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In the small pantheon of leading Australian designers Bianca Spender is often overlooked. It might have something to do with her humble nature, evident in the shy, reluctant bows after her shows. There’s also Spender’s mature and polished aesthetic, which lacks the art school exuberance and clickbait appeal of some of her contemporaries. Following Spender’s Resort 2017 show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia Spender there was no reason for humility but plenty for her inclusion as a label of distinction.
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Now I deliberately got to the third paragraph without mentioning Spender’s mother, the iconic Carla Zampatti who casts quite a long shadow for a diminutive figure, but Spender’s first outfit showed that while their attention to quality fabrics and production is shared, here was a subtly sexier approach. Sheer, with long cuffed sleeves, wide legs and cleavage to spare, this was the kind of jumpsuit Anne Hathaway would wear in an all-female reimagining of Top Gun (I’m casting J-Law as Icewoman).
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Rather than stick to a safe palette of black, white and metallics, Spender gave us chartreuse dresses with thin straps and gentle ruching, dusty pink skirts with extravagant ruffles that revealed the mid-thigh at the front while skimming the calf at the back, trenches in stone cotton with ruffles snaking along the seams of sleeves and razor sharp burgundy blazers.
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Then there was the Instagram-ready metallic pink suit, which somehow captured the spirit of glam rock without looking like a David Bowie fancy dress costume. The strength of this tough femininity was anchored by RM Williams boots, adding a touch of ‘90s grrrrrrl power.
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Spender’s collection captured the commercial realities of a resort collection while successfully tapping into the jet-set spirit that used to embody these between season ranges. Here were clothes made you want to travel to places where you could celebrate Goth girl glamour in a puffed black skirt, walk foreign streets in a snug green bomber jacket or arrive at dinner in a black and white column of a strapless dress belted like a bon bon to give ruffles at the bust.
This was no occasion for a reluctant bow.
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