Due to con?icting schedules, Twiggy will be unable to appear as a judge alongside Tyra Banks, J. Alexander and Nigel Barker in cycle 10 of the CW’s reality series, America’s Next Top Model. Taking her place will be former Estée Lauder signature face and actress Paulina Porizkova.
   Czech-born Porizkova (in which case one probably should write Po?ízková) was named as one of the 50 most beautiful people by People magazine in 1990 and 1992, and has been a fixture on magazine covers through the 1980s (Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and others). In 1988, she broke modelling records by securing a $6 million contract with Estée Lauder. American Photo named her the model of the 1980s. She started an acting career in 1983, and in 1989 starred alongside Tom Selleck in Her Alibi. She recently came back into the American public’s consciousness through its version of Dancing with the Stars.
   Twiggy, one of the 1960s’ iconic models, has been a judge on the show since cycle 5.

The official announcement about next year’s Southern Trust ID Dunedin Fashion Week has arrived, as expected.
   As insiders know, the Southern Trust has taken over principal sponsorship of the event, after Vodafone felt its participation had run its course after 2007. And we’re glad the Trust has seen fit to support ID: it’s the premier South Island fashion event and does wonders for Dunedin’s community of designers.
   The next event will also see a largely new team for PR and event coordination. Annemarie Mains, who had been one of the main coordinators, retired from ID last year and Victoria Bunton, fresh from her success at Fashion on Q, takes on the mantle for Dunedin.
   The Emerging Designers’ Award will also continue for 2008.
   Of the main event, the organizers say there will be 25 designers:

Showing full collections
Tanya Carlson
Nom*D
Charmaine Reveley
Veronica Keucke
Love Lies Bleeding
Sharon Ng
Cherry Cotton Candy
Aduki
Mild Red

Capsule collections
Tamsin Cooper
Elusiv
Cirrus
Aiomias
Cheryl Burtenshaw
Joan Leach

To be announced
Five Otago Polytechnic winners (announcing later this week)
Four Emerging Designers’ Awards section winners
Special guest designer

   The event will run from February 26 to March 1. Lucire will be there, as it has for the last five. Readers can expect our coverage to surpass other magazines’, as usual.

For lovers of beauty out there, a couple of articles this month online (re-runs from Lucire’s print edition) may interest you. We have Schwarzkopf’s spring–summer hair trends for the warming southern summer: I found this interesting from a design perspective, with the comments about futurism. Secondly, Ana Vegar’s earlier story on Clarins’ international make-up artist, Claude Defresne, is now online.

There may be some blog comments out there bearing my name but were not written by me today. One of my team did go blog-sur?ng on my recommendation, but did so on a computer that I had not signed out of. How embarrassing. C’est la vie.
   I don’t think it’s Mercury retrograde, but both telephones and the ’net were down at head office today, which explains the blissful phone-free silence. I thought it was down to the US recovering after Thanksgiving.

Another blog post was turned into a Lucire article today: my review of New Zealand airlines. Click here to read about my views on Air New Zealand versus Qantas versus the newcomer, Pacific Blue. Other news is scattered on sectional pages: new books from Lonely Planet; the Fiat 500 winning European Car of the Year; and the news in the earlier ‘Insider’ post about “first niece” Lauren Bush’s Feed 1 bags.
   With these briefer news items, it’s becoming harder to tell which would be better in the blogosphere and which would be better on a traditional website page. They seem to work in both places.

It has taken the media a while, considering model Lauren Bush has been promoting these since April, but there has finally been worldwide attention on the Feed 1 bag (US$59·95) that she designed in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme. The bag does hit Harrod’s in December at a £30 price, which admittedly lifts its profile, though American customers will be able to get theirs via Amazon.com.
   The Feed 1 bag’s proceeds will feed a child for an entire academic year. It is made of burlap and natural muslin, and is reversible. Its most striking feature for the buyer is probably its logo—a customer can feel proud announcing her contribution when carrying the tote bag.

The Murdoch Press, using an undercover reporter who almost goes under cover, reports that Sophie Anderton has resorted to vice (use your imagination) to help fund a property in Notting Hill. There’ll be enough moralists lecturing Ms Anderton on what is right and wrong but let me say one thing about the modelling industry: this sort of behaviour does not come with the territory. If Anderton has picked up some bad habits, that is her choice. And big-picture-wise, not an ideal one.

[Cross-posted] It’s not all the time I hit the clubs. There are musicians who can attest to that—mostly because of deadlines or time frames of when they are going on and the distance I have to drive.
   Recently the Kin toured with Josh Kelley and the Pat McGee Band for well over a month across the US, expanding the reach and exposure of their music. Their sole date in LA was at the Troubadour and a friend and I went up to LA to hear the bill and interview the Kin, Josh Kelley and Pat McGee Band.
   Thanks to an amazing comedy of errors—blame it on Mercury retrograde—everyone was late. I was pretty much on time.
   What you are about to see is the VIP acoustic performance by the Kin in the Troubadour before the doors opened to the public. The live performance for the public was inspiring and showed an increasing confidence in their music and performance—they got your attention and it was a nice ride, a thrill ride of sorts. But that’s not in the video and the concert will be reviewed along with Josh Kelley’s performance with photos in another post.
   However in the rest of the video is an interview done outside the Troubadour (sans Shakerleg. We could not find him!) in the light of the streetlamp. You can see the passion they have for their music. You can hear it in their music, their voices and see it in their eyes.
   The interview was fun and I think you might enjoy the pulse of the crowd and life as a musician as you see them live it.

Author’s notes
Check out their websites: www.thekin.com, www.myspace.com/thekin.
   Buy the CD Rise and Fall—a good investment. If you have a chance to see them live, do so. They are better live then they are on CD—and I can’t say that about many musicians.
  Thanks guys! You were amazing—as always. In case you are wondering what the heck I am talking about, head into the LA-Story blog and search for other posts about the Kin and listen to their podcasts. There’s still one more left to come.—Stevie Wilson