Gemma Ward opens Aje show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week

The supermodel embodied the essence of the Australian brand with big plans.

Model Gemma Ward walks the runway for Aje at Australian Fashion Week. Picture: Getty Images

Australian supermodel Gemma Ward kicked off day two of Afterpay Australia Fashion Week in style, opening the Aje show at the Sydney Modern Project at the Art Gallery of NSW, the first fashion show to be staged in the space.

Wearing an ethereal and sculptural tiered white skirt and simple tank top, the Perth-born model, who made her debut at Australian Fashion week in 2003 when she was 15 before walking for the likes of Prada, Jean Paul Gaultier and Chanel, embodied what is becoming one of Australia’s biggest fashion brands.

Aje co-founder and CEO of the Aje group (which now encompasses Aje, Aje Athletica and wellness brand Ikkari) says the look perfectly distilled the essence of the brand.

“I loved the opening look on Gemma. I think that, pairing such an elaborate skirt with such a beautifully made singlet is kind of the essence of what we become known for. And that‘s that kind of effortless, elegant, barefoot kind of cool luxury. I think that it really encapsulated everything that we do really well,” he says.

For Aje, this year celebrating its 15th anniversary, the soaring glass ceilings and ample natural light of the gallery were an ideal complement to a breezily sophisticated collection of filmy shirting and trousers with a mother-of-pearl translucence element, slick swimsuits (swimwear is new for Aje) with golden details and the brand’s best-selling dresses in all manner of flounce and flou, in a colour palette of sherbet orange, mango yellow and more.

Aje wasn’t the only brand celebrating a major milestone, Bianca Spender, also clocks 15 years of her eponymous brand this year.

Models walk the runway during the Bianca Spender show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week. Picture: Getty Images

For Spender, chasing a feeling was the MO for her collection this year. The collection also represents an unfurling — of herself and how she designs.

“I think the first 15 years has been a real journey of finding myself as a designer and now I really feel that I‘ve found this strength and courage at the moment to push even further in how you can really inspire and touch women with the clothes that [I] create and how we can really move them,” she says backstage ahead of the show.

“It‘s not about clothing, it’s about a feeling and really trying to connect to that through all of the work that we do.”

For Spender, one feeling she particularly wanted to convey this season was softness.

“For this collection, I didn‘t have a mood board. It wasn’t about an image. I really wanted to create this feeling of softness. I think there’s so much tension in our daily life that we need this sense of ease and softness to have that exhale,” she says.

Models walk the runway during the Bianca Spender show at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week. Picture: Getty Images

This softness was expressed throughout the collection in the rounded edges of the clothes — lots of elegant, fluid tailoring and easy silk separates, and the colour palette that worked from earthy ochres to sky blue.

Other highlights for day two including the eagerly anticipated collaboration between one of Australia’s most respected fashion designers, Akira Isogawa and emerging designer Jordan Gogos, while Gary Bigeni also celebrates an anniversary, clocking up 20 years in business and New Zealand designer is set to stage a fashion show turned party.