Halfway through Fashion Week, two front rows couldn’t have been more different

The style lines on day three of Australian Fashion Week were drawn more sharply than the shoulder on a Carla Zampatti jacket, rivalling divisions between the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet and Collingwood and Carlton at the MCG.

For 30 minutes, the crowd exiting Alix Higgins’ runway show, dressed in clinging nylon dresses and provocative T-shirts beneath complex haircuts, faced their aesthetic opposition outside Carriageworks in Redfern.

Guests at the Alix Higgins show at Australian Fashion Week, (from left) Sam Passmore, Annaliese Griffith-Jones and Russell Phillip.Credit: Steven Siewert

Models and influencers with fresh blowouts or neat buns in black lace halter dresses and chic blazers arriving for the Third Form show provided a cultural contrast almost as great as the then prince of Wales, now King Charles, meeting the Spice Girls in 1997.

The battlefields were drawn, but the only clashes were deliberate colour choices. Two labels with solid but vastly different audiences, who know their customer as well as their top-selling patterns, were both winners.

“It was all very personal and very scary,” Higgins said backstage after his triumphant lap of honour on the runway.

“There were so many people at the show and on the runway who are my friends and have been an important part of this journey that I was opening myself up to.”

That vulnerability paid off, with Higgins deftly using digital prints of his own apartment wallpaper on velvet and utilising his Parisian training by draping vivid slogan dresses slit into urban capes.

The winner of last year’s Emerging Designer of the Year award at the Australian Laureate styled the show through the filter of his genderless approach to clothing.

“Some of the models were customers that I have gotten to know at pop-up stores and were persuaded to take part in the show,” he said.

Many models resembled lost boys from Peter Pan, let loose in Wendy’s wardrobe and make-up drawer wearing polo shirts with lace-trimmed red skirts and sheer mint tunics with matching stockings.

“There’s a legitimacy to Alix’s work that you can feel in his clothing,” says graphic artist Sam Passmore, who attended the show in Higgin’s “Hell” slogan T-shirt. “People who wear his clothes might look intimidating at first, but they are generally lovely, and love Alix as well. You don’t have to know him to experience that love.”

An equally specific design signature was wielded by Merryn Kelly at the fashion week debut of her nine-year-old label, Third Form. There is no Peter Pan in Kelly’s World, only Wendys such as fashion influencer Nadia Fairfax and model and writer Jessica Vander Leahy who were in the front row.

“I’ve known Nadia since school,” Kelly said after taking a tearful bow clutching her baby.

“She represents my customer. We have a connection with women who understand how to dress and appreciate the details and work that goes into every garment.”

Bella Varelis, Jadé Brycki, Natalie Roser and Jessica Vander Leahy attend the Third Form show.Credit: Getty Images

Frayed denim coats, mint satin dresses with floral strips and fringed scarf tops had the brand’s international customer in mind with Third Form already stocked by David Jones and luxury e-tailer Moda Operandi.

“This was very much a coming of age with a super considered approach,” Kelly said.

Model Stephanie Carta in a rich brown sleeveless dress worn belted over a black sequinned skirt demonstrated the maturity of Third Form’s sophisticated Wendy.

“She can be human, too,” Kelly says. “That’s why I let myself cry on the runway. You have to be brave enough to show who you are.”

Higgins came close to tears.

“I almost cried, which didn’t happen at my other shows,” he said. “Something changed this year. There was frustration and anger but it felt lively. Getting personal is hard.”

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