By Jenna Black
It was tribal meets warrior on the runway of Kirrily Johnston’s collection at RAFW. The designer remained with her androgynous aesthetic, and brought new lust-worthy prints and detail to the runway.
After last years outstanding runway show at RAFW for Kirrily Johnston, guests and media expected an even better collection this time around. As one of the leaders in the Australian fashion industry, Kirrily once again impressed with her unique direction and utterly entertaining show. With a theme that revolved around an Apocalyptic world, you can only imagine the amount of detail and time that went into each conceptual piece.
Models were prepped backstage before the show, in eye catching make up, featuring warrior and tribal inspired painted designs on their foreheads and cheeks. Hair was slicked up into carefully plaited pony tail designs, leaving the face with a fresh rather minimal look around the eyes and mouth. The models were preparing for a complete tribal look that represented the myriad of African inspired designs in the collection.
As the show began it was clear that the key looks Kirrily had chosen this year were a dizzying triangle print, fringing, and heavy draping. High cotton head pieces were wrapped around models bringing new heights to the runway. Full piece body suits featured the favoured triangle print of the collection, as waisted were cinched with belts and worn over a heavily fringed long white throw over. Whilst Kirrily tends to favour the draped, oversized look, this season took to a tighter frame, with leggings and body con mini dresses.
Loose leather vests swung openly over draped white singlets whilst the triangle print featured again in a fluid silk halter style dress. In keeping with the latest show trend, models wore black clogs, with a strip of red detail. For the men, they walked comfortable in desert nomad inspired sandals, with their hair in small quiffs or plaits. Kirrily’s men wear has caused great attention over the past two seasons as she plays with the idea of androgyny. This collection again, featured the men in open vests, worn with long t-shirts and drop style jersey knit pants.
Kirrily played with draping and length in the collection, bringing asymmetrical cuts and dizzying fringe detail to hemlines. Stripes and geometric prints were contrasted with a fairly monochromatic palette of black and white, whilst a small collection of rose red was featured in knitted leggings and striped t-shirts. Kirrily has taken a turn this season towards more wearable pieces, and with the upcoming launch of her lower-priced line, we are expecting the designer to remain as one of Australia’s key leaders in the industry.
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