FASHION Magazine

The second half of fashion week brings some of the buzziest shows—notably Dion Lee and Josh Goot who are known at home as well as abroad as the new kings of Australian fashion. Both put on an impressive and memorable show for their adoring subjects, and their joint reign remains unchallenged.

Dion Lee has come back to the Sydney Opera House’s glass front foyer for his Spring show—and why wouldn’t he? Of all the images from last season, the ones of rows of models in pastel draped minidresses, framed by the soaring glass structure, are the most enduring. Local PR powerhouse Holly Garber, in a navy Dion Lee dress and complicated-looking headset, directs seating with military precision, but can’t control the searing beams of morning sunshine assaulting the eyes of the front row on the lower level. Happily, I’m facing the other way. Models walk along the two levels and up and down the shallow stairs in stiff, short dresses with moulded shoulders and skirts—even bootleg trousers have strategic volume behind the ankle, like rounded alien shin-fins. Shoulders and hips appear through Lee’s signature cutouts, keeping things light and allowing natural movement. He’s added brightly coloured prints—one resembles a photograph of a sheet of crumpled metal foil. There are shiny black accents, and metallic ones. Makeup impresario Napoleon Perdis has delivered wondrously illuminated skin that gives the sunlight some reflective competition. Flat Camilla Skovgaard Grecian sandals quickly give way to vertiginous ones, and metal breastplates provide a layer of glimmering protection. At the end, the models line up like a resolved and very pretty army—if Lee continues this show format, these money shots will provide an interesting slideshow of his development as a designer.

Kym Ellery is one of those designers who is her own best model⎯one look at her own style, and the connection to her label Ellery becomes clear. A magnet for style snappers, (including Garance Doré) and a graduate of talent-factory Central Saint Martins, this Australian is magnet for girl-crushes, and we’re certainly not immune.