From SMH.com
FASHION TAKES A TOLL
How many fashionistas does it take to ring the Nasdaq bell? Four, apparently. The Herald fashion writer Patty Huntington reports that IMG Fashion vice-president Fern Mallis - the US boss of Australian Fashion Week's Simon Lock, since IMG acquired Lock's event - will ring the Nasdaq stock market closing bell on Thursday to launch New York Fashion Week.
The Australian labels sass & bide, Toni Maticesvki and Willow will show at Mallis's official event, which kicks off at Bryant Park on Friday morning, with Josh Goot, Lincoln Mayne and Ksubi showing off-schedule elsewhere in the city.
That's more Australian fashion bigwigs than Lock has lured to his Lilliputian "Transseasonal 2007" showcase in Melbourne over the next three days.
When Mallis rings the bell, she will be flanked by the US designers Betsey Johnson, Nicole Miller and the Australian model Gemma Ward. Ward's appearance quells speculation that she would miss the northern spring/summer 2007 season to appear in the Perth director Elissa Down's debut feature, The Black Balloon.
Yesterday Down told the Herald that shooting has been delayed until early next year and that Ward is "definitely" still involved. But Down's film may no longer be Ward's feature debut. The Hollywood Reporter says the 18-year-old Ward will appear opposite Liv Tyler in the Bryan Bertino-directed thriller The Strangers. Shooting is due to start later this year, with a slated October 2007 release.
Oddly enough, the world's number two-ranked runway/advertising face has been cast as a masked intruder.