A ‘ladylike’ rebrand? The anatomy of feminine dressing

Judging by the silky white gowns, cropped kimono robes and crystal-embellished blazers on the runway at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, no one is headed back to the office soon. Like reluctant TWaTs (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday office workers) designers are ignoring the boardroom and focusing on dresses, relaxed suiting and oversized tailoring for cocktails, beachside resorts and garden parties.

“It’s a return to feminine,” says Nicole Adolphe, head of style at online store The Iconic. “Last year it was all about genderless. This year its more about feminine women’s fashion. But most genders can wear it. Everyone’s just gone pretty.”

Fashion designer Michael Lo Sordo draped models in silk for his runway show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week on Tuesday, choosing one of Crown Sydney’s cloud-level villas to showcase his Resort ’23 collection.Credit: Oscar Colman/SMH

Pretty and sexy. Designer Michael Lo Sordo gained recent fame for dressing a Bond girl in No Time To Die, and stuck with a 007 setting by staging his show in one of Crown Sydney’s cloud-level villas. White silk dresses draped dangerously at the back, supported by crystal strands from jeweller Ryan Storer, leather trench coats tied with little conviction and crystals hung like chandeliers from crisp blazers.

This was unabashed opulence for those aspiring to the high life on the 88th floor.

“Who knows where this woman is going,” Lo Sordo said while adjusting the straps of a delicate dress. “Looking like this she can go anywhere.”

Anatomy of a dress. Beare Park at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, Resort ’23.Credit: Getty

A similarly sleek approach was adopted by Beare Park creative director Bella Pereira, with sleek Italian silk dresses and heavy woollen coats fit for an Australian remake of the Netflix series Anatomy of a Scandal, starring Sienna Miller.

At Oroton designer Sophie Holt succumbed to nostalgia, with a collection fit to be photographed by ’60s society photographer Slim Aarons in Sans Souci or Sorrento. Saccharine pink summer dresses with scalloped hems and oversized pockets, prints featuring ticket stubs and pantry staples, cream mini-dresses with floral embellishments and headbands, reminiscent of bathing caps, were lifted from Holt’s childhood memories.

“I was inspired by my grandmother’s label Magg in the sixties,” Holt said. Grandma was Dame Zara Holt, wife of Prime Minister Harold Holt, who operated the successful upscale boutique Magg in Toorak and Double Bay, before moving into The Lodge in 1966.

Magg’s wealthy clientele knew their way to Portsea and Palm Beach but would have struggled to find Human Resources in an office. Wide-legged pants, bandeau tops and cream and tan wrap skirts spoke to lives of leisure.

“It’s about being positive and happy. There’s a bit of vintage travel in there. We wanted to have fun.”

The Oroton show by Sophie Holt on Day 2 of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week.Credit: Getty

Against a backdrop of giant palm prints, in between high-waisted swimsuits and maxi-dresses, Matteau designers Ilona Hamer and Peta Heinsen finally acknowledged that some women need to dress for jobs to pay for overseas holidays, with smart shirting and high-waisted black trousers. Unlike Magg’s clients, models wearing the oxford blue and forest green shirts unbuttoned to the waist would find HR pretty quickly.

“You can wear a shirt to work, you can wear a shirt to the beach, you can wear a shirt on holidays and on a plane,” Hamer said backstage. “You can wear them anywhere. We love shirts and they sell really well for us.”

Hamer skipped past Holt’s sweet sixties for inspiration, landing on the noughties as a filter for the elevated basics, which came to fruition in updated cargo pants. Rolled down at the hips, the pants allowed enough skin to be put on show to satisfy the Brit band All Saints, who made cargos their uniform in the 2000 video for the single Pure Shores.

“I lived through the 2000s the first time. It’s our casual way of nodding towards that trend, our way. Comfortable, wearable and washable.”

Matteau models find and then lose their shirts at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week; Melbourne designer Erik Yvon offered a fresh take on clubwear.Credit: Getty

The diverse cast at Melbourne designer Erik Yvon’s energetic show would most likely find All Saints a little too Smooth FM, relying on harder beats to transform Carriageworks into a nightclub at 1.30pm.

Inventive metallic jackets, silver beaded dresses and mock croc cropped jackets took a backseat to the gender diverse cast Vogue-ing down the runway, spilling out of metallic briefs, raising their fingers to the front row and bumping and grinding in front of photographers.

While many of the models, regardless of gender, might answer to “lady”, they’re most likely sleeping in too late to worry about lunch.

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