Ella Verberne's IMG showcard. All Images/via models.com

There’s less than a week to go until the first New York Fashion Week of 2012 and the show packages have been rolling out. You’ll be pleased to note that there are a few New Zealanders’ (or at least a few we’re claiming as our own) cards in amongst the bunch, most notably one from international-show-first-timer and last week’s Model I met and liked, Ella Verberne – who, as you can see from the above, is newly signed to IMG New York.

Other New Zealand models to watch out for? Last year’s top 10 newcomer of the year, Emily Baker, and Jessica Clarke – hot off the Victoria’s Secret catwalk. (Showcards below.) Keep an eye out for a few Kiwi’s I haven’t seen showcards for (yet), but know are in New York (or should be!): Clyne’s Yasmin Bidois – who recently signed with Ford NY, Grace Hollows (Elite) and Michael Whittaker (DNA). Also, take note of Red 11′s Caitlin Lomax – the Australian-born of whom we’ve adopted as our own, and Alina Levichkina – whose face you will recognise from the long periods of time she’s spent in New Zealand.

Finally, I’ll be keeping my radar on a few of my favourite new Australian girls this season – Dempsey Stewart (though I’m not sure if she’s doing the shows), Chrystal Copland and the very new but very upwardly mobile, Jemma Baines.

Who will you be looking out for?

Good luck to all the New Zealanders!

Emily Baker.

Jessica Clarke.

Alina Levichkina.

Caitlin Lomax.

Chrystal Copland.

Jemma Baines.

Danika Rooney @ N Model Management.

Name: Danika Rooney
Agency: N Model Management
Age: 15
Ethnicity: 1/16 Maori

How did you get into modelling, and how long have you been doing it?
I’ve wanted to do it a long time. I sent my photos to one agency, they said no. N Model Management was recommended to me so I sent photos to them and they took me on. I’ve been doing it for about a year.

What’s the best modelling job you’ve done so far?
I loved walking at Dunedin ID Fashion Week.

Where’s your dream modelling destination?
New York City definitely.

Dream modelling job?
The Victoria’s Secret show! Or a Victoria’s Secret contract.

If you weren’t going to be a model full-time, what would you like to do instead?
I’m not sure – I want to be a model! But I think if I wasn’t modelling I’d like to be an actress or a make-up artist.

Who’s your favourite model?
Miranda Kerr.

Do you have a favourite food?
Anything fatty! Pizza! I need to be more healthy but I love food that’s bad for you…

Is there anything you wouldn’t do for modelling?
Nudity. At least not any time soon.

What about cutting off all your hair?
Yeah, I’d do it for a job! For sure!

What’s your favourite thing about modelling? And least favourite thing?
I love photo shoots. I like all of it but I really like shoots. I also love meeting new people and designers. My least favourite thing about modelling would have to be having to get up early.

Tell me something people wouldn’t necessarily know about you?
I don’t think many people would know about me – I’m from Opotiki!

I can’t find my notebook but can you draw me a picture of yourself in 3 years time on this takeaway bag?:

Excuse the less-than-great quality iPhone photo, but this is Danika's drawing of herself in 3 years time, in New York City, checking out her Victoria's Secret billboard.

All Images/James K. Lowe.

Very rarely a day goes by where I am not informed that I look like my brother, or that he looks like me. It’s true, James and I look alike – quite alike. We both have those dreaded Lowe-family chubby cheeks, the average eyesight, better-than-usual metabolism, long fingers and toes, tanned skin. I mean, we are related – what do you expect?

What James has that I haven’t seem to have inherited, though (aside from the height and skinny legs) is an innate sense of style. Sure, I like what I like and I can put together an outfit when under pressure, but James – James seems to have looking effortlessly cool, down. Maybe it’s the tattoos,  maybe it’s the fact that he’s the kind of person who spends $100 on (White Mountaineering) socks. Who knows? Regardless, the kid is fresh.

Over the weekend, partially out of boredom and partially because I find the whole concept hilarious, we took a couple of photos of me as James. Katherine Lowe, shot and styled (in outfits he actually wears) by James Lowe, if you will. The results are below (along with clothing credits, if you’re so inclined) and the rest (out-takes and the like) are up on my tumblr. Enjoy:

Clothing credits: Deluxe Clothing Street Tailor shirt, Bedwin and the Heartbreakers jacket, Levi’s Vintage Clothing chinos, Chups socks, Adidas ObyO KZK x WHIZ shoes, Norse Projects beanie, Makr Carry Goods rucksack and Moscot eyewear.

Clothing credits: Nike x Kobe Bryant t-shirt, Perks & Mini jacket, Ironheart jeans, Vanishing Elephant socks, New Balance x Highs and Lows shoes, Supreme hat and Moscot eyewear.

Clothing credits: Norse Projects t-shirt, Adidas OT Tech jacket, Wood Wood shorts, Alpaca socks, Nike lunar wood shoes and Norse Projects beanie.

James K Lowe on the driveway.

Highs:

1. Productivity levels quite high this week. Many meetings attended, hater comments at an all time low, blogging frequency up, came up with so many great ideas this week even. So many great ideas!
2. Had a few impromptu photos taken yesterday, which I am going to try to post tomorrow. I want to tell you about them because I think they’re really hilarious, but at the same time I think it might only be me who finds them hilarious and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Here’s a sneak peek.
3. So many people wanna win those sunglasses I’m giving away!
4. These two collections, but especially the Acne collection. The outfit second to the left in this photo is MY JAM. The blazer, the cut of the pants, the cream sweater. I swear to god if I find a boy who dresses like that I will marry him immediately.
5. Whatsapp. I don’t know how many of you out there have a smart phone, but I’d say quite a few. If you don’t have whatsapp you need to download the app right now. So handy! I have had some really great whatsapp conversations this week.
6. That limited edition run of ‘Thugged Out Since Cub Scouts’ tees is so close to being pushed over the line it’s not funny. Just a few kinks to iron out (read: $$$) and we’ll be good to go. Watch this space.

Low(e)s:

1. It’s been over a week since I jammed my finger in that taxi door and I still don’t have proper feeling in it… I’m starting to worry.
2. I went to 10 dairies on Saturday, trying to get my hands on one of those Ice Bar old fashioned lemonade iceblocks. 10. Pretty much every dairy/service station had the lemon lime bitter flavour, some had the ginger beer flavour but nine of them didn’t have the old fashioned lemonade flavour. We went all the way down Ponsonby Road, K Rd and back. It took forever. On the plus side, I do feel like maybe Tip Top should hook me up because I feel like I may be slightly responsible for the sold-out status of the old fashioned lemonade flavour with all my talking about it. You hear that Tip Top?!
3. “Soz.” I’m guilty of saying it, and every time I do I hate myself for it. I’m desperately trying to phase the stupid phrase out. It’s like an apology that you don’t mean at all, in which case why are you apologising in the first place?! AAHHHHH!
4. I’ve just been informed that in 5 days I am getting the new Facebook ‘timeline’. Without my permission. Damnit Facebook, why you gotta do this to me?!
5. I’m back on that broken bodyclock buzz again. 2.30-4.30am sleep times, 8.30-9.30am wake up times. Tired all the times.

Michael Whittaker (right) backstage at Damir Doma. Image/Sonny Vandevelde.

Incase you hadn’t noticed, there have been a couple of Kiwis repping our country at the shows in Paris this month – first up, freshly off his catwalk-modelling hiatus – Michael Whittaker. The guy managed to nab himself a total of 5 shows: Julius, Damir Doma, Thom Browne, Balenciaga and Comme des Garcons (the latter in which he closed). Not too bad, not too bad at all.

Next up, new face on the scene Anmari Botha has shown up at three Couture events so far – Christophe Jose, Giambattista Valli and the Givenchy presentation. Pretty good for a girl who popped up in New Zealand mere months ago.

Other notable – Caitlin Lomax (who is Australian but who lists local Red Eleven as her mother agency, so it semi counts…) – has had a pretty stellar run over this last year, and this time she booked Chanel again.

Well done to all the New Zealanders (and pseudo-New Zealanders) reppin’ us overseas. Bring on womenswear!

Note: Usual New Zealand catwalk suspects Jessica Clarke and Emily Baker both had commitments which prevented them from attending the Couture shows. On the men’s side, show favourite Aiden Andrews has been forced to sit this season out so far – he’s recovering from an unfortunate skateboard accident.

PS: Please tell me at least one of you out there got the title to the post!

Michael Whittaker at Comme des Garcons. Images/gq.com

Anmari Botha at Christophe Josse. Image/Francois Guillot via tfs.

Caitlin Lomax at Chanel. Image/via tfs.

L: Persol, R: Ralph Lauren

Ages ago I said if I ever won the fashion category of the Concrete Playground Bloggers Award, that I would be giving back to you readers to say thanks. Well, I did win (insert smiley face here) and as well as the glory, I also got to pick up some pairs of sunnies (thanks to Sunglass Hut) as my prize. Now we’re up to the fun part – where I get to say thanks.

I’ve teamed up with Tim and Joe of The Shutter Pirates (the winners of the overall award) and we’ve decided to conjointly give away two pairs of sunnies and two Shutter Pirates photographs.

How do you win? It’s pretty easy – all you have to do is like The Shutter Pirates and Katherine Is Awesome on Facebook then leave a comment either on this post here, or let me know which pair of sunnies you’d like (more pics below) in the comments on this photo here (not on this post), and you’re in the draw.

We’ll pull two names out of a hat in a fortnight’s time and if it’s yours then we’ll send you an A3 print of your choice as well as a pair of the sunnies that were gifted to me.

Happy Thursday night folks.

Ralph Lauren.

Persol.

Ella Verberne @ Clyne.

For a while now I’ve been wanting to do mini-profiles on a few of the model girls (and boys) around town. Firstly, I’m pretty fascinated by the industry as a whole, and secondly, I figured it would be a nice new segment for the blog, being a new year and all. I intend for this to be a weekly (fingers crossed) installment on New Zealand models I love, models I have my eye on, up and comers and just plain favourites, so who better to start off with than one of New Zealand’s most successful new faces and one of the nicest girls around – Ella Verberne:

Name: Ella Verberne
Agency: Clyne
Age: 17
Ethnicity: Dutch/Chinese

How did you get into modelling, and how long have you been doing it? Do you do it full time?
I was fifteen when I first started – next month I will have been doing it for two years. I do it part-time – I still go to school. I do Accounting, Stats, English, History, French, R.E and Chemistry.

How tall are you?
5’10″

That’s so tall!
Haha, I know. I don’t usually wear high heels to parties because I’m too tall – guys my age aren’t tall enough yet!

What’s the highlight of your modelling career so far?
I can’t say one job in particular, but I love shooting on location. And when I was featured on models.com - that was pretty cool.

Where’s your dream modelling destination?
Definitely New York.

What’s your dream modelling job?
If I could book a Prada campaign that would be amazing, or Chanel. Or Alexander Wang.

Who are your favourite models?
Kate Moss and Karlie Kloss. And any of the Victoria’s Secret girls.

Do you have a favourite food?
All food. I eat what I like, I’m not going to cut out anything. I love food. I do what I want!

What’s the last thing you bought?
An iPhone and some Marc Jacobs sunglasses.

Tell me something people wouldn’t necessarily know about you?
I’m obsessed with animals – especially small dogs. I have a pet cat named Casper, I wanted to name him Ash but it didn’t work out… Also, I like to paddle board and I used to skateboard.

Draw me a picture of yourself: (Note: Ella excused her drawing skills and decided she would draw a picture of me instead.)

All Images/Derek Henderson for Stolen Girlfriends Club.

About 20 minutes ago the new Stolen Girlfriends Club Autumn/Winter 2012 campaign imagery was presented to me, I came across this shot and had to share it with you. It’s my favourite of the lot. There are several reasons for this:

• Firstly, I really like cornflakes. Well, I don’t really eat cereal that often (read: at all) but if I were to choose any cereal in the world as my favourite, it would probably be cornflakes. They might be boring, but with a bit of sugar sprinkled on top they can really be quite delightful. But I digress. I like that they’ve used cornflakes.
• Secondly, the cornflakes are Homebrand. Extra points for this.
• Thirdly, we all know I think Georgia Fowler is a fecking good model, and  it was shot by Derek Henderson and we all know Derek Henderson is my favourite New Zealand photographer.
• Fourthly, there’s just so much going on in this photo. It’s just so damn interesting, there’s a tonne of things to look at and it’s just kind of refreshing to see a campaign image that isn’t super clean and minimalist.
• Fifthly, there’s something nice about how Stolen Girlfriends Club has their brand guidelines down. They have amazing marketing skills and there’s no doubt these photos fit in perfectly with their target audience. They know the kind of image to present and they stick with it and that’s what makes them incredibly successful. High fives for that.

See some of my other favourites from the campaign and credits, below.

Image/onofield.com

Highs:

1. The Australian Open, duh.
2. I tried The Ice Bar Co.’s ‘Old Fashioned Lemonade’ Ice-block (twice) this week. I can honestly say it’s one of the best frozen treats I have ever had in my life.
3. Two projects got underway this week and, fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan, there’ll be some exciting things to come towards the end of next month. I know it’s pretty dumb to say this and not explain further, but I’m of the opinion that nothing’s set in stone until it’s set in stone, you know? I don’t want to jinx everything by sharing.
4. This week I acquired my very own Ari Gold! From now on – don’t talk to me, talk to my agent/consultant/internet-advice-giver, Nivin.
5. This is a little off-brand, but if you’re not already reading Slutever, you really need to. It’s kind of really NSFW though – for those who are in the office right now – do not click that link! Aside from being bloody entertaining and well written, the blog is actually kind of liberating.
6. This awesome piece of fan-mail that L.A.S of How To Talk To Girls At Parties received from an 81 year old in New Mexico, in defence of bow ties.

Low(e)s:

1. Last night I shut a taxi door on my own finger. It hurt like a m_ f_. Some may wonder how this is possible and in the last 18 hours I have been thinking the same thing, but I really am that stupid and it really did happen because today my finger looks like this. I still can’t properly feel it. I feel like there’s a lesson to be learnt here but I’m not quite sure what.
2. I say I acquired my very own Ari Gold, but he is not acting like Ari Gold. The two meetings we are supposed to have had, have been cancelled/postponed and both on his end. I may have to give him the boot. (You hear that Nivin?!?!!!!)
3. I’ve purchased flights to Sydney for Australian Fashion Week but I’m not sure if I’m going to go yet. I did it because there was a sale on. It’s a little pre-emptive considering registration doesn’t open for at least a month, and perhaps a tiny bit of a stupid idea considering I haven’t actually decided whether I can justify the cost or even afford it in the first place, pretty much no one I know is going and I won’t get a refund on the flights if I cancel. In fact, the more I think about it, the stupider it sounds.
4. White girl problems. So Racial.

Two looks from Valentino. Images/showstudio.com

Yeah, neither.

I must sound like a broken record, always telling you that I’m going to blog more and then not following through. If I’m being completely honest, I’m sort of avoiding the internet a bit. Well, as much as one can. Sometimes there’s just too much information. But, in saying that, I do realise that in order for one to actually be a ‘blogger’, one must actually ‘blog’, so in order to make up for the lack of KIA updates (I haven’t updated HERE, but I have updated the Tumblr and put up some things on my Facebook page) the past couple of days, I have compiled a list of things to entertain you until I get my highs and low(e)s on tomorrow:

• Firstly, if you aren’t keeping up with Texts from Bennett you need to now. If only to make you feel comforted by the fact that someone like that exists in the world.
• Secondly, this is supposed to be a fashion blog, right? Keep up with the collections, people! And if you can’t be bothered? At least check out the Valentino collection from Pitti Uomo. If that doesn’t blow your menswear minds, it’s time to get your head checked.
• Tavi may not be your cup of tea, but there’s no denying she’s a full on teenage genius. The girl is incredibly well rounded and smart and basically everything a parent wants in a daughter. You don’t have to read her blog but you do have to watch this. “They were talking about how inappropriate it was for someone of my age to go to Fashion Week, she remembers, but this was coming from an industry that fetishes youth” – Tavi Gevinson. INCREDIBLE.
• Oh my cake this looks fricken good.
• My brother did a big photoshoot a few days ago – one that involved 11 models, guns, fire and a long ass drive to Taupo. He’s now got something like a week to get negative processed, retouching done and the whole thing printed and ready to exhibit. He won’t be getting any sleep, you can follow his progress on his blog and see some cool behind the scenes photos from his trip, here.
• Two words: Gossip Girl.
• One word: Californication.