Shock over young NZ model's nude shots

A New Zealand modelling agency says it is shocked an Auckland 16-year-old on its books appeared topless in an Australian magazine.

Zippora Seven and 16-year-old male model Levi Clarke featured in the shots in an 18-page spread in lifestyle and fashion magazine Russh Australia.

One image shows the pair in a bubble bath, with Zippora topless and Levi's eyes closed, as if he has passed out. Four bottles of champagne are visible.

Zippora also appeared topless riding a horse.

The Australian Classification Board says it has contacted Russh Australia's publisher about the shots. Australia's Classifications Act prohibits the depiction of nudity and sexual activity of minors under 18.

New Zealand modelling agency Red Eleven director Mandy Jacobsen said she was "shocked" and "disappointed in the pictures", which it had no involvement with.

"We have to be very careful about these girls on shoots, and what the story's about," she told The New Zealand Herald.

Ms Jacobsen said Red Eleven would be talking with Zippora's Australian agent, Priscilla Leighton-Clark, this week and seeking an explanation.

She said there was an unwritten rule in New Zealand preventing the use of under-18s in nude photo shoots.

She added Zippora was "a lot more mature than her age" and "would not have had a problem" with going topless.

Ms Leighton-Clark also said the photo shoot had gone too far.

"It's wrong that our girl has appeared in a magazine exposing her breasts when she's so young," Ms Leighton-Clark said.

"I can't be on every shoot. Had I known it was to be a topless shoot, (she) would never have done it."

Russh editor Natalie Shukur defended the pictures, saying they were a homage to supermodel Kate Moss and her one-time boyfriend, actor Johnny Depp, and that Russh readers "get it".

"These are beautiful images of two young people in character."

Zippora is at present completing a two-month modelling contract in Japan. Her mother, World of Wearable Arts award winner Ursula Dixon, is in Egypt.

Her brother, Jasper, 19, also a model, is on assignment in Milan.