Melbourne Spring Fashion Week devoted a whole slot on its town hall show schedule just for blokes. The MR. was a veritable corker with every trend and tenet of mo-derne menswear (short of grunge and street), styled out of a world class stable of Australian labels.
Photographs: Lucas Dawson
In Lucas Dawson’s sweet spot gallery, you’ll recognise many trends that have been cooking for several seasons (menswear’s pace of change is notoriously glacial) but freshened by a vivid new palette, new fabrics and tweaks of silhouette. Among Voxfrock’s fave definers of Nowness, were the floral and graphic patterned and hipline double breasted suit and sports jackets.
There was a group of tailored city short suits that could finally get a crack in the average bloke’s wardrobe. And, equally mo-derne, but less confronting for the terminally timid, tailored shorts paired with coloured and patterned easy shirts and sports jackets were great options,particularly for the races and polo.
Both loose and narrow trousers were shown cropped to the ankle, some with a lunchy fit around the crotch, others featuring a crotch dropped just short of the level that causes a hobbled or bandilegged walk (so 2014).
Dom Bagnato, second row, second from left, and son, Nunzio, third from right, with their impeccably dressed chaps in the Spring Racing show.
Finally, impeccable trim-fit tailored suits, a category so many local menswear designers do so well (eg. Godwin Charli, Calibre, Dom Bagnato, more recently Aquila) were shown in colours and creams and patterns with a low, seductive sheen. For this category, we borrowed the best from the show run immediately before MR. in the town hall simply called Spring Racewear. Legendary designer and brand Dom Bagnato’s modern classics were the only menswear designs picked to show among the frocks – for good reason. (Main photograph, top, cream dream suit by Dom Bagnato).
Janice Breen Burns, jbb@voxfrock.com.au
