News and Trends
Who is Australia's next top body?
Top brand ... Jodi Gordon is branching out
Australia's top bodies are stripping off in a bid to seize the mantle of best in the business.
Turning themselves into beautiful billboards has paid big dividends for the likes of Jennifer Hawkins, Catherine McNeil, Miranda Kerr, Jodi Gordon, Stephanie Rice and Lara Bingle, who have all attracted big endorsement deals for showing their bodies in the past 12 months.
They have aligned their fabulous bodies to leading swimwear and apparel brands - Speedo, Seafolly, Davenport, Lovable - that pay hard cash for hard bodies.
Indeed, the fashion industry calls them "the body corporate", an elite group who use their physical assets as walking bank balances. Each is vying to be Australia's next top body, because that's what the fashion industry prints its dollars on.
"Girls have voices now - they have control, they have power," says David Gubert, the first Australian photographer to have shot the Victoria's Secret catalogue. "That's why it's important that they can speak well, carry themselves and be businesswomen. Just like Elle Macpherson did, way back at the beginning."
Macpherson went from a pretty face and a stunning body in TAB commercials to running a $130 million lingerie empire.
Who magazine editor Nicky Briger says models can be faceless, but become celebrities once they align themselves with brands. "It's hugely profile-raising," Briger says. "Brands have the money to advertise, so all of a sudden their face is in every newspaper and magazine."
In the past 12 months, multi-million-dollar swimwear and lingerie outfits have shifted to signing up high-profile models who know how to play the game between their profile and body appeal.
In the process, they have left the "bikini babe" stigma behind, says Gubert: "The 'bikini beach babe' has been superseded by the confident woman who is a role model. That's what people get attracted to.
"Women are just as attracted to Jennifer Hawkins as men are, because they want to be her. They want to be that lovable, sexy and articulate."
Driving these women's ambitions is the might of Australia's swimwear industry, dwarfing the likes of designers Alex Perry and Collette Dinnigan.
International buyers look to JETS, Zimmermann and a growing contingent of local swimwear labels as design leaders. Speedo, available in 173 countries, has a deal with Lara Bingle to use her image in Britain and Asia. Seafolly, one of the five big fashion swimwear brands, sells in 40 countries.
The base rate for a high-profile girl begins at $75,000 for a three-year contract. The lucrative swimwear market's growth has not escaped Hawkins. After several swimwear offers, she decided to launch her own label, Cozi.
Gubert believes such models' career success is based on a master plan built around their bodies. "It's like Elle - it started with print, then she went into lingerie, and now she's doing cosmetics. They have to continually improve the 'brand' so they have something else to offer."
Who will become Australia's next top body is a prize driven as much by ambition as by great genes.
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text