Australia Fashion Week is blossoming into a great venue for new talent. There were several designers during the week that really brought a sense of style and uniqueness to fashion. While many designers played with some of last seasons trends and even took on some new one’s. You can easily see that the designers are focused on building their looks and style around there own individual philosophy. One the blessings of Australia Fashion Week is the absence of the abundant attendance of the celebrity guests. While there was a handful at each show, the front row was dominated by industry leaders rather than the celebrity.
One of the strongest trends out of Australia is the full leg pant, which several designers showed exclusively while others mixed the full leg pant with dying skinny leg pant trend. Two designers that really embraced the full leg pant were Chitra’s Closet and Leonard Street. Designer Amanda McCarthy’s full leg pant was a straight drop from the waist. Her look is very relaxed and she showed the pants in several plaid fabrics. At Chitra’s Closet, designer Chitra Mangma’s focus was on a more tailored pant in heavy fabrics.
From Fall/Winter the bubble is moving south – to the hem that is. Even San Francisco designers have moved the bubble shape south for the Spring. Designer Anna Thomas’s focus was on knits and prints this season, but she played with length and finish details like the bubble hem. While designers Crabb and Miraudo reworked the bubble hem at Under Constructions. The duo kept to loose construction and added volume to the skirt hem.
This season knitwear took of at the menswear collections in Paris and Milan. Only a few designers at Australia Fashion Week played with the new trend. One of common knitwear themes carrying from capital to capital is knit cardigans. Designer Alex Zabotto-Bentley showed a few knit pieces one the standout pieces was olive green cashmere cardigan. While Designer Olivia Reeve-Hart showed a series of soft and tailored knit dresses and skirt. One of her top looks is a long sleeve cashmere knit dress with a rolled neckline that is draped low. To finish off her knit looks she showed several double leather belts.
Lengths go up and then they go down, overall, designers show all sorts of lengths from season to season. This season designers are focused on a knee length look that is more tailored and certainly sexier. At Designer Belinda Fairbanks show her knit dresses varied in length but the showstopper was her long sleeve red cashmere dress. While at Dhini designer Dhini Pararajasingham focused on separates for Spring/Summer. Her crowning look is her flared hem pencil skirt with the seam of the skirt finished with a ruffle.
An interesting trend at the Australian shows was the return of the little black dress. For the Australian designers the key pieces to their collection was the little black dress. Practically all of the womenswear designers had at least one black dress in their collection. For designer Anna Thomas she kept to a simple design with her boxy cut black dress with a black silk satin mandarin sachet tied around the waist. For designer Amanda McCarthy, she brought together this seasons balloon shape and ruffles and crafted two really strong black looks. The key look was a balloon shape skirt black dress with the top of the dress finished with a draped look.
Another great trend that we are seeing a little more from each fashion week to the next is embroidery and beading. At Australia fashion week only a few designer showed embroidered and beaded looks. Two designers really embraced the strong statement in their collections. At the Narendra Kumar show, Kumar took embroidery and mixed it with silk-screening in both of her menswear and womenswear. The strongest embroidered look was the white silk chiffon mandarin collar blouse with floral pattern embroidered on the bodice of the blouse and the long sleeves. One of my favorites piece from Australia fashion week is Toni Maticevski’s cream silk crepe sheath dress overlaid with a white organza shell covered with a embroidered and beaded lily of the valley. The organza shell has a cape shaped back while the cream crepe dress is tailored close the waist. A Stunning Look!
Print’s, print’s and more print’s – the more the better! Prints have certainly rained on the Spring/Summer collections. Practically every designer at Australia fashion week had some sort of print in his or her collections. Designers moved between two major print themes this season. From the 70’s earthy color prints at Narendra Kumar and Toni Maticevski, to the vibrant floral prints at Fashionassassin, Dhini and Ananaya.
The crowning trend from Australia Fashion week is one of the lesser roads taken for Spring. Plaids, several designers did not use the strong print but the few who did really gave it some gravitas. From Chitra’s Closet where the plaid took on new life along with full shape looks and even a twist mixed with Windsor check pieces. Then onto Anna Thomas whose plaid wide-pleated skirts gave you a more a fall fell to her Spring looks!
[images viaWireimage.com] & Australian Vogue]
The 70’s visit the Borbonese runway while designer Allesandro Dell’Acqua opts to show more metallic fabrics than one would expect on one runway. To open the collection the designer showed a series of giraffe print looks, from pants, bathing suits to blouses. One of the standout looks in this section is a giraffe print crepe blouse worn with a matching cream wool pencil skirt and overcoat. The lapels and opening of the coat are trimmed with brown leather. The look is topped off with a matching giraffe print platform heel. The heel giraffe heel was worn with several looks. One of those looks is a short sleeve cream knit polo top with the breast pockets finished with a olive green suede trim. The knit top is worn with a cream cotton gazar button front pencil skirt.
The second section is a series of silver goddess dresses which were a little over the top. Then Dell’Acqua moved into a more tailored look that is a mix of 70’s color palette with a 60’s modern tailoring. While there were a few skinny leg pants in the collection, is that Dell’Acqua loosened up his pants. One of the standout pant looks in this section is a full-leg red pant worn with tan button front long sleeve cardigan over a scooped neck tan sweater. Knitwear is another strong trend that Dell’Acqua showed this season. Giving his customers lighter knit pieces in light shades. Another strong look that he showed was a tan linen button front safari jacket worn with a white dress shirt. Moving into evening the designer showed a series of red silk dresses. The overall design of the gowns was very simple.
The highlights from the Borbonese collection are the outerwear pieces, from the trench coat to the reversible jackets. Alessandro's knitwear was also another showstopper, the must have piece from the collection is one his knit cardigans. A long button-front red merino cardigan with brown suede detailing the pocket flaps and matching belt. For Spring/Summer Borbonese is looking to give a cleaner twist to the 70’s and 60’s trend of the season. The result is a wearable everyday piece and looks. The short falls in the collection are some of metallic looks and the evening section. I would like to have seen the more sophisticate and everyday look morphed into the evening section.
