A Record Stands Strong

For the 11th consecutive time in her career, Freja walked in the Marc Jacobs show last night. In fact, she closed the show wearing a shimmery, sequined dress while soft curls of hair fell around her face. I don't know how many of you even care, know or care to know, but Marc Jacobs is one of only two shows that Freja has never missed walking for during her long modeling career. Since her debut as a model over 5 years ago, she has diligently taken to that catwalk every single show season. For an industry predicated on change, trends, evolution and "the new" every few months, this is certainly an amazing feat for all those involved. Model, designer, and casting director have all worked in tandem, developing a rapport over the years that's cherished by me and hopefully by some of you as well.

As I was watching the livestream, I kept waiting to see Freja's face or straining to recognize her walk. As more and more looks came out I started to get worried, but then there she was at the very end. And it felt right that she should close the biggest show of NYFW. I have to admit that I haven't been as excited this season, but when I saw Freja at Marc I totally threw my hands up in the air and said "yes!" I said yes for the record, and yes for the lovely young woman that I saw. For fans who grew to love Freja at the beginning of her career, these past few months have been like a homecoming of sorts. She's looking as alluring, feminine and happy as she looked all those seasons ago. And maybe now the newer fans can begin to see her range and capabilities outside the very limiting stereotypes she was hindered by for so long.

Someone is most definitely having a moment, and she's been having it for the past year. And after last night, it seems as if this moment isn't even close to coming to an end.

Image Credits: style.it

Tom Ford's Return

Early Sunday night Freja had the tremendous honor and privilege of modeling in arguably the most significant show held in New York this season. Tom Ford made his much anticipated return to womenswear by debuting a small collection to a select group of guests. The list of women enlisted to model in the show is amazing and diverse by usual fashion standards: Caroline Murphy, Daria, Natalia, and Karen to name a few of the established models. Abbey, Liu, and Joan to name a few of the newer faces. Julianne Moore, Beyonce and Rita Wilson to name some celebrities. Notice how these women represent a good range of age, race and body types. Quite a departure from the usual demographics of your typical fashion presentation/show.

Apparently, photographs won't be released until January. And only one photographer, Terry Richardson, was allowed to take pictures during the event (I'll hold my tongue here). Tom Ford himself introduced each model and the piece she was wearing. All who participated were women who "inspired him." To give you an idea of how big this event was, Beyonce decided to forgo the VMA's in order to model for Ford. Can you say, whoa.

What a special event for Freja to be a part of. And maybe not that surprising considering she is the current face of Tom Ford Eyewear. Ford is most definitely known for his glamorous femininity, so it makes me happy to know that Freja isn't considered to be too masculine/edgy/tomboyish/androgynous/insert whatever other adjective that's commonly used to describer her here. I always thought that if Ford had still been designing when Freja first started modeling, she would have been perfect for the image he was projecting and he would have definitely used her. But maybe that's just me.

Anyway, New York is going incredibly well for Freja. She's averaging only one show per day, but she's making that show count. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the week and the rest of the cities bring. If things continue on...I think Freja will be on pace to match or even break her tally of openings and closings from last season.

Hello New York

Freja's first show of the season and first show in New York was Rag & Bone, where she did the honors of opening. Guess she's making up for missing the show last season due to illness or something of that nature.

Rag & Bone recently debuted a short documentary film directed by R. J. Cutler (of The September Issue fame) about their F/W 10.11 show held last February. In the film you can clearly see Freja's showcard on their model board, meaning she was most definitely slated to walk.

And all of the other models shown in the above screen cap definitely walked the show. But as we already established from the Hexa by Kuho behind the scenes videos, Freja was out sick. What's past is past, but it's always nice to know what really happened. There are so many unpredictable factors that sometimes it just feels good to be able to get a hold of one old mystery. :)

Anyway, Freja is definitely on the runways of NY but this time she's also out celebrating on its streets. She made an appearance last night at Karl's Chanel dinner feting the re-opening of the Chanel Soho Boutique, just like I hoped she would. Wearing her usual all-black ensemble, Freja looked a bit out of place among the other models who were dressed up in their very best dresses. But hey, would you expect anything else from Freja? Gotta hand it to her....she's consistent and loyal when it comes to her sartorial choices. An old interview she did comes to my mind, where she said that as a young girl she only wore one outfit consisting of Wrangler jeans and white tees. I guess you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. ;)

New York is well on it's way so enjoy the shows! And have a great Fashion's Night Out!

Image Credits: vogue.it, style.it

Models Can be Fans Too

I know some of you are probably disappointed that Freja didn't walk in the big FNO runway show yesterday, but did you really expect her too? Her track record with Vogue (read Anna Wintour) organized events is such that an appearance yesterday would have been completely surprising and out of the ordinary. Never one to show up at the Met Gala or anything of that nature, Freja's partial existence outside the fashion establishment is what keeps her intriguing and mysterious.

Even though Anna doesn't seem to be a fan, there are plenty of other people willing to sing Freja's praises. The latest to join the bunch is supermodel Yasmin Le Bon. You might know her as the wife of Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon....and if you've never heard of Duran Duran, then you're either beyond saving or too young to be reading this blog.

According to Vogue UK:

"It is Vogue cover star Freja Beha Erichsen, however, that gets Le Bon's favourite model vote.

'There aren't many dark-haired, dark-eyed girls around so when they do come about they need to be exceptionally good, which Freja is'"

It's not much, but it's still always nice to hear Freja being admired by people within the industry. Kind of makes me feel like I got it right, you know?

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

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

The Time Has Come

Showcards are out, and true to IMG's usual form, there's little to be had in terms of bells and whistles here. The formula being: take a recent shot, slap it on a one color background, add stats and call it a day. Minimal effort....or should I say minimal "design." But when you're an agency as big and powerful as they are, I guess you don't need a lot of superfluous visuals. You can just let the overall image, power and attractiveness of your board speak for itself. With perennial powerhouses like Lara and Freja; rising stars like Jac and Frida; and new faces like Ajak and Barbara to manage, maybe IMG doesn't have the time to shoot, design and create anything other than what they did.

Still, it would have been nice to see some creativity in their cards, not that I was really expecting it. However, this season theirs looks even more mundane when compared to the plethora of other packages, each displaying its own personality, image, and crafted message. All the other agencies seemingly stepped up their game and IMG either refuses, or doesn't feel the need to take part in the new intricacies of show package gamesmanship.

I actually go back and forth in my mind as to which approach is best. And maybe there isn't necessarily a "best" approach; but rather, an approach best suited for each particular board. It is just a bit of a letdown though. Oh well....it's a safe bet that their models will make up for it on the runway. :) Thoughts? Do you think IMG should step it up?

Also, regarding the upcoming shows: I'll probably stick to my usual method of updating for the first show in a city, and then only doing another cumulative runway update at the end of said city. This way I can avoid repetitiveness and still retain some semblance of a normal life. If you happen to be in any of the cities during the shows, tips or pictures are always much appreciated. Sad to say my NY girl on the streets Cameo won't be there this season. :( I'm so grateful that we had your kind tips for a few seasons, and we'll miss you and your updates this time around Cameo!

Image Credits: imgmodels.com