Mercedes Benz Fashion Week: Aje opens with stunning shades of yellow

It’s the event that boasts a slew of Insta-influencers and socialities in attendance but there was one glaring omission at fashion week’s opening day.

Now in its 24th year, Australian fashion week started with a burst of yellow — and wouldn’t Clive Palmer have been happy about that!

Pity the boisterous pollie didn’t make the front row cut, but let’s face it, we can’t get away from his ubiquitous yellow hued advertising campaigns.

He would have approved of the bright yellow used by opening day design house, Aje, in a resort collection that reeked of elegance, cool and style.

While this year may not have the strongest crew of designers on the annual schedule — the week will end on Thursday when industry queen Carla Zampatti takes the closing spot — many of the names showing may not roll off the fashion tongue, but there is still a handful that should keep the fashion set satisfied.

Aje kicked fashion week off with very distinct shades of ‘Palmer yellow’. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Over 600 guests reworked their Mother’s Day plans and made it down to Circular Quay in Sydney, on a crystal blue afternoon with the Opera House and the harbour bridge proving the perfect backdrop to the 24th year of the annual fashion fest.

Guests at the Aje show included international model Victoria Lee, Olympia Valance, Lindy Klim, Nadia Fairfax, Eloise Jacobs, Tanja Kajic, Kate Waterhouse, Tory Collison, Ksenija Lukich, Jillian Davison, Antonia Leigh, magazine editors from Vogue, marie claire and InStyle, a swag of international buyers and media and a flock of Insta-influencers.

Having covered each year since fashion week’s inception, I thought the opening show, from one of our leading fashion names, Aje, set a very strong, beautifully tailored and colourful agenda.

Yellow was the standout colour. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett.

Models walk the runway during the Aje show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images.

Aje has become one of the leading lights in the industry and wasn’t scared of showing great colour as well as ruffles, billowing sleeves, off the shoulder tops, maxi length skirts, slimline pants, khaki silk, and an exquisite black dress worn by modelling queen, Emma Balfour.

And how refreshing it was to see Emma — at the beautiful age of 40, close what was a professional, strong and very saleable show.

The fashion collections the industry will see this week are all centred around ‘resort wear’ which always gets confusing for those of us in the real world, considering we are heading into chilly mornings and chilly nights.

The politician is definitely partial to the colour. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES.

Designers who will be showing during the week include Bec + Bridge, P.E Nation (Who will be showing denim along with their activewear), Alice McCall, Tigerlily, Bondi Born, Matteau, Bassike, We Are Kindred, Christopher Esber, Lee Mathews, Double Rainbouu and Albus Lumen.

Names you may not have heard of in the fashion mainstream include US designer Jonathan Simkhai (Who normally shows in New York but has chosen to show at North Bondi RSL), Mariam Seddiq, Aqua Blu and The People Vs.

As retail gets tougher so does the ability to afford to put on fashion shows throughout the world.

Anna Heinrich. Picture: Matrix Media

Nadia Fairfax. Picture: Matrix Media

The stunning Emma Balfour closed the show. Picture: Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images.

Even in Milan, Paris, New York and London, the grandiose days of mega million dollars shows have well and truly gone with many designers, while still doing runway shows, achieving them on a much stricter budget.

Of course there are always exceptions — mega houses like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Prada still go ‘big’ — but there is an austerity throughout many of the other fashion houses.

Most of the shows this week will be over in just 10 of 15 minutes, so designers need to make every minute and every ‘exit’ (when a model comes out in a look) count and memorable to the fashion industry editors, media, buyers and retailers in the audience.

Social media, no question, is playing a bigger and bigger role each time a fashion show happens with images zipped up onto nearly every guests platforms straight away and live streams showing collections directly to those who may not have scored an invite.

Happy frocking!

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia runs at Carriageworks and assorted offsite venues until Friday