I don't know if this has already been posted:
"Gemma too pricey
By Georgina Safe
08feb06
SHE remains a proud Australian, but today Gemma Ward is far too much in demand - and expensive - to model for our nation's designers.
Ward, the Perth-born model whose meteoric rise last year snared her the cover of Time magazine, did not appear at the Sass & Bide and Willow shows during New York Fashion Week.
Instead, she trod the catwalk there yesterday for established US designer Carolina Herrera.
"Besides Australian designers not being able to afford her fee, Gemma would simply be too busy ... to model for them," Follow magazine editor Mark Vassallo said.
Vassallo, credited with helping to discover Ward and launch her international career, said the model had "multiple commitments to all the major international designers" that prohibited her making an appearance for the Australians showing in New York.
At Carolina Herrera yesterday, Ward modelled outfits including a floor-length red and gold ruffled evening gown from the designer's collection inspired by prominent women of the late 1950s.
The show consolidated a major trend to emerge from the fashion week so far: playing with structure without showing too much skin.
Herrera sent several skirt and pant suits down the runway that emphasised the waist, a key focus for the new season's silhouette.
A new look for autumn is fur sheared so close that it looks like soft velvet.
Herrera used that technique for the mink sleeves of a tweed dress that was otherwise simple and sophisticated.
Oscar de la Renta, another designer favoured by the Big Apple's uptown girls, showed an autumn collection that confirmed other emerging trends, including metallic fabrics, skinny cigarette pants and wide-leg cuffed trousers.
The most eagerly anticipated show yesterday was that of Marc Jacobs. After a 90-minute delay - due to the late arrival of shoes - the designer sent out a collection that cleverly turned some of his ladylike standards into tough-girl accessories.
Dainty tea-party gloves became leather, elbow-length gloves; Mary Janes got a patent-leather makeover and their heels were raised to dizzying heights.
Jacobs appeared to have some of his younger fans in mind, including Nicole Ritchie, The OC's Rachel Bilson and the designer's longtime muse, Winona Ryder, who all cheered him from the front row. "
http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,18075182%255E10431,00.html