Fashion businesses, like Judy Garland, have spent the months after the lockdown urging us to be cheerful, assaulting the senses with unending bursts of pink cloth, feathers, and sequins. On the opening day of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, designers firmly proved that it is not difficult to achieve a happy tone.
The models may not be smiling yet, but the attitude was upbeat and distinct from the swarm of influencers swarming in front of shows to be shot, AAFW has stopped trying too hard after 26 years.
The models at Bondi Born's event, which took place at Balmain's White Bay Cruise Terminal, appeared as if they had rolled out of bed for brunch on the beach and grabbed the garment nearest to their mattresses.
A calming palette of ice blue, pistachios, and lilacs, enlivened by brilliant yellow stripes, together with modest touches, a twist here and a neckline there, provided an ease of dressing in keeping with Australia's worldwide image.
“Our brand DNA is contemporary Australian style, It’s not too pretentious and not too hard. Aussies just want to enjoy their lives. Why make it too fussy.”
Dale McCarthy, the creator of Bondi Born, stated
“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 in on the patriotic theme, introducing an official Australian fashion brand to sell our apparel overseas in between displays at Sydney's Carriageworks.
“More than a trademark, this is an opportunity to showcase the best of Australia’s fashion talent,”
Executive Director of the Australian Fashion Council, Leila Naja Hibri, states
“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 has a forward-tilted line, a dot indicating a circular economy, and a stylised sun. According to today's programs, a happy face may have done the trick.
Bianca Spender has faced more problems than most, including the tragic loss of her mother Carla Zampatti in April of last year, yet the week's opening presentation was a joyous rush of flowing dresses and imaginative tailoring with surprising embellishments from the typically restrained designer.
Triangles were provocatively put on trouser suits, pants were torn from hem to knee, and prints were spliced with lemon, green, and red stitching.
Add in the intricacies of gowns characterized as "bum twists" by Harper's Bazaar editor Jillian Davison, and it was evident that Spender had been smiling with her sketchbook for months.
“Oh this was fun from the very beginning,”
Backstage at Carriageworks, Spender stated.
“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.”
Casting at Gary Bigeni's presentation, along with Bondi Born and Bianca Spender, was enough to convey delight to the designer's faithful audience without adding quirky blobs, lurex basics, and rainbow socks.
The basic exhibition of stretchy dresses and broad slacks, with custom jackets tossed in here and there, felt more like an honest portrayal of the designer's universe than a symbolic cry for attention.
”I feel like I wanted to celebrate myself,”
Bigeni, a cancer survivor, stated.
“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.”
Bigeni's art may not be for everyone, but it can be.
The day's biggest grin came during Romance Was Born's catwalk homage to Ken Done's work, which took place at The Rocks' artists' gallery.
The generously curled metallic skirts, glittering jackets, and feather dresses by designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales lacked that Australian lightness, but there was a larrikin sense of humor highlighted by the Icehouse music.
The features of the over-the-top evening attire made you wonder what Yves Saint Laurent might have created if he had been commissioned to design apparel for the 1983 Australian drama 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.”
Scratch the happy logo concept and you'll immediately think of Ken Done's tin hats on a dress pendant, and you'll have an Australian fashion brand that works.
Source: https://www.smh.com.au/
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