Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia is well underway for the Resort ’19 season, and to save you some time, we’ve noted down everything you need to know about Tuesday’s shows.
Alice McCall
“I design dresses for girls to have a good time in,” Alice McCall said before her Kismet collection. So why over-complicate things?
The show opened with a procession of baby doll Biba girls who looked as though they were lost on their way home from Carnaby Street.
All of the trends were ticked off with vintage florals, more ruffles than a packet of Pringles and enough legs to make Anthony Vaccarello at YSL jealous.
The show finished with a disco demonstration of strength, with pleated metallic lurex dresses lending models an Amazonian air. These women really knew how to have a good time.
Macgraw
The Macgraw girl is all grown up. She still loves her feminine frills, bows and ruffles but there’s some structure to her wardrobe. With stiff, full-skirted cocktail dresses in a shocking shade of crimson and silky negligee dresses all-woman.
There’s always been a fifties, almost retro flavor to the sister act’s collections but the dark Dutch florals, icy mint opera coats and sheer gold metallic dresses were elegant instead of pretty.
With the opulent palette of deep greens and rich reds the show had an air of expense, which makes sense given the historic gothic revival mansion setting of Swifts.
“We always design with a girl in mind and we’re inspired by the woman who would reside at Swifts in its heyday,” the sisters said in their show notes.
Doris Day is quickly becoming Audrey Hepburn with a Sheryl Sandberg bank account.
We Are Kindred
That Boho babe that Sienna Miller and Kate Moss conjured up in the last decade has enduring appeal and Lizzie and Georgie Renkert at We Are Kindred still feel the love.
White flowers pressed against dusty greys on short dresses with a whisper of a sleeve, vintage floral one-shouldered numbers with a cascade of ruffles and frocks with bandeau ties and bat wings conjure more romance than Mills & Boon.
It’s a love the story their customers will appreciate but the Belle Epoque touches in the collection called Nouveaux Flair may develop a new following with floor-scraping gowns with alluring green velvet details and pretty paneling.
Expect Chelsea De Luca’s jewellery for the collection to jam your Instagram feed in the coming months.
Emilia Wickstead x Matches
London-based New Zealand designer Emilia Wickstead did her best to distance herself from her vaunted association with the Duchess of Cambridge by staging a nostalgic show against a backdrop of crashing waves at Coogee Beach.
The faded florals that are growing like weeds this season were well-tended on prim and pretty pieces for bathing beauties rather than future queens.
There was a pleasing homemade feel to ankle length skirts with cropped halter tops and sun dresses with voluminous sleeves and an innocence that came with the vintage attitude.
With a soaring soundtrack and brave models splashing in one piece swimsuits it felt like watching a re-run of Gidget Goes To Rome rather than a Royal engagement.
Pereira Fitzgerald
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy seems to be the muse on a lot of designers’ Pinterest boards and the design duo of Bella Pereira and Gemma Fitzgerald took this minimalist path.
Trim trousers in burnt orange were tasteful and the obligatory white slip dress well-executed but a summer dress in shocking pink, black ra-ra skirts and a denim-look jacket, which rumpled delightfully at the shoulder were powerful points of difference.
Their debut show was a clear statement that this a label not only to watch but to wear, now.
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