Sunday Mail
Top model's mystery illness revealed
Article from:
By
GENEVIEVE MEEGAN
October 04, 2008 12:30am
HOMESICKNESS has been blamed as the mystery illness that has Australia's top model, Catherine McNeil, absent from the catwalks of Europe.
McNeil, 19, made international headlines after pulling out of the Milan and Paris fashion weeks due to an undisclosed ailment. Exhaustion and homesickness were the cause, according to Sydney fashion insiders.
The self-confessed tomboy model, who grew up in Logan, south of Brisbane, is believed to be prone to strong bouts of missing her laidback lifestyle in the sunshine state.
Speaking from the family home her grandmother, Sandra McNeil, said the fashion model was taking some time off to rest.
She said McNeil was recuperating at her New York base. "She's just burned out," Mrs McNeil said last week.
But she added, her grand-daughter would be back at work again "soon".
McNeil's Sydney rep, Kathy Ward of Chic Model Management, said the situation had been "blown out of proportion" and promised that McNeil would be back bigger than ever.
McNeil was expected to start work on some lucrative and high-profile advertising campaigns in coming weeks, Ms Ward said.
Despite speculation about her absence from the European shows, industry experts said the time off – to rejuvenate after a "gruelling" few months work – would further boost her career.
McNeil appears on the cover of this month's
Vogue Australia magazine, and editor-in-chief Kirstie Clements said the model is "at the top of her game". "She's so far up the tree it wouldn't matter (that she missed the Paris and Milan shows)," Ms Clements said. "She's one of the top 10 models in the world.
"She really only does the top level stuff now and she's got some big advertising campaigns booked."
McNeil's modelling career began after she won a Girlfriend magazine model-search competition, and signed with Brisbane agency June Daly-Watkins at the age of 13.
Director Jodie Bache-McLean said McNeil's no-show would make her even more desirable in international circles.
She likened it to the career-rejuvenating behaviour of Kate Moss, who endured a drug scandal, and Naomi Campbell, who's anger issues have landed the supermodel in hot water, yet who both bounced back with even stronger profiles.
