Fashion of the season

It’s that time of the year when budding fashion designers set out to inspire the nation with new trends and unique looks for the summer season. Now that Rosemount Australian Fashion Week has come and gone, fashion journalists get to write about what people should and shouldn’t wear.

Fraught with delays and ticket mix-ups, this industry-only event is not for the impatient. However, the designs from this year’s showing are something special and far better than those of previous years.

It’s obvious that all garments with a fluoro print should be thrown into the dumpster. Designers are taking bigger risks this season with most male fashion designers taking the term edge to the next level and incorporating vintage style into most outfits.

Fashion brand Trimapee’s designers Mario Luca Carlucci and Peter Strateas said they wanted to have something for the man who is more adventurous and loves to mix up his style.

We always have a dark, macabre undertone within each collection. However, this season we were inspired by fallen angels, hence the collection title God’s Mistakes, he said.

The trickiest element to design is to translate your initial concept into something tangible and in our case a wearable collection. So we really try to capture the mood.

The collection can tell a story without saying much at all. To capture this we use detailed features, unexpected fabrics and textures and juxtapose these elements with great craftsmanship and tailoring.

Popular label Illionaire wanted their designs for this season to encapsulate a love of modern vintage pieces and capture the biblical essence of the Last Supper.

It was all based around modern dining, the Illionaire designers said. We just wanted to make it fun and wearable. Our clothes really give you the chance to dress up and can be worn by anyone. That’s the beauty of this collection, although our market is aimed at 15 to 30.

When it comes to what’s in and what’s out, New Zealand gay fashion designer Michael Patterson with his self-titled label said he would like to see a return to smart tailoring with a bit of the debonair, involving a bit more thought and individuality to be proud of.

Being a gay designer I’m inclined to design what I want to wear and have a very good eye for where the gay lads are heading. I design with colour and I design for athletic bodies that aren’t afraid to wear it tight and sexy, he said.

Unlike many of the other designers out there, brand Material Boy is catering more to the smaller framed male.

It’s totally cool and trendy to wear black -“ colour is the anti-cool, their designer said.

So if my opinion counts, the choice for summer is delicate luxury lightweight fabrics constructed into masculine silhouettes with Euro backpacker-esque sandals and shoes.