Street Style: Day One of Afterpay Australia Fashion Week 2022

I can’t quite explain it, but since my last pre-pandemic visit to Sydney for Fashion Week, not much has changed, but also a lot has changed. Carriageworks remains a well-known constant backdrop for the week, familiar faces hustling behind the scenes and the free Vittoria coffee cart were as I expected, still in place. But a distinctly transitional feeling kept washing over me all week. Something was shifting, the culture, the ‘vibe’ had evolved. While it was great to see a schedule so full of new, up-and-coming brands with niche followings, established Australian heavyweight brands were almost nowhere to be seen, and when they were, they were usually closed off to most, except for a hand-picked, tiny, selection of what I imagine to be called ‘on-brand’ guests by their PR advisors. This new lineup in the schedule was clearly reflected in guests attending the shows, which I could broadly say fall within two very distinctly different groups. The young, colourful & socially savvy and the minimalists.

The level of content making & creating was at an all time high, with influencers burning through their phone’s battery and storage simultaneously, working overtime to get the perfect wide-angle shot. If it wasn’t on TikTok, it may as well not have happened, with the video-friendly platform the obvious choice for aspiring influencers given it’s ability to push user content with a wider organic audience (basically what Instagram used to do).
Meanwhile the traditional industry attendees sheepishly avoided photographers where possible, don’t have time for another social media platform and worked through a rotation of relaxed neutrals in the form of oversized blazers, suits and trench coats. International industry attendees, while few and far between, were easy to spot in their completely unique looks, showcasing an ability to effortlessly mix silhouettes, prints and colours, managing to be somehow on-trend but not in a mass-produced way.

Anyway enough of my debrief, I'll chat trends later, here’s my pics from Day One, all shot for Afterpay Australia. Enjoy x