29 April 2007
mcneil mania
When Mario Testino decides to bolster your career, when you're highlighted in a V magazine editorial with such a prescient title, and when you're starring in campaigns like D&G (above, with Marta Berzkalna & Alexandra Tomlinson) and Hugo Boss for fall, are we to believe the hype?
Extraordinary Aussie Catherine McNeil (Next) first surfaced in the Milan shows and went on to wow the crowd in Paris. It's a little surprising, coming from an agency that's swarming with swimsuit beauties, an agency whose stars are few and far between, that Catherine would generate such buzz.
When I first saw her polas, one word came to mind: HOT. Obviously, "hot" doesn't really have a place in high fashion, as evidenced by the recent wave of models who have been described as "quirky", "doll-like", and "unconventional". "Hot" is nowhere near synonymous to these adjectives. Though only 17, she looks a bit more mature than her age whereas a lot of her peers who start out at 15 look exactly like their age—or younger.
Maybe she is what the industry needs right now. Amidst the walking porcelain mannequins, she is a definite throwback to a young Christy Turlington. From head to toe, she is the antithesis of her fellow Aussie Gemma Ward.
So is this really the birth of a supermodel? We'll have to wait a couple more years.
Photo credit Pussycat Doll
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It's too early to be calling her a supermodel. If she can ride this new found fame for more than five years, then perhaps she can be called one otherwise you just dilute the real essence of the word if you anoint every model with 5 covers and 5 campaign a supermodel.
It's true. She is a bit young but hey, when you got it...work with it.
birth indeed..
cya,
+molly g.+
I hope she goes super, fashion can always use another muse, and she's gorgeous!
i love your blog!
LOVE MCNEIL. She is giving me that Turlington vibe so much I swear. She should knock Gemma off her superaussiemodel pedestal, the alienfaced 12 year old lookalike phase is getting so old.
she reminds me of another model back in the early 80's Jenny Howorth (?) who also had the same short cut and was all the rage and then she disappeared.
Who's to say what's a supermodel or not?
I think she is beautiful and could have potential, but then again that's been said about a lot of girls who went on to have less-than-scintillating careers.
Don't want to be a pessimist, though- I hope she makes it.