The pavilion at Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival was standing room only. The crowd had been kept waiting a little under half an hour, and were welcomed by a cheeky television personality grabbing voice pops from the designers seated in the front row. Usually when the lights go out at a catwalk show, the tone in the room is very serious. This was not the case at the Summer Holiday session. Jokes about mankinis and male-kaftans were made and the crowd that had been kept waiting in the claustrophobic pavilion had been brought back down to earth.

Jets By Jessika Allen was the debut parade for the Summer holiday series. It was a surprise to see a shift away from the usual strong cuts and nautical looks of this swimwear label. Usually, Jets By Jessika Allen is famous for the classic nostalgia it brings back to swimwear- but this time on the catwalk, the Modern Muse Collection all but did away with this tradition. The cuts were a lot softer this season, many of the costumes featured frills and (very puzzlingly) some of the models were seen to carry clutches that were traditional to evening wear. After a few minutes of seeing what could be purchased at David Jones the room slid into silent darkness. Clever light-sound technology stimulated the feeling of a aeroplane landing just outside the hangar. This signalled the new arrival of the Jets Menswear collection, which had never been seen on runways before. The Jets Menswear collection was a bipolar opposite to Borat’s Mankini. The Jets Menswear is a collective of boy leg trunks and patterns which complimented this seasons women’s wear. In the end, the Jets range was all about the women. The clutches suddenly made sense when the kaftans were unveiled. The Kaftans of Jets by Jessika Allen could be easily mistaken as glamorous cocktail-wear, reminding the audience that while the label has grown to take monopoly of the hi-fashion swimwear market in Australia it is still focussed on feminine summertime splendour.

Flamingo Sands followed Jets. While Jets can be worn by all ages, Flamingo Sands is definitely a young label because of it’s bright and busy prints. The thin string bikini’s brought about memories of hot, humid days spent on the beach in Surfer’s Paradise.

As always, Camilla was the Kaftan Queen. Models were marched down the catwalk in flowing fabrics, posing just at the end in a flutter of colourful fabric, the likes of which drew a direct parallel to a butterfly. Prints on the fabrics were blended between palm leaves, tropical flowers and animal prints- with every kaftan showing a mixture of all these Summer conventions.

Kooey is a very Australian name for a swimwear label and the didgeridoo instrumental that started the display made it clear that they are damn proud of it. The Australian pride was carried strongly in the colours of the one-piece costumes which reflected the desert climate. A closer look on their website showed that they also stock the all-aussie rashie and female boardies. However, what was seen tonight on the Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival was definitely glamorous and with the frills and hugging cuts, showed an influence taken from the Jets design.

For all of the five minutes White Sands were on the catwalk, the label showed that they were
able to re-invent themselves and the typical expectancies of swimwear to create a delightful collection for Summer 2009. The highlight of the White Sands show was the Southern Summer bikini print which displayed an embossed palm leaf against a solid-cut bikini and one-piece design. When palm leafs are thought of in the world of swimwear, they resemble a tacky plastic image that people try to look away from. White Sands managed to recreate this symbol to be something of intrigue and style.

Lenny was the last swimwear designer to showcase their wears on the Summer Holiday runway. It could be said that they were the most original. Instead of drawing inspiration from Goddess-like forms and divine Summer settings, the Lenny designers decided to focus on the Serpent and the colours of the earth and the water. Soft browns and cool blues showed the meeting of the water and the earth, while the scattered scales of the prints kept the serpent motif slithering strongly.

The Summer Holiday Display finished in a confusing manner. Models plodded to the end of the catwalk, to brief applause and then a Rosemount advertisement began to flood the aural atmosphere- but it was cut- the houselights then turned on and the crowed tent was left unsure whether to stand and leave the pavilion or whether each designer would send models out to gain a round of applause. Perhaps there was some kind of technical difficulty with the audio-visual order of things or perhaps the one-time showcases of each designer was all that was needed to leave the spectators in awe.

BLK1 Article: ELLEN CROSLEY BLK1 Photographer: www.petersollner.com

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