MODEL PROFILES: JULIA NOBIS

Born on June 27^th 1992, Australian native Julia Nobis began modelling locally in 2009 at the age of 17. A year later, Julia went international when she signed with top agency Elite Models.

In February 2010, Julia debuted at Fashion Week, walking in the Calvin Klein show as an exclusive. The American label was, in hiring Nobis, continuing its tradition of championing new faces. From Kate Moss, to Lara Stone and now Daphne Groeneveld, Calvin Klein has been responsible for introducing new definitions of beauty to the world stage. Julia’s long-limbed look made her an obvious choice for the label’s no-frills aesthetic.

The influence of the Calvin Klein exclusive was immediate, with Julia’s runway CV including bookings from Topshop, Richard Nicoll, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton and Miu Miu. She was subsequently featured by www.models.com as one of their Top 10 Newcomers.

In May, Julia appeared in editorials for both Italian and British Vogue. Nobis proved a natural at editorial, and her spread in Italian Vogue ramped up the pressure with photographer Steven Meisel behind the lens. ‘Bathing Beauties’ was Italian Vogue’s spin on a retro swimwear shoot. Classic shapes met with of-the-moment styling – it was a typical feature from the magazine, but Julia showed no sign of beginner’s nerves.

Julia got to make her couture debut in July when she appeared for Valentino. At 5’ 11”, Nobis is couture-perfect, and it put her in a select group of models who are runway all-rounders: equally at home in ready-to-wear as they are handling the demands of haute couture. Having made the move up to couture, Julia was now getting attention from labels already looking to hire for their Autumn / Winter campaigns.

Julia’s affinity with high fashion was spotted by design duo Proenza Schouler who chose her to take part in their new campaign. It was a signing that was totally in keeping with Nobis’ career to date. Working a little sportswear influence with geek chic, Proenza Schouler has been one of the most original labels to emerge in recent years. Julia’s calm, assured performance in a pared-down, nowhere-to-hide campaign went a long way in selling Proenza Schouler to the next fashion-buying generation.

With a 41-show season in September, including an opening and closing slot with Proenza Schouler, Julia was becoming the favourite of many of fashion’s best avant-garde talents, including Peter Pilotto, Jonathan Saunders and Alexander Wang. Julia’s booking sheet was depicting a model that was making a serious impact with fashion’s A-list.

Julia’s editorial experience grew in September and October with back-to-back appearances for Dazed & Confused. In September’s issue, she appeared as a street punk with a scraped-back ponytail and winged eyeliner. The following month, she had a solo beauty shoot, creating a modern take on the Pre-Raphaelite look. Both appealed to Julia’s creativity: editorials at this level require a model that isn’t afraid of presenting beauty that’s outside the box, and Julia came ready to work.

2011 began with Julia reaching new heights in couture, walking for both Elie Saab and Chanel. Her high-fashion kudos took her home again, as Julia modelled for Australian Vogue. ‘The Rules of Attraction’, photographed by Max Doyle, showed Julia working old-school glamour, from goddess gowns to YSL’s Le Tuxedo. Nobis proved disarmingly good at transforming into the glamour girl. Considering Australia’s background in producing good eveningwear designers it is perhaps not so surprising. Think of Australian fashion and one tends to think in terms of swimwear. But it also has talent to boast of in the glamour department, with Alex Perry providing classic elegance and red-carpet heavy-hitter, Colette Dinnigan. It may not be as prolific as Milan or Paris, but Australian fashion holds its own, staying relevant by remaining individual.

Racking up an impressive 54 ready-to-wear shows in February, Julia returned to her left-field roots in March with an Italian Vogue beauty shoot. Photographed by Emma Summerton, Nobis features in a spread inspired by 70’s glam rock icon Joan Jett.

She appeared again in Australian Vogue in April, this time in an editorial showcasing Giorgio Armani’s eveningwear collection. But the magazine, in recognition of Julia’s achievements, then featured her on their May cover plus a leading editorial. Here we see Julia in more familiar territory, working a teal feathered dress with red and yellow hair. It was exuberant, joyful and thoroughly individual, and perfect working material for Julia who aced both cover and editorial. The spread, ‘I Want Candy’, was a pitch-perfect review of every major Spring / Summer collection from Valentino to Prada.

Julia’s great run of editorial and runway work brought her more big-money campaigns, including a notable appearance for heritage label, Balenciaga. Working alongside models Liya Kebede and Milou Van Groesen, the campaign works on the element of surprise, presenting us with two standard fashion images, but distorting the fashion metaphor by placing them side by side.

The first sees the models against the dramatic arches of Spanish architecture from Gaudi. Grand, epic and beautiful, it is a familiar image for high-fashion, marrying the work of a great artist with the craftsmanship of the clothes. The second image is another well-known fashion image, this time back in the studio, featuring the collection against a graphic, pop-art background. Playing on our expectations and inverting them, the two images are complete opposites and shouldn’t work when side by side but the uniting factor, the thing that binds them together, is the clothes. The campaign, like many of Balenciaga’s strongest adverts, succeeds for the very reasons it should fail.

Julia headed back to the runway in September and had a mammoth season, with over 72 shows. Opening shows for Peter Som, Rebecca Taylor, Dries Van Noten and Alexander McQueen, Nobis’ strengths as a blue-chip catwalk model are finally being recognised. It is rare, even in today’s industry, to find a model that is so adept at working the most avant-garde designs as well as the more traditional work of money-making labels such as Gucci and Chanel. But the breadth of runway work Julia has undertaken focuses in on why Julia has become so in demand: with this model, there are no limits.

In October, Julia made her editorial debut for American fashion bible, W. Photographed by Craig McDean, Julia featured with Ming Xi and Jess Gold in fashion ’groups’, ranging from high-octane glamour to hippie luxe. Julia expanded her editorial CV again in November with a double appearance in V magazine. Appearing in ‘Faces of Now’ and ‘New Models, New York’, Julia was photographed in a series of beautiful black and white portraits. The stillness and concentration required for this type of work is evident in Julia’s unwavering focus. The resulting photographs are undeniably high-fashion, but gorgeous in their simplicity.

Julia is set to finish 2011 with even more runway work. This time she has made appearances for pre-fall shows from Michael Kors and Calvin Klein. An appetiser to the main Autumn / Winter shows arriving in February 2012, these mini pre-collections form a bridge between the main ready-to-wear seasons. A relatively new innovation, the pre-collections are getting as much attention as the main shows, giving us a preview to what we’ll be wearing next. Graphic, Sixties lines are already in the frame for Autumn 2012, with Michael Kors showing bold, funnel-neck coats. With fashion consumption moving at an ever-faster pace, the return of familiar shapes acts as an anchor for the consumer – a token of the expected in a fashion landscape where the rules are continually shifting.

In her work with fashion’s edgiest designers, photographers and magazines, Nobis has also been busy defying the stereotype of bronzed, Aussie beauty, along with her peers Catherine McNeil, Alice Burdeu and Abbey Lee Kershaw. Just as Elle McPherson pioneered a wave of athletically-shaped models in the late 1980’s, Nobis, Kershaw, McNeil and Burdeu are persuading the fashion industry that if they thought to know what to expect from Australian models, they were wrong.

From Alice Burdeu’s alabaster skin, to Abbey with her career that defies the idea that money-makers can’t be high-fashion, the wave of talent emerging from Australia is proving to be one of the most exciting in decades. Julia is the latest model to join this group, but her look, just as unexpectedly Australian, makes her unique even among these girls. Where McNeil and Kershaw wow in big-money campaigns, Nobis becomes Australia’s latest editorial hit: a truly brilliant model, across the board. As fashion continues to operate in a rapidly expanding universe, and the role of models continues to grow within it, Julia’s skill in every aspect of fashion will make her highly coveted. In 2012, Nobis is set to become not only a respected name on the runway, but that versatile face, the anchor that makes you look twice. As bets on fashion’s next superstar go, this will be the safest one you’ll make all year.

HELEN TOPE

MODEL PROFILES: ABBEY LEE KERSHAW

Born in Melbourne on June 12th 1987, Abbey Lee Kershaw is a modern take on the oldest standard of the modelling industry: the girl who can do it all.

Abbey’s career began in 2004 when she won the Girlfriend & Cover Girl model search in her native Australia.

The contest, which had discovered
Catherine McNeil just the year before, struck gold again when it launched Abbey into the fashion industry.

Moving to Sydney in 2005, Abbey began to model locally, picking up European ad campaigns for H&M and Levi’s. But a switch of agency in 2007 saw Abbey move from Sydney to New York. Her unique look got her noticed immediately, when the influential website www.models.com named her fashion’s ‘next superstar’.

The proclamation sent a message loud and clear to the fashion industry, and 2008 began with a runway season that ensured Kershaw’s status as a noteworthy up-and-comer. Opening shows for Givenchy and closing the Rodarte show, Abbey walked for every important designer including Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Lanvin, Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta and Valentino. It was an incredible start, and www.style.com dubbed Abbey a Top 10 Newcomer.

Kershaw hit another modelling benchmark in April when she scored her first Vogue editorial for Chinese Vogue. She also landed not one but two campaigns for D&G, both photographed by Mario Testino. In July, Kershaw joined her fellow D&G model, Alice Burdeu, for a feature in Australian Vogue. Pairing up with Stephanie Carta, Alice and Abbey were drawn as Australian Vogue’s newest and brightest talents. Both had their careers launched by winning modelling contests, but both girls were now proving themselves genuine talents.

Abbey won two of her biggest campaigns during the summer of 2008, photographed by Steven Meisel for CK Jeans and landing the Autumn / Winter Gucci commercial alongside British model Lily Donaldson. In September, Kershaw achieved two career firsts in one month, when she got an editorial booking for Italian Vogue and the cover of Australian Vogue.

For all her achievements, Kershaw was still a relatively new face, and the show season that autumn was a reminder that the daunting pace of international modelling can even phase models that are at the top of their game.

Walking for designers Diane Von Furstenberg, Alexander Wang, Matthew Williamson and Peter Som, Abbey took an unexpected tumble during the Rodarte show, and in October, fainted whilst taking part in the Alexander McQueen show. The season packs in a lot, and being tough enough to cope with moving from New York, to London, to Paris and Milan all within the space of a month, is no small ask.

But Abbey’s runway glitch didn’t stop her career trajectory when she was asked to appear in the Victoria’s Secret runway show. The brand has a history of cherry-picking the best of runway talent and bringing them to the attention of the general public. Like model Eniko Mihalik, Kershaw was a strong choice for the brand, matching high-fashion credentials with a sultriness that was commercial dynamite. Her year finished with blue-chip editorials for Italian Vogue and W, but 2009 saw Abbey take her career to the next level.

Renewing her contract with Gucci, she replaced Taryn Davidson as the face of See by Chloe. She also signed a contract to be the representative of ‘Flora’, the new Gucci fragrance.

Surrounded by a field of flowers, Abbey’s ethereal performance perfectly evoked the fragrance and captured a mood of sun-soaked femininity. It was mission accomplished, and ‘Flora’ became a huge best-seller for Gucci. The brand got a stunning commercial, and Abbey’s name (and face) got a whole lot more familiar.

Her work for Gucci flung Abbey square into the spotlight, with her second cover of Australian Vogue, a cover for Numero plus editorials for i-D, Harper’s Bazaar, Dazed & Confused and Italian Vogue. The slew of covetable bookings summed up Abbey’s mastery of cutting-edge fashion, tempered with a sensuality that injected her pictures with a commercial edge. Suddenly editorial and commercial didn’t seem like such disparate ideas; Abbey made doing both look easy.

Kershaw wowed again in August, undertaking an editorial for Japanese Vogue, photographed by Terry Richardson, demonstrating the art of doing sultry without the sleaze. In high-fashion, it’s sometimes a fine line between the two, but once it’s crossed, it’s obvious to everyone. Kershaw’s ability to make high-fashion images that are brimming with sexuality but in a way that doesn’t isolate the magazine’s core audience is a rare find, even in today’s industry where being able to smoulder on demand is a given for most top models.

Abbey teamed up with Terry Richardson again for the A/W issue of Purple, and in November made her second appearance for Victoria’s Secret. She finished off the year with covers for Numero and Dazed & Confused, and in January 2010 started the year (and decade) off with a bang, by being chosen to close the Chanel Couture show.

In February, Kershaw had a massive show season, opening shows for Michael Kors and closing shows for John Rocha and Gareth Pugh. Her other appearances included Alberta Ferretti, Balmain, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Jason Wu, Prada, Stella McCartney and Versace. Every aspect of fashion is represented in this list. From Prada’s take on 50’s chic, to Burberry’s urban aviator, Abbey was a face that found favour with every brand in the business.

Kershaw’s biggest break however came during the early part of the summer, when it was announced that she would be replacing Claudia Schiffer as one of the faces of Chanel. Joining Freha Beha, the campaign has become one of the key images of a season already packed with highlights.

Her calendar for the rest of the year looks to be following the same pattern, with campaigns also announced for Anna Sui, Mulberry, Jaegar, Calvin Klein and H&M, plus a campaign video for Alexander Wang.

What makes Abbey so in-demand is her ability to marry up the separate parts of her fashion personality. A self-confessed bohemian at heart, Abbey combines her own personal tastes with avant-garde, sex-kitten and cover-girl and makes each facet work. Many models thrive on specialising, whether that speciality is being ‘quirky’, ‘sexy’, or just plain editorial, but Abbey manages to juggle all the different aspects of fashion, and do them equal justice.

Kershaw is probably closest in spirit to supermodels like Helena Christensen and Cindy Crawford. They, like Abbey, were able at the height of their careers to mix editorial, high-fashion work with more populist bookings like Victoria’s Secret. Versatility is famously one of the most requested of model attributes, but true versatility, being able to conquer every corner of the industry and not lose credibility, is something that’s much harder to pin down.

Where Abbey stands out from her peers is her potential to become, like Crawford, a name that sells anything; not indiscriminately, but absolutely. It’s often been said that a return to the supermodels of the 1990’s is unlikely, but if anyone can get the ball rolling, it’s Kershaw.

Paparazzi pictures of her shooting the A/W Chanel campaign in New York were splashed across media websites across the globe. Just a fleeting glimpse of her on the streets of New York created a stir and made headlines. If we are truly in an anti-supermodel era, this kind of attention is nothing short of extraordinary.

It’s unusual to find a model who can look approachable but still wow in a Chanel Couture show, and that’s why Abbey excels on every point. Her features lend her an appeal that’s hard to find in today’s raft of top models. They are highly skilled, and hard-working, but Abbey’s career will continue to grow because she takes the best of the supermodel era and mixes it with the contemporary work ethic of modelling today. There’s no room for egos on set anymore, and the girl who works hardest is the one who gets re-booked. Names still matter of course, but getting the right result matters a whole lot more.

It’s a much fairer modelling landscape that the one Christensen and Crawford found themselves in 20 years ago. Meritocracy – the process of selection based purely on skill – has made the fashion world a much more beautiful place to be. It allows plus-size icon Crystal Renn to walk runway for Jean Paul Gaultier, and editorial favourite Coco Rocha to shoot campaigns for Rimmel. There’s no guesswork in terms of hiring faces to represent brands: quite simply, the best girl wins.

This age of equality has allowed Abbey to flourish, not just as a fashion name, but as a growing presence in popular culture too. Access to runway shows is virtually immediate thanks to live streaming, and computer wizardry and promotional videos are fleshing out the world of 2D campaigns. The high-fashion experience is becoming a very real presence in the virtual world, where the lines between commercial and high-fashion are becoming ever more blurred.

Fashion’s future is becoming dependent on whether we will be persuaded to embrace an industry where anything goes. With faces like Abbey leading the way, that persuasion feels like an increasingly easy sell.

HELEN TOPE