Designers tipped as the future of the industry were on show at the opening day of Australian Fashion Week.
The 2024 winners of the Next Gen Prize, showing in Sydney on Monday, were Amy Lawrance, Emily Watson, House of Campbell and Potirakis.
Previous winners include the likes of Akira and sass & bide, and while the 2024 crop of designers are still early in their careers, they are no strangers to success.
South Australian Abby Potter of House of Campbell revealed her first collection at New York Fashion Week in 2019 and has also showed her work in Paris.
The designer showed off disparate looks on the fashion week catwalk, including a voluminous tulle dress in deep ruby tones with spaghetti shoulder straps, layered over a collared white shirt.
There were diaphanous full-length dresses in bright red over black pants, suited kilts in pink and green checks, while several outfits featured sashes and tie-together elements.
Tie-together inspiration was threaded, quite literally, through Melbourne designer Emily Watson's swimwear-inspired show, with drawstring ruching shaping her garments in whites and pale yellows.
There were other playful elements too, such as bags and leg warmers in lilac, held together with clashing red string.
Another Melbourne designer Amy Lawrance continued the theme of dreamy fragmentation with her dresses in undyed silks.
Her command of the material meant some pieces appeared almost to be structured from paper, while others had an otherworldly sheen.
Amy Lawrance also featured exquisitely detailed headpieces reminiscent of another century - perhaps if the world is falling apart, we might look to the past and hold everything together with string?
A different approach would be to make off with a suitcase full of cash, one of which was on display in the streetwear-inspired Potirakis show.
There were oversized sports jerseys, black vests that suggested a nocturnal militia, and puffer jackets thick enough for a nuclear winter.
While most of these designs were post-gender, to top it off was a shimmering black fishtail dress that could have been out of The Matrix.
Blue pill or red pill, the future has arrived.
