Napoleon's Waterloo

Sad news today as the Napoleon Perdis make-up empire collapses and dozens of stores shut up shop.

Whispers attended Napoleon's very first make-up boutique launch in far-flung Paramatta which was Perdis' stamping ground. It was an odd affair. A token red carpet and red velvet rope to hold back the 3 or 4 locals who possibly thought they were witnessing a glittering event.
One collared Whispers to ask who were the glamorous tall models that just arrived by limo and swanned into the party. We didn't have the heart to tell them they were drag queens from Oxford Street.

Napoleon's problem was he rose too fast and became too large. Taking on the USA, especially Beverly Hills  is always a mistake when you aren't known. Selling a product - and they are good products- when there are 100s of similar is a bit like taking ice to Eskimos. And you need very deep pockets. A little known fact is that some of the biggest brand names that occupy ritzy & expensive real estate on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan are loss making but used as advertising for their products and the stores remain there for the prestige value.

And did the name Napoleon bring with it risky karma? After all his namesake ended up on an island which is where Mr Perdis now is- back on his home soil on at least a very large island. Napolean has been trying to sell the business for some time but the problem is, he just wasn't a big enough name.

Read the full story at the MailOnline. We like promoting the Mail- they nick tidbits from us all the time.

Elle Macpherson with scissors

 
The Body wielded a pair of scissors Tuesday morning at a small reception to open a new boutique in Myer in the Pitt Street Mall. She's planning to open several of these stores called Elle Macpherson Body around the world and was jetting off the next day to New Zealand to do likewise.

Whispers chatted to Elle's mum Fran Macpherson who told us she had recently returned from visiting Elle in her Miami home which she says is sensational and the weather is always perfect. 

As for her other children? Daughter Mimi is loving her life in Noosa in Queensland and son Ben is in Los Angeles wheeling and dealing in the movie business.

Jessica needs some good advice

The dramas over Jessica Mauboy's aborted plan to sing the national anthem at the Melbourne Cup could be an indicator of  the professionalism of those advising her. Jessica's no show was passed off by her management with the following statement :

“There was a lot going on yesterday and there was miscommunication with her styling team, unfortunately by the time it was resolved the call time had been missed.".  The Victorian Racing Club responded : "contracts for paid appearances at the Cup are easily understood and it is paramount that paid guests understand the importance of respecting paid sponsors"
Whispers should know. Many moons ago we organised the visit of the famous British milliner David Shilling who was a star guest at the Cup. VRC reps are nothing but courteous and experts in handling visiting celebrities such as Shilling with no stone left unturned during his 3 day stay in Melbourne as they guided him through a tour of personal appearances with their various sponsors like Myer.
Mauboy is currently promoting her new perfume which has had a less than stellar impact. Perhaps it's something to do with the organisers of her launch in Kings Cross a few weeks ago. A top publication sent their photographer to the small launch (guests : the usual newsreaders etc one saw at a function the week before) only to have a snooty publicist proclaim that they would choose what photographs  that the magazine could publish.

Just to show they had no hard feelings, the magazine editor ditched the entire idea of covering Jessica's launch. It's sad as Jessica is a sweet lady and a terrific talent. But as always, you must have the right team to promote you or it can all go pie eyed.

David Shilling at Ascot

Saturday : another great day of fun, fashion and racing at Royal Randwick

For more information go to the Australian Turf Club website here

Recipe for Good Looks

Since arriving in Sydney around 20 years Whispers has often seen Deborah Hutton around town. And she doesn't seem to have changed a bit. Vivacious, impeccably groomed and very good looking. What is her secret? Is in the genes or is it what she eats?.
Deborah has now launched her first recipe book so perhaps that will give a clue. Here is a lovely snap of her from the launch on Friday night. Doesn't she look great !
The book My Love Affair With Food is published by Women's Weekly - Deborah is an ambassador for Australia's top selling mag - so it will be available everywhere including newsagents, 

Myer Spring Summer fashion

It would be remiss of us having spruiked the David Jones' 2014 Spring Summer fashion parade, to not present their direct competitor Myer. And so here is the official video of the event. Keep an eye out for Jen Hawkins and see if you can spot the lump (baby!)

Weight Watchers

AFTER BANNING LARA BINGLE from his parade, designer Alex Perry is now flagellating himself after yesterday's opening parade for Sydney's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Perry has said that using ultra thin supermodel Cassi Van Den Dungen was a mistake.
As our snap shows Cassi does look rather gaunt although the camera can fib. Alex appeared on the 9 Network's Morning Show and told hosts Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson that it "was a mistake" after looking at photos from the show.
Mia Freedom has bought into the debate on Mammia, describing the parade as The Hunger Games while Marie Claire editor Jackie Frank has expressed concerns over Cassi's health. Van Den Dungen helpfully Instagramed a snap of her lunch which seems to consist of 2 croissants, water and a hugely unhealthy energy drink- not the sort of thing to be recommending to young girls who may be following her career.
The obsession with thinness is always evident during Fashion Weak and anyone who has shopped with a larger lady as the Shuttle did last week knows how ridiculous it has all become. Looking for larger lingerie at both Myer & David Jones in Bondi's Westfield proved fruitless (and just finding an assistant was like Stanley discovering Dr Livingstone) Racks and racks of unsold stock- thin stock -was on display yet nothing for the average sized or above, woman as most Australian women are. 
Yet in the specialty shop Storm In A D Cup just down the road in Edgecliff they were doing a roaring trade with an assistant who not only knew her stock intimately but took over $3000 in the half hour we spent there. There are lessons all round which are bound to be ignored.
 Tomorrow : SORTING OUT LAURA CSORTAN

Woman & the Melbourne Cup

A perfect Spring day (it isn't always so) and colour was the order of the
 day. Flemington fashions are simply gorgeous.
Myer, one of the main sponsors spends around $250,000 on the day for promotions. But they reckon they also sell around 25000 dresses during the racing season. Here are just a handful.

Fabulous No-Bodies

Ground Hog Day

The Shuttle met the designer Oscar de la Renta in Sydney a few years ago. It was at a party in a marquee erected outside the Park Hyatt Hotel with a magnificent view across to the Sydney Opera House.
Oscar arrived with the late Lady Sonia McMahon. He said he loved Sydney and Melbourne and wished he had discovered the cities much earlier. As to a question on  Australian fashion :"it shows promise" was the master's diplomatic reply.

What Oscar would think about the froth and bubble of the 2 cities seasonal fashion shows is a mystery. Same guest list, same location, same designers. Each and every show is like a repeat of the last. Just the fabrics change.
 One social writer recently resorted to trilling about the seating arrangements at the last David Jones show, excitedly reporting that they had scored a front row seat and that a fashion publicist who had incurred their displeasure had been relegated to the back row.
The inanity of the reporting (possibly influenced by the heavy advertising of Australia's 2 leading department store chains) is as vacuous as the guest list-"fabulous nobodies" in every sense. A series of alleged social faces who feature at every event as Ipad wielding publicists breathlessly inform the feverish paparazzi of  the arrival of yet another footballer or TV news announcer. At least the French champagne proffered soothes the boredom.

Now Oscar de la Renta has declared war on these guest lists and is to ban them from his New York 2014 parades : "decision-makers in the business should not have to fight their way through "30,000 people, and 10,000 who are trying to take pictures of all of those people, who are totally unrelated to the clothes". And he has allies on the New York Times including Cathy Horyn and the legendary Susy Menkes.  Perhaps it's fortunate Mr de la Renta didn't experience Sydney & Melbourne's low-rent-a-crowds and departed with fond memories of our local fashion industry.

DJs , Myer : "Cyberbullying For Profit"

A David Jones' advert beneath a malicious post about a 14 year old US teenager.

While Australia's tabloids pound out endless words of praise for the Ground Hog Days that constitute the seasonal fashion parades of the countries biggest department stores, Myer and David Jones, an Adelaide academic has uncovered an extraordinary scandal where both retailers along with many of Australia's top corporations are placing their adverts via Google on some of the USA's nastiest cyber bullying websites.
There has been a growth in so-called 'customer advocate' website that are little more than extortionist entities that allow posters to publish the most vile claims, many about Australian politicians, celebrities,  teenagers and school children. To get the statements removed the website owners charge an extortionate fee while Google charges a further fee to remove the item from their search engine.

The advertisements from Aussie companies like Coles, Myer, Bunnings, Officeworks, Foxtel and others can appear along side racist, homophobic and disgusting comments about young teens. The academic says some Australian companies she has contacted are shocked to hear their adverts appear on the websites but have as much trouble contacting Google as a member of the public does.
So much for Google's inane "Don't Be Evil' motto.

More Fashion & Klunk Klink

As sure as night follows day-the Myer Spring /Summer parades follow David Jones fashion gala a week later. And so it came to pass at the Horden Pavilion (soo much easier to park !) and of course, the most successful Miss Universe ever, Jennifer Hawkins strutted the catwalk to show off the wares. Along with some others of course including Kris Smith and football superstar Harry Kewell.

Jennifer Hawkins & Kris Smith in the 2013 Myer parade, Harry Kewell and errr Kris & Jennifer from 2009- not a lot changes !

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The row over the bizarre election front pages on the Daily Telegraph has spread to the UK with the BBC picking up the controversy. Yesterday's photo-montage depicted Anthony Albanese, Craig Thomson and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as characters out of the 60's TV show Hogan's Heroes.

After Rudd complained Opposition Communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said that the PM sounded like a "jilted lover" but as some unkind wag commented-"does that mean Tony Abbott is now Rupert Murdoch's new mistress?"
Now UK Labor MP and staunch Murdoch opponent Tom Watson who was involved in the recent select committee investigating Murdoch has just tweeted he is "mentally packing his bags" to visit Australia soon to talk about Murdoch's activities in the UK. 
We think the last word should go to Tim Dunlop writing on the ABC's The Drum :
"What the editors and proprietor no doubt saw as some sort of brave, daring play by a vital and vibrant news organisation putting itself in the middle of the biggest political story of the year, looked more like some sad grandpa with a comb-over at a nightclub trying to impress the ladies with his hip moves from another era."

Fashion Follies

Meet Felix Reiss who just last November was working at the Shuttle's supermarket of choice, Coles in Macleay Street Kings Cross. This month he has been treading the boards on the European catwalks and last week he opened and closed the Dior Homme show in Paris.The excellent rag trade website frockwriter brings us this and other hot-tips about the fashion world. It's a good read.
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One Australian fashion personality has been sounding off this week .
 Nicholas Huxley (left) is head of the Fashion & Design Studio at TAFE and he's had a hand in crafting the careers of the majority of our fashion designers and some of the the biggest names in the industry.
Huxley has ticked off both David Jones & Myer department stores for leaving him off their guest lists for years at the yearly fashion parades and soirees. As Nicholas puts it :
             " Today I appeared in the Sunday Telegraph as one of the 10 Secret Style Makers of Australia! (Thanks Elle again)! I have been nominated 5 years out of the 6 years of the Fashion Laureate Award for service to the Fashion industry.I have been nominated for the Fashion Group International Lifetime Achievement award. I have won two FIA(Fashion Industries of Australia ) awards. I have been nominated for an AFI (Australian Film Industries) Award for costuming a motion picture. In 2008(Sydney Magazine) I was chosen along with 4 other Fashion Industry people to be one of the 100 most influential people in Sydney."
 Huxley has a good point. The number of vacuous b-list slebs rolled out at these parades is as legendary as the snooty clip-board  (Ipads now) wielding "PR" consultants who think they are terribly important.

the judges : Didier Cohen * Charlotte Dawson * Alex Perry * Jennifer Hawkins

 Now he's also laid into the new season of the reality TV show Australia's Next Top Model : 
" OMG!!!! Australia's Next Top Model!!! Sorry..but what can I say?? WOW!! I'm sorry but I'm finding it very difficult to look at the judges..There is so much of everything going on...BOTOX GALORE..SO MUCH TALK BUT NO MOVEMENT IN THE FACE / WHITENED TEETH TO THE POINT OF WHO NEEDS THE LIGHTS ON..JUST FLASH THE TEETH! AND A MALE MODEL///WHO'S A BIT LIKE A LOG OF WOOD!
Ouch ! You tell 'em Nick !! 

Nicole Channel's Eliza

That's Eliza Doolittle of course and we think it's Nicole Kidman. She had rather a waxy look about her, a slight touch of the Madame Tussuad's.
Flemington's Derby Day is the smarter race meet of the Melbourne Cup racing season. It's a bit more refined. After today it all goes downhill and Melbourne Cup next Tuesday is best avoided.

The Shuttle has covered more than out fair share and even provided the "celebrity" visitors on two occasions. Now we find the races rather tiring, It's better to find a local Sydney party for the day and hang out there. That saves the trouble of booking flights and hotels in Melbourne which are choc-a-bloc.

On Tuesday Flemington is packed with humanity-hundreds of thousands of them,. Fascinators are so thick on the ground one could take your eye if you turned your head quickly. On Derby Day virtually every Sydney celebrity, news reader, weather girl and so on is in Melbourne as Sydney's gossip set flies down to file reports on the same Sydneysiders they saw last week. There is usually an obligatory mention of Eileen Bond.

Italian designer Robert Cavalli was at the Derby, cleverly shouting the word Lavazzi (who paid him to turn up) into any microphone that would listen. As well as telling us about his glamorous new range soon to be had at Target.

Getting to the Cup on Tuesday is a bit of a nightmare unless you happen to be staying with Captain Peter Jansen (right) in his magnificent 4 story city building, where once past the front door you find yourself  in an eccentric English country style manor house complete with stuffed bears and hunting trophies.

Jansen is a Racing Season regular and once raced Jaguar cars in England. One year with Jansen behind the wheel of an XJ Sports and English milliner to the Royals, Freddy Fox beside him, the Shuttle crouched in fear in the rear seat as Jansen floored the Jag and got us to Flemington in under 15 minutes, waving aside policeman who jumped out of his way. Leaving the Jag purring right at the main entrance of the racecourse the three of us belted through the course to the Myer enclave so Freddie and Peter could judge the first rounds of Fashions In The Fields.

The highlight on Tuesday is of course, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall who will present the Melbourne Cup..

Big Picture,Big Fail.

New York photographer Bill Cunningham

Bill Ranken (Katie Preston Toepfer)

One of the regular gripes of the Shuttle is today's new breed of 'publicists',  PRs or whatever they are called these days.  Usually coming armed with a degree from somewhere.  Apart from a few notable exceptions they can be arrogant, grand and basically clueless about the job they do.

All three contributors to the Shuttle have worked in the media and with publicists in New York, London, LA, Paris, Melbourne or Sydney with about 100 years of experience between us.
Without a doubt, Sydney has the grandest PRs of them all.
We've inter-acted with publicists in London and New York who handle some of the biggest names in the movie business and some of the most successful products and brand names in the world. They are on the whole professional. polite, knowledgeable about their product and the business and most especially, the media. In Melbourne or Adelaide they will be far better mannered.

Hand in hand with this lot come a few photo agencies who have corrupted the entire process, stacking press shoots, promotional functions, movie premieres and so on with part-time aggressive , arrogant photographers armed with digital cameras and with nil interest in the subject. It's all about money.

A perfect example of how today's publicists really fail on the job is when one of Australia's most senior and most respected photographers and Shuttle contributor Bill Ranken telephoned both Myer and David Jones about their recent Spring/Summer fashion parades.
You would think that Ranken representing the local newspaper Latte Life that circulates throughout the well heeled suburbs of Sydney's Eastern suburbs, to the most wealthy streets and residents in this country, to readers with wallets stacked with cash and credit cards to spend on fashion, would be welcomed to join the ranks of the scruffs in the media pen. Alas, he was 'too late' according to a PR operative.

Darryn Lyons

At 83 years of age there is  a very good reason for having Ranken cover your event. Like Bill Cunningham in New York. he knows everybody and their mother (and often dated their grandmother). It's an important factor. Meanwhile the Shuttle was there and noted 2 photo agencies had at least 8 snappers between them in a sort of scatter gun approach of garnering photographs of today's instant 'celebrities' from every conceivable angle. We've searched high and low and not one single picture they took has been published. One newspaper photographer, a regular on the scene, walked off in disgust as he was asked time and time again the name of each person he snapped, by the paparazzi.

When the Big Picture agency burst on the scene over a decade ago, the cockatoo haired owner Darryn Lyons acted like he was about to re-create tabloid publishing as we know it. Perhaps he was right.
The Daily Telegraph recently ran this piece Revealed: How truth and lies mingle in Lara Bingle's nude photo scandal, reality was something different.
In April  London's Telegraph newspaper revealed how Big Picture had been paying a Virgin Airlines employee to supply flight details of the travel movements of stars.

Now the UK Press Gazette says the agency is having trouble paying staff and photographers.

Gatsby's Garbo

MEET GORGEOUS actress/model  Kasia Stelmach who attended the Myer fashion show last Thursday.

The Shuttle's spy disguised as a potted Aspidistra on the 3D set of The Great Gatsby at Fox Studios tells us Kasia stars in the flick.
 The rumour is that she plays the exotic movie star Greta Garbo although mysteriously she is listed as 'Geraldine Peacock-Prada Woman'  Prada Woman ?. Did they have Prada in the twenties?.
 Kasia has appeared in one previous film, a shortie called Grace Of Others in 2011. We reckon Kasia has a big future ahead so she is now officially a Social Shuttle Discovery (well OK, the Shuttle's and Baz Luhrman's!)

 *Talk filtering out the set of Baz Luhrman's fabulous production says the movie's $120M plus budget  has been exhausted recreating New York and the Hamptons and Warner Bros have put their foot down, refusing to fund Baz who wants to re-film some scenes with Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire, hence the release date of the movie being pushed back to 2013.
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Wolverine AKA Hugh Jackman currently residing in Sydney while he films The Wolverine around town has sent us a pic of himself just fitting into his Knox Grammar (very posh) School blazer.

We've uncovered a school pic of Hugh in that very jacket.
Wasn't he handsome even then !

Showing Skin at Myer

 JENNIFER HAWKINS swept through the guests while Danni Minogue's former beau Kris Smith chatted to London Olympics Gold Medal winner Alicia Coutts, before both shed their clothes and took to the catwalk at last night's Myer Spring Summer fashion show at the Horden Pavilion.

                                                    

Miranda Kerr Nude!

THE SEASONAL fashion battle between the 2 Australian department store chains begins this evening with David Jones fashion parade in their city store and Myer at Fox Studios on Thursday.

DJ's star recruit Miranda Kerr struts the boards tonight. Here are some exclusive snaps of Miranda that will be published in the latest Harper's Bizarre. The pics are by the best and most unpretentious fashion snapper New Yorker Terry Richardson and if you haven't yet discovered his diary, go here. It's fun.


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So the closing ceremony of the London Olympics is receiving mixed reviews and Sydney 2000 still retains it's title of The Best Ever Olympics (according to then IOC boss Juan Samaranch). Indeed the Sydney opening and closing bashes were better co-ordinated but one Aussie is receiving rave reviews for his commentary on the BBC. Armani clad ("Giorgi is a friend") Ian Thorpe with the UK Daily Express and the News Statesman amongst others praising the 5 times Gold Medal winner.

The Thorpedo with artist Charles Billich in March this year

Dark Side of The Beauty Business

Grant Dwyer with Jennifer Hawkins (centre)

GRANT DWYER is well spoken young entrepreneur who often does business the old gentlemanly way-on a handshake.

Running a medium sized model and promotional agency from chic premises in Double Bay, he has had countless successes. Dwyer has a unique eye for spotting talent amongst the dozens of young aspiring models who walk through his door.

Jamie Foxx

In just the past few years, many of the careers launched by Dwyer have become household  names.

Model Ashlea Talbot,  teenage water skiing champion Lauryn Eagle, Celebrity Apprentice winner Jesinta Campbell, TV presenter Rachael Finch and the most successful Miss Universe ever Jennifer Hawkins.

Donald Trump's Miss Universe contest was languishing in the doldrums until Dwyer spotted the young Newcastle demonstration model Hawkins and persuaded her to enter the quest. A panel of judges that included fashion photographers, journalists and the Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx all concurred with Dwyer's choice and sent Hawkins off to the 2004 quest in Ecuador.    

Lauryn Eagle

When Hawkins took the Miss Universe crown the contest became a major media event that astonished even the jaded Trump who couldn't believe his luck. Dwyer organised a home coming tour that would have been the envy of any chart topping pop group. Hundreds of fans rushed Hawkins. TV and newspaper cameras followed her every move over a two week tour of Australia culminating in the famous fashion slip in Sydney that catapulted Hawkins back onto front pages and TV screens around the world .

Rachael Finch

Now a legal stoush has broken out over one of Dwyer's top discoveries Rachael Finch

On Wednesday in the Downing Street Local Court Finch's current manager Deborah Miller was ordered to pay Dwyer $9406 after  Dwyer said he brokered a deal for Finch to appear as a celebrity ambassador for the McHappy Day fundraiser, which raises money for Ronald McDonald House Charities, after learning the beauty once worked for the fast food chain.

The rewards enjoyed by Dwyer's discoveries can be considerable. Even though Finch only came fourth in the 2009 Miss Universe contest in the Bahamas, Dwyer was already negotiating deals before she had returned to Sydney including a $45,000 make-up deal and a Disney promotion for $36,000.

As for Jennifer Hawkins, as the face of Myer department stores and with her own range of swimwear, Hawkins is estimated to earn up to $5M a year.