Very model of modern expatriate
This week, Alice Burdeu - the former shopgirl from Melbourne - shoots her first major campaign for Dolce&Gabbana diffusion line, D&G, in London with the celebrity photographer Mario Testino. Since winning the 2007 season of Foxtel reality program, Australia's Next Top Model, she has strutted fashion week catwalks in London, Paris and New York.
"My favourite would still have to be the Proenza Schouler [New York] show," the 19-year-old told SiT down the phone from the New York apartment she shares with other models. "I fell over three times during the casting but they still chose me. When I came here I thought I would be lucky to get just one show."
Along with a fat portfolio of catwalk shots, Burdeu has accumulated a wardrobe of designer threads - gifts from designers following a show - which, she said, helps at castings. "You get stuff you wouldn't normally buy. It is like Christmas."
Such talk will no doubt inspire the next batch of aspiring models, now filming for the show's next series, which starts screening in a fortnight. Charlotte Dawson, a judge on the show with Jodhi Meares, said Burdeu's success had resulted in a higher calibre of contestants: "Alice showed it wasn't just the beach babes who could be models. She is at the top of her game now."
[intentional capital letters]
. After 10 cycles, her girls are still doing Seventeen covers and LA fashion week? Ughh...
