Before the start of the Aje Resort 2020 show, designers Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris asked Yvonne Weldon, a board member of Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, to give a “welcome to country speech.” The speech reflected on the culture and history of the Gadigal peoples, natives of Sydney Harbour. “We feel really proud to be an Australian brand, and we feel really proud of our Australian heritage,” said Forest after the show. “Quite often we’ve taken inspiration from our natural surroundings here, but this year we really wanted to celebrate Australia and celebrate this beautiful country of ours.”
That streak of patriotism is surprisingly rare at Sydney Fashion Week, and surprisingly wearable when done by designers as deft in daywear as Forest and Norris. Drawing from the dusty colors of the natural landscape and the seaside, the designers sent out boxy workwear-inspired shirting, highly practical tapered-leg and stirrup trousers, and souvenir shirts with patches of Northern Territory highway signs and koalas. Local flora informed many of the prints, from a cheery yellow wattle print to a rich, red banksia design shown on a pleated maxi dress. The best pieces were dresses in a variety of colors and lengths drawing from the shape of the gumnut flower—exactly as bulbous as it sounds—with blouson sleeves and full skirts. Cut backless, these are the sorts of unfussy pieces that have made Aje a mainstay in the Australian market.
Forest and Norris want to offer that same relaxed ease for evening too. “I think we all dress very differently at night than we used to; it’s more of an effortless formal,” said Forest. Still, the pair employed quite a bit of structure, sometimes to difficult effect, like on an almost Edwardian black maxi skirt with a pannier-style underlay. Effortless it was not. But all was forgiven when Emma Balfour closed the show in a tiered black shirtdress, every bit as easygoing and Aussie as ever.
