Australia's Next Top Model Cycle 5 - Week 6

The girls started this week by learning a little about style and fashion. They were sent to Harper's Bazaar Australia's headquarters, where they met up with Jonathan Pease and Harper's fashion director, Claudia Navone (who can, quite incidentally, sound scarily mannish). Poor Cassie was the main fashion offender but no one really escaped unscathed.

Claudia unveiled what she percieved to be the 3 looks to work for autumn/winter 08. Look 1 was strong and edgy, playing up the shoulder - very Balmain. Her second look was what she termed English garden, no doubt inspired by Christopher Bailay at burberry. The final outfit was inspired by the global traveller and featured a mix of safari, native, peasant and boho.

The girls were put into groups: Franky dressing Cassi in English garden, Clare dressing Lola in global inspiration and Laura being dressed by Adele and Tahnee in the strong power-woman look. While none of them quite nailed their challenge, they did hopefully pick up a few tips about fashion and style.

We next see the girl heading to Alex Perry in QV1. There, they meet Alex himself, along with Trevor Stones. They then proceed to walk for a place in Alex Perry's show aboard the QM2. Cassi still really needs to work on her walk and less on her excuses. When told that she needs to try keep her body in a long lean line while walking, she cited her uneven shoulders and hips makes it harder for her. Franky, in true form, declares that she never has and never will like Clare's walk. Well, she didn't need to like it. What mattered is that both Alex and Trevor loved her walk and long with Adele were chosen for the show. Tahnee also inpressed, so much so that she was asked to go to the fitting just to see if they could squeeze her into the show. Franky of the high and lofty opinions was once again, left high and dry.

This proved to be yet another emoational week for the models, though for much nicer reasons. The mother's were all flown in so that they could spend some time with their daughters and it was very clear that all the girls had missed their mums very much. It was highly emotional and teary. Even Franky for once, refrained from making any caustic comments.

The night before the Alex Perry show, Clare said she wasn't feeling well. I thought it was quite amusing she had created a 'sick station', replete with a barf bin. However, she still trooped on - I really don't think anything would have kept her from walking that show. In hair and makeup, the girls were surrounded by profesional models, one of them none other than Alice Burdeu. While the three were getting prepped, the other models were given the task of helping to arrange chair and attach little numbered cards on them. Franky was very quick to declare she was "over it".

Finally the show started. I know Alex Perry looks like an overly-botoxed, middle-aged human Ken doll, but he can certainly design clothes. They were beautiful. Just stunning. And the girls certainly held their own, some walking better than other seasoned models (this excitedly proclaimed by Sarah, Alex and Charlotte).

After the excitement of the show came the onslaught of the photo shoot. Photographed by Richard Freeman and dressed entirely in Chanel, the girls were asked to pose on a pylon in the ocean. Okay, it wasn't deep and no one would have drowned, but the last thing anyone would have wanted was to see any interlocked C items in the sea. Thankfully, that did not happen. For me, Adele as the only person who seemed at ease during the shoot itself. Everyone else either seemed not quite there, or just struggled.

During judging Adele's photo stood out. While they did struggle I also liked Clare's and Tahnee's photos, the latter actually being a candid shot. I didn't think much of Franky's and Cassi's pictures and just hated lauras shot. I rather liked Lola in her picture - her face looked a lot softer and her legs looked like they went on for ages. Both Franky and laura found themselves in the bottom two and Laura was the one to pack her bags and wave goodbye.