to Russian
Beauty
Colette Pechekhonova - an 18-year-old from Moscow who has been in New York for a year studying medicine - is a fragile-looking 1,7m blonde with faraway eyes and the grace of a ballet dancer. "It's hard to believe she's so perfect," Klein said of his new discovery. "She's got beauty, she's got style, she used to be a dancer, she's got intuition, she works like a soldier, she understands the clothes and, what's most important, she's got a brain. When she's not here she's studying."
CK Defends Moss Drop
Rumors and supermodels go together like Nick Nolte and pajamas, but Calvin Klein is going to great lengths to nip one report in the bud. Last week, Moss admitted in a newspaper interview that it had been a decade since she's strutted down the catwalk sober. Just a few days later, it was announced that the beauty's long-term contract with Calvin Klein hadn't been renewed, leading to speculation that the fashion powerhouse had dropped Moss amid the controversy. That's just not so, the company insists. "Her contract came to a natural conclusion, and at that time we were looking in other directions for next season," a Calvin Klein spokesman tells USA Today. "This is totally unconnected with her recent revelations." And in a statement released yesterday, the company insisted, "Although no contract is currently in effect, we have the greatest admiration for Kate as one of the world's most beautiful women and top fashion models. We are supportive of Kate in every way and look forward to working with her in the future." Talk about who will become the new muse at Calvin Klein has focused on 18-year-old model Colette Pechekhonova, who premiered on the catwalk last week at the designer's fall collection. And in other supermodel news, Claudia Schiffer is spending some of her catwalk cash on a good cause. The German beauty has donated $2 million to help build homes in Honduras for victims of Hurricane Mitch, reports the Associated Press. The money will pay for 112 houses in San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city and a hot spot for its development. Schiffer, considered one of the wealthiest and most business-savvy of the supermodels, has invested in several hotels along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, and she and fiancé David Copperfield own a $2 million mansion on the country's Roatan Island, which escaped the worst of Mitch's wrath.
Waif Goodbye
A week after Kate Moss admitted she's been drunk during every catwalk appearance for a decade, her biggest client for the past six years, Calvin Klein, has decided not to renew her contract. The spin is that Klein, who last week killed a children's underwear campaign after protests it was little more than kiddie porn, wants to sanitize his image. If true, you can disregard rumors that the original "too thin" waif will be replaced by 18-year-old Muscovite Colette Pechekhonova, who makes Moss look like the fat chick from Wilson Philips. Strictly entre nous, we hear the real reason for the split is that Klein is ticked with Moss's agent, Women Model Management impresario Paul Rowlands, for letting her appear in ads for Christian Dior and YSL.
Colette
Colette was born in Saint Petersburg in 1980. She got her start with the Nathalie agency after sending her picture to their web site. "I knew God was smiling on me," said Nathalie Cros Coiton, the agency owner. (hooray for the net!) She has been active on the international runways since Summer 1999. Her face has become familiar to the world through the Bottega Veneta ads which have appeared in Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and other international fashion magazine. Her ballet training is evident in the austere poise she can project. But she has a great range from soft and maidenly to hard and regal. Her look has been called exotic—whatever that means this month in the fashion industry. Richard Haberly of London agency Select has been quoted saying "Colette is a Russian ice maiden." She is already being called a supermodel by those who do not know the term is passe. She is admired by Calvin Klein and featured in his major shows. Colette may replace Kate Moss as the CK muse as Kate and CK get divorced, professionally. But CK is having image problems, being accused of kiddy porn and criticized for the “too thin” waifs he prefers. Colette makes Kate look chunky.
Model looks - what's hot
In the model world, it's getting harder to define the subject of beauty. Classic supermodel beauties such as Christy Turlington are being replaced by a younger pack of often unorthodox-looking girls. Two trends can be identified: the hip young street urchin look, accompanied by bags of attitude; and the exotic look, drawing on a multitude of girls emerging from eastern Europe and Latin America. Among the exotics it is Colette Pechekhonova, from Russia, a former ballet dancer who has drawn the admiration of Calvin Klein and featured strongly in last season's catwalk shows worldwide.
