In a large tent in Melbourne’s City Square, three dapper gentlemen were sitting down to a casual chat as if the flurry of MSFW (Melbourne fashion week) wasn’t going on around them. They were Theo Poulakis, co-founder of Harrold’s menswear; Richard Nylon, well-known Melbourne milliner; and our own Daniel P Dykes of Fashionising.com. The panel discussion, revolving around men’s fashion, was hosted by the National …

Few of Melbourne fashion week‘s (MSFW) student collections pick up on the here-and-now; their creators generally opt to put forward a collection that interprets the future or their vision of art instead. And that’s not to say that Jacinta Oliver-Cook’s catwalk offering wasn’t forward looking or artistic, but what the emerging designer offered up had unmistakable overtones of two motifs influencing much of 2012′s fashion: pleats …

For a country for whom swimwear is often cited as being its best (and potentially sole) influential fashion export to the world, it seems somewhat ironic that ‘emerging designer’ showings seldom feature an exploration of it. Presenting her collection on the last night of Melbourne fashion week (MSFW) designer Renee Le Hunt did just that, however. And she did so in great style, presenting a collection …

There were breastplate-style sculptured busts made from hardened leather, like Roman era armour stripped back with a cleanly minimalist approach. And then there were flourishes, also leather, frilled and fanned out or curling in onto themselves, all organic-seeming like great leathery leaves. It may sound a strange mix but Laura Hui Shan Li worked this unique combination to perfection. This warrior-of-nature aesthetic was actually inspired …

Peruse our past coverage of all things Trimapee and you’ll see a running theme: black, black and more black. At this year’s MSFW (Melbourne fashion week) designers of this traditionally dark and edgy label, Peter Strateas and Mario-Luca Carlucci, decided on a sharp change in mood. Starting the show with a surprise opener of floating white and moving in to a colour palette that took …

To the MSFW (Melbourne fashion week) runway, graduate designer Bradin Younan-Sangar brought skin tight pieces that wrapped the body in a tough sensuality. Her stated brief was to evoke a soft strength in a woman; to ‘tribute’ the body. And do that she did, from a leather skirt with double slits to body suit pieces with black fabric slashed by design. Everything accentuated form; everything …

Getting your work to stand out – be it on a rack or a runway – is a lesson worth learning early on. For RMIT student Rose Brinkley that lesson translated into an MSFW (Melbourne fashion week) show that was fashion as spectacle, with models stomping the runway in towering platforms that, luckily, didn’t result in any falls (though some had a helping hand from …