Australian Fashion Week: Bermuda shorts, sheer delight, Next Gen debuts and repurposing … after a fashion
Australian Fashion Week has kicked off with a focus on emerging designers, long awaited debuts and new directions.
Australian Fashion Week has returned to Sydney’s Carriageworks and in and around Sydney with a focus on emerging designers, repurposing archival pieces and new directions.
Natalie Xenita, vice president-managing director IMG Fashion Events and Properties, Asia-Pacific, says striking the right balance between established and emerging designers is key to ensuring long-term growth and vitality within the event.
“Australian Fashion Week provides designers with a global marketing platform that supports their business objectives at any stage. For established designers like Viktoria & Woods who will make their AFW debut after 20 years in business, that means reaching their existing customer base from around the world while opening them up to engaging new audiences. For emerging designers, it means tapping into a global platform to establish their brand name and message, all while benefiting from the halo effect of the established designers participating within the week who draw international attention,” she says.
This year’s schedule is missing some major names, including Bianca Spender and Aje.
One major name to show on day one was Carla Zampatti, with the brand making its return to the official Australian Fashion Week schedule after a three-year hiatus. It showed at the Carla Zampatti runway at Carriageworks, named for the late eponymous and iconic designer behind the brand. An industry show was immediately followed by a sold-out consumer show.
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The show was attended by powerhouse women including former foreign minister Julie Bishop, a long-time fan of the brand, who said the show was fitting tribute to the late Carla Zampatti.
“It was a tour de force, a stunning runway and a fitting tribute to the legacy of Carla Zampatti,” she said.
“The gowns were simply stunning. I loved the pleating detail on many of the long gowns, that will be timeless. So elegant. There were a number that I would love to own,” she added with a laugh.
“It was a beautifully put together runway and I think Carla would be very proud.”
The show was an evolution of and for the Carla Zampatti woman. There were still plenty of the suits, evening gowns and elegant jumpsuits its customer – including the many powerhouse women, of all ages, perched on the front row- would turn to over and again.
Glamour, strength and tactility were key themes throughout the extensive collection, with beautiful evening coats in luxurious materials and fluffy tinsel-like skirts worn with sheer turtlenecks, alongside more daytime and office ready looks and some knock-out gowns. The colour palette was mainly monochrome with touches of expensive looking neutrals and caramels and slivers of cornflower blue and emerald green,
The pieces showed versatility – the Carla Zampatti woman could wear a sexy, silky little thing – or she could wear it underneath her well-tailored blazer and cinch it in with a belt.
Creative director Karlie Ungar, says she does not take leading the new direction of one of Australia’s best-known heritage brands lightly.
For Alex Schuman, Carla Zampatti chief executive and the son of the late designer, the show represented the opportunity to take the brand forward.
“[W]e really wanted to really make a statement and re-establish the brand as something that’s relevant and forward looking and take it to a fresh audience and bring it to everyone with fresh eyes,” Schuman told The Australian in January.
Albus Lumen, under the creative direction of former stylist Marina Afonina opened the week with a strong new direction for the brand. Guests arrived to the rousing sound of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake overture, setting the scene for a collection that retained elements of the pared-back chicness and focus on raw materials it has become known for but reconstructed, and deconstructed to take on new forms. Archival pieces and past samples were reworked via dyeing and distressing in a palette of mainly chocolate brown, oatmeal and white, with the occasional splice of colour.
Precious elements were incorporated with pearl studded overcoats, bralets and skirts – a nod to Afonina’s collection last year. A particular highlight was a high-necked embellished and draped dress in a sheer Pepto-Bismol pink. A little Bianca Jagger at Studio 54 in its glory days, but tempered by the models’ bare feet, it spoke to the feeling throughout of a tougher kind of glamour. Of special things worn easily and with certain attitude.
Energy could be found at the Next Gen show too, with four emerging designers displaying unique points of view. While New Zealander Rory Docherty made his Australian Fashion Week debut with a polished collection that incorporated the hand-drawn paintings he is known for with rose and rosette-embellished sheer and silky separates, extreme drop crotch trousers and an appealing nerdy sensibility with knee-length shorts worn with brogues and trench coats. The details mattered here too with crinkled silk separates and puffs and pleats.
Meanwhile not all debuts were from emerging designers. Melbourne label Viktoria & Woods marked 20 years in the fashion business by making its runway debut.
For founder and creative director Margie Woods, the show – attended by the likes of supermodel Gemma Ward and actor and model Sarah Ellen – was the opportunity to demonstrate the evolution of the brand. The most important person to bring along for this ride, she says, was the customer.
“We want the audience to feel as though they are sharing this moment alongside us, feeling nostalgic with a nod to Viktoria & Woods core styles, and introducing a new confident, and exciting chapter ahead,” she says.
Key trends so far have included knee-length Bermuda shorts, spied at Albus Lumen, Viktoria & Woods and Rory William Docherty as well as silky little elasticised waist boxers, elegant little hats and sheer continues to be a major influence. It was heartening to see a handful of menswear looks on the runways too that played to the idea that boys also want to have fun.
Still to show this week are Acler, Michael Lo Sordo, P.E. Nation, Beare Park and Anna Quan.
Australian Fashion Week, presented by Pandora, continues until Friday May 17.
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