PRIVATE SYDNEY
Private Sydney: Kerr and DJs split
Miranda Kerr's heated negotiations with David Jones collapse, with the department store opting for replacement Jessica Gomes. Andrew Hornery tells all.
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Backstage at David Jones' high-voltage fashion shows, it was pretty clear that Miranda Kerr was not just another run-of-the-mill model.
Installed in her own luxurious private marquee regularly filled with fresh flowers and champagne on ice, she would be fussed over away from prying eyes by her own team of make-up artists, stylists and hairdressers.
After five years, it was clear to all who entered her private domain that she was the department store's undisputed queen. Entry was by invitation only, even for David Jones' top brass. On Friday morning the glamour vanished as an ugly, protracted tussle between the model and the retailer finally surfaced, resulting in her contract being terminated nine months before it was due to expire. The news took Kerr by surprise, though she later claimed it was a ''mutual decision''. She was abruptly replaced by a younger, lesser-known model: Perth-raised Jessica Gomes, a Eurasian beauty now being groomed by David Jones to become its new queen.
New face: Jessica Gomes. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui
As the news reverberated throughout the Australian fashion industry, it emerged the decision to dump Kerr had been coming for some time.
The boardroom machinations are also rumoured to have prompted rival Myer to review its long-term association with its star model, Jennifer Hawkins.
For Kerr, negotiations had been dragging on since January. While fashion editors sniped about her hair and make-up at the February autumn/winter collections show in the David Jones ballroom, senior management were not happy when their celebrity muse opted not to walk in the customer showcase the day after the glittering VIP fashion launch.
Dumped: Miranda Kerr (pictured) will be replaced by Jessica Gomes at David Jones. Photo: Marco Del Grande
''In the end it is all about the customer,'' a senior source at the store said somewhat prosaically.
In recent months the retailer had commissioned extensive research into the model and her appeal among its core market: fashion-conscious young women. The results were not good for Kerr. Her increasing fame and jet-set lifestyle with Hollywood husband Orlando Bloom meant many customers no longer ''related'' to the model.
Then came the demands. Kerr, who is based in Los Angeles, wanted to reduce the number of fashion shows she did for the store each year from two to just one.
She also wanted the biannual catalogues for the store to be shot only in the US, enabling her to stay with her son, Flynn, in the US instead of travelling around the globe as she had done previously.
Then came the money. Rumours swirled that Kerr wanted her million-dollar-a-year pay packet doubled. In the end, it simply proved too much for David Jones.
''The money wasn't the obstacle, it was really about how much value we would be getting and it just didn't measure up,'' explained the senior David Jones source.
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