Fashion Week Day 1 & 2 highlights

It’s day one of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011/12 at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay. There’s a flurry of models, photographers, film crews, industry head honchos and, well, me. Naturally, everything is running fashionably late. A dishevelled model and her agent are having a public screaming match: “I’m sick of the way you treat me! I’m walking and that’s the end!”

Photographers gather, guests are rushed to their seats and the lights finally go down around the gleaming catwalk.

Flannel’s La Sakura show embodies the opulence of 1930s France, informed by a refined Asian aesthetic. Flannel’s collection is dominated by soft neutrals, silks and variations of the traditional Japanese kimono. Garments are ‘wearable’. And the show highlight? A full-length, plunging V-necked, three-quarter sleeved cream dress with gaping splits to show off a bit of leg.

Gail Sorronda’s show is equally impressive. The Brisbane designer favours black and white, with an aesthetic epitomising minimalism and chic femininity. For a show entitled Stem the Flow, it comes as no surprise that there is a copious amount of trailing fabrics and exaggerated gathering. While there are just a few too many accordion-pleated sleeves, accessorising the garments with stiff circular hats (period visor wrap-around types) gives the show that extra edge.

On day two, Manning Cartell and Carl Kapp receive a lot of well-deserved hype and attention. The design trio behind Manning Cartell show off luxurious and eclectic design at on off-site location in an over-capacity show Labyrinth Unlocked. Models gracefully descend a staircase onto a gold runway and parade North African-inspired designs. With an exotic colour palette of mostly terracotta, sandy beige, white, mustard, blue grotto and gold, the collection evokes desert warmth. Favourites include a leather bikini shielded by a crochet overgarment, a majestic rich yellow silk evening gown with a ridiculously slinky low back, metallic lurex corporate wear and printed silks for scoop-necked frill dresses.

And Carl Kapp is surely the King of Drapery. The most striking thing about Kapp’s show, Falling Water, is its colour spectrum. Beginning with pastel rose and morphing into electric blue and turquoise, the designer embellished his eveningwear silks with fine detailing and immaculate styling – modelled by a Grecian goddess. Polished and classy.

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