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What to wear to a fashion show on a Sunday afternoon? The answer, according to more than a few attendees of Toni Maticevski’s event yesterday arvo, was a full sculptural ballgown with black suede peep-toe boots. Or your Balmain blazer, tossed insouciantly over your shoulders (the first rule of fashion in 2016: never, EVER put your arms in your sleeves, ladies) with an ivory backless ruffled bustier and cropped cigarette pants.
Roxy Jacenko and her four-year-old daughter Pixie Curtis wore Dolce & Gabbana. Jennifer Hawkins was in a draped white mini dress and thigh-high suede boots. Delta Goodrem, a one-shouldered body con black cocktail dress. Blogger Elle Ferguson, from They All Hate Us, arrived laced into stiletto gladiator boots to rival Kendal Jenner’s from the MTV Movie Awards. It was officially: A Scene.
Any newbie Australian fashion week delegates from overseas expecting to see our famous laid back lifestyle in evidence were in for a shock. There were 900 fashionable types at Maticevski’s show, the first to use a dramatic new venue The Cutaway at Bangaroo, and they were all dressed to the absolute nines.
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That’s testament to the designer’s status, said Eva Galambos. “Toni is someone you get dressed up for. He is one of our most important, original and exciting designers.” The post-show dinner to honour him was held in Galambos’s Parlour X boutique in a converted Paddington church.
“Fashion is our religion,” quipped Paris-based stylist Catherine Baba. Alas even the gods can’t fix jet lag – she slept through her alarm and missed the show.
So what exactly did she miss? Known for his romantic draping and skill with volume, for Resort ‘17 Maticevski offered a darker vision playing with ideas of restraint. And so models wore elaborate Swarovski crystal handcuffs by jewellery designer Ryan Storer, locked behind their backs. Their sandals were so high that perhaps inevitably one model fell down the high-gloss white and gold runway. A couple of seasons ago, Maticevski sent his girls out with orchids in their mouths – this time, the flowers were metal.
He tied up his bustiers, often layered over deconstructed shirting, with straps; and cut jackets back to front and upside down. But if all this looked uncomfortable, albeit exquisitely so, there was also a freedom evident in the sunshine yellow accents, crystal-strewn sweatshirting, and bouncing ballgowns (a standout appeared woven from spun gold). We got the idea these girls had tied themselves up, and were quite capable of throwing off those handcuffs whenever they felt like it.
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