Let’s face it, fashion week is just as much about the designers on the runway as it is about the outfits on the bodies in the front row. The old fashion ‘bubble up and trickle down’ theory is, after all, all about the front row, the backstage, those famed bloggers and the street stylers. For want of a better explanation, fashion week is a spectator sport.
Vogue and Style.com devote entire wrap up sections to it, Instagram is flooded with #streetstyle images of it, and WGSN reports on it; people flock to every fashion show in the chic to the absurd. Peacocking at it’s very finest, is what one would expect at fashion week, whether it be for all the right or wrong reasons.
Thus, with Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia behind us, we at The Fashion Advocate decided to do our own little round up of our favourite pedestrian looks that were paraded around Sydney during the infamous annual fashion event.
Socks
Gone are the days where receiving socks for Christmas is forbid- the fashion pack donned their socks loud and proud like they were the accessory du jour, and from knee-high pop socks worn with micro-minis to cute ankle socks paired with courts or brogues, Sydney saw an unprecedented range of this woolly hosiery. Despite being a look that is notoriously difficult to pull off, the ladies at Australian fashion week refused to get cold feet and as usual managed to work the look with enviable aplomb.
Fringing
The 70s are back (again, did they ever leave?) and we are completely thrilled! One thing that is seeing a revival is our very favourite trimming – fringing! This versatile haberdashery staple can take a girl from looking like a boho waif to a grungy stud-muffin, depending on length, texture and colour. Long trailing fringe accenting the edge of a silk kaftan is classic 70s bohemian, whereas chunky black leather fringing on a skirt, boots or jacket is rather more Badass Blondie than wispy Ali McGraw.
Denim
Denim’s in fashion? Ground-breaking. (Brownie points for getting the The Devil Wears Prada reference guys). Seriously though, as the late nineties/early noughties trend continues, we are seeing a lot of double even triple denim, but this time shaking off the regrets of the past and donning a chic and wearable quality. Whether it’s dungarees, a ‘denim suit’ or a simple denim dress, the secret to doing double denim is to mix up your colours and avoid becoming one giant monolith of blue. By wearing different washes or accessorising with complementary tones, this look can be surprisingly elegant, but get it wrong and you may end up looking like a middle-aged car mechanic, or worse still, a Smurf.
When we try out new looks we always run the risk of looking like idiots instead of icons but part of the fun of fashion is experimenting and – any fashion girl will admit – looking a little stupid. When a fashion faux pas is turned into a fashion must-have, we can only feel admiration for the innovators who made it happen. So, although we might hesitate to try every single style we see the on the streets, we salute the bravery of the women who are willing to take one for the universal fashion team and give us the amazing and unexpected looks like the ones we loved at April’s Australian Fashion Week.
The Fashion Advocate x
