Like Judy Garland singing at Carnegie Hall, fashion brands have spent the post-lockdown months trying to convince us to Get Happy, assaulting the senses with endless bolts of hot pink fabric, feathers and sequins. On day one of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week designers confidently demonstrated that it’s not hard to hit a joyous note.
The models may not be smiling yet but the mood was joyous and unlike the swarm of influencers jostling to be photographed outside shows, after 26 years AAFW has stopped trying too hard.
The mood was relaxed and ruffled at Bondi Born’s show on day one of AAFW, Resort ’23.Credit:Getty
In a procession of triangle bikini tops and flowing robes, wide-legged pants and high-cut swimsuits, the models at Bondi Born’s show held at Balmain’s White Bay Cruise Terminal looked as though they’d rolled out of bed for brunch by the beach and grabbed the nearest item of clothing to their beds.
A soothing palette of ice blue, pistachio and lilac, invigorated by swipes of fluorescent yellow, along with restrained details, a twist here and a cut-out there, offered an ease of dressing in synch with Australia’s international image.
“Our brand DNA is contemporary Australian style,” said Bondi Born founder Dale McCarthy. “It’s not too pretentious and not too hard. Aussies just want to enjoy their lives. Why make it too fussy.”
Bondi Born models after Monday’s show at Balmain’s White Bay Terminal.Credit:Edwina Pickles
“This collection was all about helping women to feel uplifted. It’s been a tough couple of years. Fashion has a role to play in lifting people’s spirits.”
The Australian Fashion Council jumped on board the patriotic messaging, launching an official Australian Fashion Trademark to help promote our clothing overseas between shows at Sydney’s Carriageworks.
“More than a trademark, this is an opportunity to showcase the best of Australia’s fashion talent,” says Australian Fashion Council chief executive Leila Naja Hibri. “When Italian fashion is mentioned, we immediately visualise a distinct brand identity of quality and elegance. In a similar way, we have now identified four key pillars that distinguish Australia’s Fashion DNA: effortless style, raw nature, boundless optimism and fearless innovation. This, together with the trademark, will help us clearly articulate the unique creativity and the progressive social and environmental values of Australian fashion on the world’s fashion stage.”
The trademark features a forward slant, dot representing a circular economy and stylised sun. Judging by today’s shows a smiley face could have done the job.
Bianca Spender has endured more challenges than most, with the unexpected death of her mother Carla Zampatti in April last year but the week’s opening show was an upbeat onslaught of liquid dresses and inventive tailoring with unexpected details from the usually understated designer.
Designer Bianca Spender opened Afterpay Australian Fashion Week at Sydney’s Carriageworks on Monday.Credit:Photo by Matt Jelonek/WireImage
Boning playfully contorted the skirts of slip dresses, triangles were positioned provocatively on pantsuits, trousers were sliced from hem to knee and prints were spliced with punches of lemon, green and red. Add the detailing to dresses described as “bum twists” by Harper’s Bazaar editor Jillian Davidson, and it was clear that Spender has been smiling with her sketchbook for months.
“Oh this was fun from the very beginning,” Spender said backstage at Carriageworks. “It really was about finding the joy in the clothes. I started with this idea of disrupted beauty. Our whole lives have been disrupted. We have to embrace the disruption because things won’t be the same again and that’s a good thing.”
“The only rule was that we couldn’t show something that you expect and that’s liberating for a creative.”
“It’s not too pretentious and not too hard. Aussies just want to enjoy their lives. Why make it too fussy.”
Along with Bondi Born and Bianca Spender, the casting at Gary Bigeni’s show, a return to the official schedule for the designer after five years, was enough to bring joy to his loyal following without the addition of painterly splodges, lurex basics and rainbow socks.
In the simple show of stretchy dresses and baggy pants, with the occasional tailored blazer thrown in, diversity felt like an accurate reflection of the designer’s world rather than a tokenistic grab for attention.
”I feel like I wanted to celebrate myself,” Bigeni, a cancer survivor, said. “What I now want everything to be about happened today for me. Talking about diversity, and size, gender, age acceptance, is what matters. After being sick and coming out, there’s a whole new perspective about what’s important and I project that in what I do.”
A model walks the runway during the Gary Bigeni Resort ’23 show.Credit:Matt Jelonek/WireImage
The unbridled optimism of Bigeni’s work might not be for everyone but at least it can be.
The day’s widest smiles were at Romance Was Born’s runway tribute to the work of Ken Done, held in the artist’s gallery at The Rocks.
That Australian ease was absent in the copiously ruffled metallic dresses, sequinned jackets and feathered gowns from designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales, but there was a larrikin sense of humour underscored by the Icehouse soundtrack.
The details of the over-the-top evening clothes made you imagine what Yves Saint Laurent would have created if he had been commissioned to create clothes for the camp 1983 Australian mini-series Return To Eden.
“They are so inventive,” Done said after the show. “Each piece remains true to the painting itself. But then you take what they have done with one of my tin plates that I mix paint on and they have made it into a hat. That’s a wonderful touch. It’s extremely stylish and extremely Australian.”
Romance Was Born models pose before the show held at artist Ken Done’s gallery at The Rocks.Credit:Photo by Matt Jelonek/WireImage
Scratch the smiley face logo idea and get a picture of Ken Done’s tin hats on a clothes tag immediately and we have an Australian Fashion trademark that works.
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