Australian Fashion Week has been a playground for the enfants terribles of the industry such as Jordan Gogos, Erik Yvon and Youkhana for the past two years, but the grown-ups have returned to the runway.

On the first day of Australia’s premier fashion event, showcasing the 2025 resort collections, brands with a mature approach to business and design made it hip to dress with well-made flair. We are talking about the runway here, not the influencers posing for street style photographs.

The opening show from Albus Lumen set the considered tone, with former stylist Marina Afonina refining and reinvigorating her most memorable designs from the past nine years.

Pearl-embellished knit bralettes, olive dresses with plunging necklines and low-slung, dip-dyed denim with double-waistbands, offered click appeal for photographers and future online shoppers.

“I wanted to give myself a challenge,” Afonina says. “I’m quite a minimalist and usually keep things elegant and simple. This is a different time. The world is falling apart so you have to do what you want. Strangely, I wasn’t thinking commercially. I pushed limits, but you still have to be able to wear it.”

Distressed finishes added youthful vigour to knit tops and loose trousers, without losing their broad appeal. It was easy to imagine the clothing on people of all sizes, which was the audience’s only options as sample-sized models dominated the show.

“I was after people with a forceful attitude that had a grungy, almost ’90s New York look,” she says.

Margie Woods has been refining her aesthetic with elevated basics for 20 years but expanded her outlook beyond oversized black blazers with a collection of fringed dresses, butter yellow knit briefs and chocolate leather bra tops.