition

Fashion week hasn't even officially started and I'm already overwhelmed. :/ Anyway, Freja's week is definitely starting off right!

-She's nabbed the cover of the latest issue of The Last Magazine, along with Anja Rubik. Photographed by Maciek Kobielski, Freja is sporting the ever so chic "deer in headlights" look. Not her best cover, but in a year filled with so many, does it really matter at this point? Just in case you're counting, this marks Freja's 12th cover appearance for 2010, and we still have 4 months to go before the year's end. Yikes! As a fan, I'm definitely thrilled when my favorite model is having a banner year. But I can understand if non-fans are getting tired of this....even I'm getting tired of this just a bit. Maybe Freja's image/persona/aura/whatever you want to call it is getting overexposed. At this point she's completely saturated all corners of the fashion market and I totally get how that can be overkill. But hey, if it had to happen to one model, at least it's happening to one of the most deserving, humble, approachable and relatable ones.

-While 2010 has been Freja's year in terms of magazine covers, style.com seems to think that the past 10 years have been Freja's years in terms of modeling. She's one of their top ten models of the decade alongside Giselle, Stella, Agyness, Daria, Chanel, Miranda, Lara, Natalia and Kate. Congrats Freja! It's well deserved, for I can't think of another model who has been able to take such a no-compromising, yet (ironically) laid-back attitude and still achieve such heights of success. 16 tattoos...check. Disregard for hair length restrictions...check. Unwavering dedication to a wardrobe of all black...check. Moving to NY 4 years into your career instead of at the beginning of it...check. Stubborn refusal to discuss personal life in depth...check. Reluctance to show up at major fashion events and galas aside from fashion week...check. Legions of fans both within and outside of the industry who are drawn to all these one of a kind traits...check!

But one thing has to be said: Where's Raquel!? Glaring omission if you ask me. In the words of a very wise person, "Big mistake. Big. Huge....I have to go shopping now."

-Not everything is coming up roses this week. Here's some sad news to keep us in check. Karl Lagerfeld has canceled his Paris show, so that means one less runway appearance for Freja and your other favs.

"Karl Lagerfeld will not show his signature collection during Paris Fashion Week and is instead readying a new “masstige” ready-to-wear collection to be sold online.

Lagerfeld had been scheduled to show here on Oct. 3.

His signature collection, produced and distributed by Italian manufacturer Vaprio Stile since 2008, will now take a more commercial tack, with less involvement from Lagerfeld, according to a spokeswoman for Lagerfeld. It will be sold in showrooms in Milan and Paris."

Poor Karl....you could always sense that his eponymous line was the closest to his heart and his design sensibilities. At least he has plenty to keep him busy with Chanel, Fendi and now Hogan.

Anyway, the week has already started with a bang, and hopefully there will be plenty more to come. So stay tuned.....

Image Credits: models.com

Tops and Docs

-In addition to being one of FTV's top First Faces of F/W 10.11, Freja also made it to the top of another list. WWD tapped her as one of their "Good Looking: Six New Stars of the Runway," never mind that this past season was Freja's 11th. I supposed we can't all be mired in small details.

In a season of strong beauties, six models in particular stood out from the pack. Here, the faces of the future in their myriad iterations on the runway, showing off not only their personal diversity, but the wonderful range of hairstyles that dominated the collections in Paris and Milan, too.

Faces of the future? Oh really WWD? Does this mean you think Freja will be around for another 11 seasons? All joking aside, it's great that Freja is being recognized for her stellar season, even as a veteran among the 5 other newer faces of (in list order) Monika "Jac" Jagaciak, Joan Smalls, Sigrid Agren, Tati Cotliar and Frida Gustavsson.

Freja Beha Erichsen
Age: 22
Agency: IMG
Models.com Ranking: 3

On the cover of March’s Italian Vogue and the face of the spring Chanel ad campaign, 23-year-old modeling veteran Freja Beha Erichsen is on a roll. Always in demand, her androgynous style resonates with designers, photographers and editors alike. This season, she walked in more than 25 shows in Paris and Milan, opening Gucci and closing Chanel (natch), Celine and Stella McCartney.

-The Sundance Channel is continuing with their documentary series "The Day Before." On the slate for the upcoming season scheduled to air in September, director Loic Prigent will cover the F/W 10.11 collections of Alexander Wang, Diane von Furstenberg, Jeremy Scott, Narciso Rodriguez Nina Ricci, and Versace. Last season he covered Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, Proenza Schouler, and Sonia Rykiel.

If you're interested in the process and the behind the scenes, you definitely do not want to miss this. Added bonus of most likely seeing glimpses of Freja, and all your other favorite models, backstage too. I remember watching all of last season's episodes and being completely captivated and emerging with a new found sense of respect and awe. This is the good side of fashion.

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

A Post to End the Year

It's been quite a year! As we come to the end of 2009 and the end of the 21st century's first decade (who else remembers all the fervor over Y2K? I feel so old), I just want to say thanks for reading and for making this blog what it is. I truly appreciate all the comments, the e-mails, the encouragement, the criticism, and the support. Before I sign off for the year, just a few things of note:

-Freja's made it onto a few more "best of" lists. She's one of the 30 models that defined the decade for Vogue France. And she's number eight on Vogue Nippon's Models of the Year 2009 list. What a nice way to cap off an impressive year that saw Freja return to a level of pervasiveness not seen since her early days.

-We have our first look at the SS10 Chanel ad campaign thanks to tFS member Northern Star. Not much to really say yet so I'll reserve my judgment for when more images come out.

-Thanks for the link love models.com! I'm totally flattered, and also kind of embarrassed that people who actually work in the industry could be reading my amateur musings. Anyway, thanks for the kind, completely unexpected words.

It's been a great year for us Freja fans. We've been witness to lots of new work (Meisel!) and changes both personal (NY!) and physical (long hair!). If anything has remained the same, it's our fascination for this blog's namesake. I love being a part of this little community of Freja fans and I hope 2010 will bring more of the same. Whether Freja continues to work at her current pace or whether she decides to slow down, all we can really hope for is that she's happy and healthy. So, I wish her and all of you exactly that as we count down the days until the end of the aughts. Wherever you are when the clocks hits midnight, I hope it's in the presence of good company, good food and a great celebration. Cheers!

Image Credit: Scanned by a.t. @ tFS and Northern Star @ tFS

Lists

As we near the end of the year, it seems that everyone likes to make lists. I suppose it's only natural to want to sum up the preceding year's occurrences into an easily digestible and archivable format. I know these lists can get trite, but I always look forward to them at the end of each year. Movies, CDs, TV shows, news worthy moments, influential people, you name it and I eat it up.

So now we can add a models list to the list. I stumbled across fashionising.com's list of Top 10 models for 2009 and Freja lands at number 10. Oddly enough the list is presented in youtube format as a narrated video of picture stills opening and closing to the accompaniment of music that recalls early 1970's porn. See and hear for yourself:

All that aside, I think the list is pretty good. Maybe I'd play with the numbering (Miranda at #3? Too high. Karlie, queen of US Vogue at #9? Too low), but I think the model choices are pretty solid and reasonable. Although they need to work on their fact checking because we all know that Freja has more than 12 tattoos. Anyway, I wonder if there are any other sites that do year end fashion Top 10 lists. I can't recall any right now. After all, a year in fashion seems like it would be a lot harder to categorize and summarize as opposed to a year in CDs or movies. Regardless, it's nice to see Freja getting recognition after her mini-comeback and stellar year full of great work. And it's nice that this Top 10 list appearance is buoyed by her fifth place position on models.com's Top 50 list.

Stuck at 9

Models.com updated their Top 50 Rankings on Thursday. Freja is tied at number 9 with Eniko. Catherine, MCB, Coco, Anna J, Stam, Agyness, Lily, Anja, Lara, Sasha, Poly, and Raquel round out the rest of the top girls. Freja has been stuck at this position for a while now. I thought she'd move up considering the fabulous campaign season she's been having, but I guess magazine covers count for more than I thought. And Freja hasn't had a major one in a while now.

Yes, she's on the cover of Purple, but when was the last time we saw her face grace the cover of one of the four major Vogues? Maybe Vogue UK will hear my cries. They actually give her consistent editorial work and they don't shy away from putting models on their covers. Come on Alexandra Shulman!

Anyway, show cards are coming out now. If you haven't seen Supreme's excellent package, check it out here. I'm living for Karolin at the moment, and I'm totally impressed by Hanne's card. IMG's will probably come out this upcoming week, but they usually use editorial outtakes for their cards. Nothing too exciting. At least it reminds us that fashion month is just around the corner!

For your time, Karo and Hanne emoting in various states of undress:

Image Credits: models.com