Nancy MacDonell reports from Australian Fashion Week
Tuesday, April 28

Meet up with Sarah-Jane Clarke of Sass & Bide and Nicci Hunter, who does PR for the label, for breakfast (we go to Bill's in Darlinghurst, which is justifiably famous for its corn fritters). Sass & Bide shows its main RTW collection in New York, but Sydney is home to S&B Vie, the brand's diffusion line. Like the RTW collection Clarke and her partner Heidi Middleton presented in New York in February, this iteration of S&B Vie is called Rainbows for Kate and was inspired by a fellow patient Middleton met when she was being treated for breast cancer last year. "Lots of glitter and some great coats," said Clarke when I asked her what the duo were planning for their Thursday night show. That's a sneak peek, above.

Another day at Australian fashion week, another Aussie swimwear line. Today's find is called Anna & Boy and is designed by former Vogue Australia editors Anna Hewett and Lill Boyd. "We'd do all the swimwear wrap-up stories, and there would never be anything fashion—everything was always either surf or glossy and too much," says Hewett of their decision to leave publishing and launch the line. True to the founders' original intent, Anna & Boy, now in its third season, is chic and pared down. "We don't design anything we wouldn't wear ourselves," says Boyd. "When we have in the past, it just hasn't really worked." The duo are known for their sophisticated prints, but they also make sure to include a black bikini in every collection, because, says Boyd, "You can always use something black."

"I told my parents I was going to study draping at Parsons, but instead I got an internship at Marc Jacobs," says Yeojin Bae of her decision to leave Canberra for New York City when she was 19. "Now I have interns and I tell them to just get out and work in fashion—don't get an MA, get some experience!" Bae started her eponymous line a year and a half ago, and it's already been picked up by Barneys, Henri Bendel, and Satine. Her feminine tailoring is her signature, a gambit that's made her stand out in the streetwear-dominated Australian market. For Spring '09 (which is what Southern Hemisphere designers are currently showing), Bae has divided the collection between fitted hourglass shapes (like the one she's wearing, above) and what she calls her "balloon dresses"—loose-fitting chiffon frocks with bubble hems. "This collection is very personal——t's really about what I want to wear now."

Daniel Avakian's second collection was inspired by one of his favorite films, Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (1972). "It's not a great way to live your life, but that whole fast-paced, rebel-without-a-cause thing really symbolizes the momentum of my collection," explained the one-time tow-truck driver backstage after the show. "I don't want to do clothes that are, 'Oh, that's so pretty,' but 'Where did you get that?'" Judging by the orange pod dresses, bar-code stripes, and silver suiting he sent out, that sounds about right. And the fluorescent tube sculpture that hung over the runway? "I have all these fluorescent lights in my studio—it's kind of like 7-Eleven in there. I just wanted to bring an aspect of that to the show, because that's where the clothes are created."