Golden goals on Fashion Week day two as designers switch it up to chase customers
In 10 weeks’ time, the Matildas will have the eyes of the Australian public on them as they take the field in their opening-round match in Paris, in their quest for their first Olympic medal.
Indeed, soccer – along with sport and patriotism – provided plenty of inspiration on day two of Australian Fashion Week, as Beare Park, which provides the formal suits for the national women’s soccer team, and P.E Nation led the daytime program.
Beare Park, one of the vanguards of Australia’s clutch of quiet luxury brands, chose the grand stage of the Sydney Modern art gallery to show its expanded range that includes denim and knitwear for the first time, adding to its staples of suiting and evening wear for the modern minimalist.
Founder Gabriella Pereira, whose background is in finance not fashion, says the additions to her offering took three years – her brand’s entire lifespan – to perfect. So, like training for the Olympics then?
“I am such a fanatic about denim … I wanted to make sure it was exactly the right time,” Pereia says. “I don’t think it’s something any woman enjoys shopping for.”
Pereira says having the relationship with the Matildas, especially after their World Cup success, has grown awareness of the brand. “Their style really overlaps with my own and the brand’s, which I think is why they reacted to our aesthetic and chose us – there’s something for lots of different styles [of women].”
Despite the Matildas’ ascendancy in the world rankings, they can at least share the glare of the Olympic spotlight with athletes in other sports. No such safety in numbers for P.E Nation co-founder Pip Edwards, who appeared to carry the entire weight of fashion week on her shoulders leading into her show on Tuesday.
The co-founder of P.E Nation, as well as her financial backers the Hotsprings group, had bet the proverbial house on revamping the brand Edwards launched in 2016 with Claire Greaves, who departed the business in March but remains on the board and was spotted in the front row at Tuesday’s show.
Last week, Edwards took the bold step of scrubbing the brand’s Instagram account clean – a digital sage-burning to mark the end of the past – and launching a new, stripped bare aesthetic, which was saved from leaning too heavily into Yeezy (the brand founded by the rapper Kanye West, or Ye) or Kim Kardashian references with an injection of the palest of pinks, blues and yellows in gear best described as “ath-pleasure”. And yes, there was a soccer jersey in the mix for good measure.
Stylist Karla Clarke created the illusion of bubble hems, pin tucks and folds simply using clever layering and ways of tying garments around the body it seems all the cool kids seem to know how to achieve. (For the rest of us, there’s always a YouTube tutorial.)
Backstage after the show, Edwards was visibly emotional after pulling off the resurrection of the week. “You make such a stance to evolve, we wiped the Instagram ... and then you’re like, ?Is this going to be different enough?’ It’s that risk, but with that risk comes great magic,” she told this masthead.
Magic was also in the air at the runway debut for six-year-old Melbourne brand Mastani, which filled the runway space at Carriageworks with incense, evoking the New York Met’s new exhibition, Sleeping Beauties, which includes an exploration of how consumers can relate to fashion through the scent of old clothes.
Designer Kudrat Makkar created a marbled print in green and gold – yet another parochial sporting motif, though coincidental – but it was her lean into heavier metallics and embellishments that marked a maturation for the brand, many of whose most loyal customers had made the trip north in support.
In Mastani’s world, gunmetal can be as good as gold.
Models backstage at Mastani.Credit: Getty
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