Melbourne Spring Fashion Week continues to raise the bar year after year, but it is not without the help of the amazing designers featured on the catwalk at the opening parade – aptly named ‘Gala’, that MSFW is up there with the best fashion events going around.
Gala was a celebration of high fashion and all the glitz and glamour of a night out in Melbourne town. Opening with Phillip Adams’ BalletLab, an interpretive dance routine known as ‘Aviary’, dancers dressed by Toni Maticevski with Richard Nylon Millinery moved to bird music (yes, bird music) before the face of MSFW sauntered onto the stage to open the show with a stunning display of headpieces and Neo Dia costumes.
Quirky accessories on bold prints by Christine kicked off the featured designers. Hats, bags and sunglasses clashed with bright colours and eclectic prints, giving everyone a pop of sunshine on a cool night. Christine Barra, Australia’s leading accessories retailer, says, ‘Accessories are an easy add on – (I) love to see a great piece on a stylish woman’ – and I think she gave us plenty of options to choose from.
Moving onto the divine Nicolangela, designed and founded by Nicole Williams, where we saw beautiful imported fabrics in the most understated cuts. Pink, purple, watermelon and white create a stunning palette for the warmer months before moving into lacework and sheer lace detailing. I want to get married in the finale dress – a full length white gown with black ribbon. Beautiful.
The boys took their turn on the runway in Arthur Galan, accompanied by girls in lace and a palette of orange, black and white. Bold green and blue dresses for the races and yummy candy striped frocks in similar tones featured. For the casual man, an all-white suit (matched only by the all-white evening gown) and for one who likes to take a few more risks? A studded tie and pocket handkerchief detail.
Sophie Van Den Akker opened Yeojin Bae in the dress made famous on posters all over Melbourne before the most delicious shade of orange, I’m calling it tangerine gelato, could be seen in dresses and skirts. Navy and orange dictated Bae’s collected, in dispersed with a 70s floral print and a touch of black sparkle. Bae was sitting front row at the show – ‘I envisage women as intelligent, confident and independent, and accordingly design every collection informed by this philosophy.’
‘Man’, according to Dom Bagnato, ‘is a handsome concoction of alluring charisma and stark sophistication wrapped up in Italian tailoring.’ There were no complaints from me as linen suits in pale greys and soft red and blue (not together!) pin stripes paraded in pairs down the catwalk. A stripe here, a check there and Mr Bagnato has delivered another collection of suits any lady would be proud to have escorting her to a Spring soirée.
Perhaps she will be wearing Thurley, my standout of the night. An inspired collection, clearly influenced by the roaring twenties and no doubt the current season of Underbelly. Designer Helen O’Conner says she was inspired by the flamboyancy, passion and style of Anna Della Russo (‘Any woman that devotes an entire apartment to her wardrobe is my type of girl!’) but these traits are easily interpreted and Helen has made them her own. Sequins, sparkle, fringing and feathered detail, a little Grecian love and a whole lotta attitude.
Elegance abound at Gwendolynne, with lace and layering in delicate shades of mushroom and cream. A very pretty collection, featuring antique style trimmings and handsewn embellishments from a girl who once appliqued a galah on a windcheater and sold it for $20. How far she has come.
Eveningwear favourite Aurelio Costarella did not disappoint with stunning evening gowns you only wish you had somewhere to wear them to. More feathers and diamonte detail in creams and pale beiges, and further twenties style influence was depicted in the gowns. A gorgeous collection from a truly inspired designer.
Rachel Gilbert bought the show to a close by celebrating the glamour portion of the evening with a shimmer and shine show, a collection of sequin and sparkle any girl (or magpie) couldn’t keep her eyes off. White, gold, black, pink and beige shone as the cameras flashed, though the fabrics appeared to move easily and without weight. The final two dresses cinched at the waist and flared as wide as the catwalk, showing off the tiny frame of Sophie Van Den Akker and cementing Gilbert’s place in fashion in Australia, and the world.
Shoes for the Gala parade were provided by Aquila, Novo, Aldo, Steve Madden and G&L.
Image Credits: Jennifer Estrada
