Perth Fashion Festival: WA Design Runway #1

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Lingerie, Flowers and Nymphs – WA Designer Runway #1 Wows

In the world of Telstra Perth Fashion Festival (#TPFF2015) the WA Designer Runway shows play a crucial and integral part to the entire festival. This is where emerging labels or designers who don’t have enough time to commit to a entire full-length parade can showcase their work.

As the name of the parade suggests, the focus is specifically on West Australian designers and labels. Now, as you may be aware, we are the most isolated city in the world. It’s a fair 2500km’s to the next big metropolis. That makes hauling yourself and your garments to an interstate fashion week really expensive and tough…particularly these days with the recent budget cuts to the arts sector.

Enter WA Designer Runway, where a hand-picked bunch of west coast kids get to show Perth what they’ve got. And each year, without doubt, they bring it and bring it boldly. Even if they essentially only get to show six looks each

Ange Lang is a WA designer who has recently been doing showrooms at NYFW, so it makes sense for her to keep a Perth production low-key yet loud enough to keep her fans here informed of what she’s doing. And quite frankly, what she does is brilliant.

Lang brings together sharp tuxedo tailoring with a dream of heaven sent glamour. Her play on menswear as luxury evening womenswear is refreshing to see, particularly when dress shirt bibs are paired with flocked flares. And yes, her gowns too are ‘wow’, but not as wow as her sense of line: she has an architecture in her garments that is sensual, certain and strong.

I wasn’t expecting lingerie on the runway last night, but #TPFF2015 served up a double dose.

First off was Karolina Couture, with accessories by Victoria Chu. Karolina Couture’s undergarments were sublime and sexy as hell. You can always tell how effective lingerie is by the way it transforms a woman’s walk: if she has that strut, that wiggle in her butt, you know she’s wearing lingerie that makes her feel empowered and unafraid.

Karolina Couture’s models were wearing such piece. With lace that traced the female form in shades of black, red and princess pink, this label served up a bevy of babes who embodied the labels sense of luxury and strength.

Chu’s bondage inspired studded leather accessories were the perfect accompaniment, adding accents of dominance and desire in equal measure. In fact, if you like leather accessories that have a hint of bling, this label is for you – the word ‘divine’ barely begins to describe them.

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On the flipside, Intimates by Monique were more demure in their allure. Robes that flowed with floral prints covered up the models, as did the lace. Here, Monique suggests that feminine charm should envelope the woman, not put her on display. What I did like in particular about this collection was the clever way an interplay of straps were used to accentuate the natural lines of the body.

Now, if you watched the last episode of Project Runway season 14, you’d know that straps on knickers and bras can be dangerous – if placed incorrectly, they can create instances of ‘muffin-top. Fortunately, Monique knows where a line should go, and her strapping was used to great effect. There was a certain mastery in their use.

Tokay Boutique appeals to a more mature woman. They’ve been a staple of Perth fashion for a while too. It seemed odd to place them alongside so many ‘young’ labels, but they held their own.

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In fact there was a box-fall blouse come pleated skirt combination (I think the entire thing was a dress, but I couldn’t say for certain, and that’s a good sign of styling and construction in my mind) that was an absolute divine vision.  In fact, my mind is still racing with which ladies in my life I should recommend such a piece too.

Elsewhere, Tokay’s prints paid homage to the Australian landscape and the landscape of the skin.

Catini is a label who has grown with certainty over the past few years – I think I remember seeing their debut a while. And yes, they are growing up, focusing a lot more on the drape of shape and how construction accentuates. Notions of whimsy and refinement met each other head on to great effect.

In particular was a skirt that appeared like a split seedpod from the front. It had a hypnotic sense of movement and play and a particular craftsmanship to it.

And now we move on to the personal highlights, the collections that had me beaming from ear to ear. And yes, they were all predominantly womenswear, but they had a majestic sense of fun sewn in to every piece of clothing.

CDQ Designs reminded me of that moment from that iconic Mugler 1997 Haute Couture show where the fierce model opens her business jacket to reveal a multitude of flowers sewn into her blouse, as if her breasts were a cascade of petals and spring. While lacking that kind of dramatic reveal (which would have given them a ‘wow’ moment), CDQ did deliver on the spring theme, and then some.

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Their dresses, sheer on the bottom, were an appliqué of bouquet across the chest in pastels upon pastels. Think flowers, flowers, flowers over a wafting whimsical shimmer of sheer and long legs. There was something so playful about these clothes, something so fun. These are the garments that girls who like to girls and drag queens alike would fall in love with.

Elsewhere in their short showcase, CDQ’s spring theme retracted to a floral filigree on lace that looked as if it were almost palm trees. Either way, the sense of fun wasn’t lost in the subtlety…thank god.

But I have to admit that the absolute highlight of the night went to Sab Five Five. In one word: wow. In a sentence: wow wow wow wow wow.

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This designer took glamour and chic and packed it enough food for a week and then drove it out to a forest. These models were nymphs and goddesses and warrior-women. The clothing by and large had a very neutral palette: think moss and cane accentuated with stone and a very earthy brown. But they made this palette come alive, literally, in their use of relaxed lines meets functionality and fashion.

These are the kind of clothes you can throw on for effortless chic yet still be on trend. No, beyond trend. They have an anti-urban audacity and sense of drama, mixed with a multitude of pockets at times and old world prints referencing gods you probably haven’t heard of, but should know. Like you should know this label.

Weaving and wicker came together, not only in fabric construction but a final piece that was a bound woven bodice made from cane. Add leather feather epaulettes and accessories (which I simply must have, so hands off) and the overall effect was dramatic, playful and so beyond it was refreshing. Thank god for something so completely different on the runway, something that appeals to the more eco-conscious and individual among us. Sab Five Five presented a new fashion tribe, literally.

Of course, there’s more runway malarkey to come over the next few days, and another WA Designer Runway. If you like fashion, or love to support WA talent, then the upcoming WA Designer Runway is a good show to attend (that’s if you can’t get tickets to see Jaime Lee tonight, of course) because it’ll fill you in on what the next wave of WA fashion kids are doing.

And if last night show was anything to go by, they are doing very very well.

Scott-Patrick Mitchell 

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