Australian Fashion Week: No rules on personal style, except what suits you
Alix Higgins and Third Form show just how different getting dressed can be.
Australian Fashion Week has, so far, proved that you might not be able to have it all in life but you can in your outfits. There’s no one way to have personal style. This might make you a pared-back minimalist, all tailored blazers and neutral palettes, or a sunny vibrant optimist in hibiscus prints and bubble gum pink. Perhaps you’re the sort who likes to hit the club in a slinky chainmail dress or swaddle in layers of nubby knitwear.
That there’s no one way to summarise Australian style is an echoing and enduring message of Australian Fashion Week this year. It speaks to the swathe of emerging designers to show this year who offer a unique point of view, as well as the established ones who aren’t afraid to shake things up a little. Or perhaps most importantly, keep doing what they’re known for doing.
On day three this was represented by Alix Higgins, who has earned a celebrity following from the likes of musician Troye Sivan and actor Hunter Schafer for his colourful lycra pieces with slogan prints. Higgins was the winner of the emerging designer of the year at the 2023 Australian Fashion Laureate.
This season Higgins played with ideas of distressing and repurposing, turning polo shirts into skirts and updating the slogans – observations, snatches of poetry- on his signature jersey pieces. The addition of frilled collars, and Higgins continued affinity for rugby stripes – a trend that has had something of a resurgence in recent seasons – added to the feeling of playfulness and self-expression the collection evokes. It was a vibe that the enthusiastic crowd, dotted with fans wearing his pieces, joyfully embraced.
Along with several other brands making an Australian Fashion Week debut, Third Form staged its first solo show (creative director Merryn Kelly previously showed as part of the 2016 Next Gen show). The collection mixed sensual slip dresses with distressed denim (another trend spied throughout the week) and fluid trench coats in colour palette of mostly monochrome with elements of burgundy and soft mossy green.
Meanwhile Anna Hoang, whose elevated brand Anna Quan focuses on wardrobe staples, embodied another key theme of this year’s fashion week – revisiting past creations and repurposing.
The brand was recently worn by actress Dakota Fanning out and about in New York.
For the show Hoang partnered with resale platform eBay and curated pieces from previous collections alongside new designs. It emphasised the idea that you shouldn’t add new pieces to your wardrobe unless you’re absolutely sure it will work with what you already have. The collection included some of her signature pieces such as boucle vests and dresses, knitted midi-skirt sets and special pieces such as tiered skirts that flounced as the models walked.
“Anna Quan has always been about making every day special, re-wearing, re-using and classic shapes that you will continue to wear time and time again,” she said.
“Giving a second life to clothing is part of that process.”
Romance was Born showed on Wednesday evening, sending out a slew of dreamy intergalactic space goddesses with incredible beadwork, the cocoon shapes the brand has been experimenting with and a collaboration with First Nations artist Zaacharia Fielding.
Plunkett said ahead of the show that we could expect something pretty eclectic. “The prints are kind of softer. We’ve got our soft flowing kind of things that (are) more romantic and dreamy, and we’ve got taffeta things which are more dramatic and bold and loud, and big silhouettes that we’ve been doing for a while now.”
“We’re kind of experimenting with these larger silhouettes, quilting and these cocoon kind of shapes, and the idea of feeling secure … comfortable and protected … it kind of relates back to the themes of … our favourite childhood movies. In The Never Ending Story, the kid’s in the attic and he’s reading the book and he gets comfortable with the blanket and … just the idea of feeling secure and safe and ... thinking about being a kid and watching movies and being wrapped up and watching the TV. I just love that kind of vibe personally. But again, we’ve done lots of beading … with our artisans in India and … incredible reinterpreting (of) Zaachariaha’s work,” adds Sales.
Australian Fashion Week continues until Friday with Blanca, Verner and Iordanes Spyridon Gogos still to show.
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