Aussie model shows her Underbelly
06:25 AEST Mon Apr 5 2010
Australian supermodel Elyse Taylor has exposed her sexy underbelly for a provocative Vogue photo shoot alongside Underbelly 3 star Firass Dirani.
Taylor, scantily styled in Mad Max inspired designer fashion, posed for Vogue entwined with Dirani, who portrays Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim, a former boyfriend of Taylor's, in the upcoming television series Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile.
Already fashion insiders are buzzing that Vogue's risque take on Underbelly's gangster chic will turn the May edition into a bestseller.
"Oh great," Taylor laughs over the speculation.
"The shoot is very tongue-in-cheek and we all went into it laughing at the situation, which was kind of cool," she told AAP.
"Australian magazines are a bit conservative and so it was nice to be able to push it as far as it gets."
Shot over two days in 40 degree heat, Taylor and Dirani posed together on the sand dunes of Newcastle, one of the original locations for the 1979 iconic movie Mad Max.
Although Ibrahim supported her choice to appear in the sexy Vogue shoot with Dirani, she concedes intertwining her private life with the media can have a downside.
"Yeah in a way but a bit of a pain really because some parts of your life you just want to keep private, but I do accept that you have to reveal something of your life to make yourself more interesting," Taylor said.
But the 23-year-old believes "fashion and being provocative go hand-in-hand" and that includes "the ironic glamour" of role play in Mad Max meets Underbelly.
"I think it incorporates that, people read things, then they see things, and the fact that Vogue did Underbelly and we were shooting where Mad Max was shot (and it's an unbelievable terrain) so I guess it's an incorporation of everything."
Securing the May issue of Vogue as her second cover within 12 months is the latest coup for the ambitious blonde who recently added UK GQ, Victoria's Secrets and Bonds to her impressive portfolio.
Taylor is also a cyber celebrity to the vast fashion internet community who follow her life; from her purchasing her New York apartment off US designer Alexander Wang, to her strong friendship with Ibrahim, who she dated from 2003 to 2006 until leaving Australia.
Despite Dirani taking advice from Ibrahim for the Underbelly 3 series and filming around some of Kings Cross's most notorious nightspots, Taylor said he was more shocked to find himself on a Vogue shoot.
"I don't think he'd done many photo shoots before and so it was kind of like nice to see innocence and not knowing what to do," she said.
"So it was nice because usually actors come to a shoot and think they are above it all and instead he was being humble."
Shock value, however, is fast becoming Taylor's career game plan, and it's one that keeps winning her covers.
"Models' lives are more exposed now, similar to what has happened to celebrities, and I think readers need a reason to connect to the face on the cover," she said.
"Nowadays most models have to bring a bit more of themselves into the photograph and unless you bring some of your own character or some oomph to the picture then it's just a bland story."
ninemsn.com.au
Go Elyse!
