On day three of Australian Fashion Week, a few of the nation’s most visionary designers are leaning into feeling and reminiscence, crafting collections that aren’t solely pleasing to the attention however steeped in private which means. From the painterly lyricism of Aje’s Impression to the emotional plunge of Bianca Spender’s Deliquesce, the runway turned a stage for catharsis and creativity.
Elsewhere, Alix Higgins adopted with a digital-age fever dream: signature texts, acid-washed color, and bohemian futurism collided in his most grounded but fantastical providing thus far. And in a profound near AFW Day 3, Denni Francisco’s Ngali returned with The Yawa: Journey Assortment, a religious meditation on Nation, connection and enduring storytelling, rendered in expressive prints and splendid silhouettes.
For the total present dispatches from on the bottom of day three at AFW, learn on.
Aje
On the newly opened Pier Pavilion in Barangaroo, the place the crisp waterside breeze met the comfortable mild of an Autumn morning, Aje unveiled Impression—a transcendent Resort ’26 assortment that fused artwork, nature, and pleasure. Impressed by the atmospheric tenderness of the Impressionist motion, inventive director Edwina Forest described the present as “a set that captures not simply how one thing appears to be like, however the way it feels.”
With its towering beams and expansive views, the placement made for the proper host. “The structure and surrounding atmosphere turn out to be a part of the narrative,” mentioned Forest, reflecting on the synergy between the area and assortment.
Past the setting, there was a dreamlike high quality to your complete presentation. Silhouettes drifted down the runway like brushstrokes on canvas—sculptural but fluid in a harmonious stability. “There’s one thing so highly effective within the softness of these brushstrokes,” Forest famous. “We needed to carry that very same poetic sensibility into the gathering.”
Certainly, Impression learn as a reverie in movement. Watercolour pastels, evocative of Monet’s palette, met bursts of magenta and sunshine yellow, impressed by Australia’s pure mild and landscapes. Pearlescent and gilded gildings shimmered like mild throughout water whereas raw-edged crochet, hammered metallic and braided leather-based grounded the lightness of sheer and ruffled materials with an earthiness.
“Once we’re designing for the runway, there’s this stunning alternative to push the boundaries,” mentioned Adrian Norris, co-founder of Aje. “It’s about refining the artistry with out dropping the spirit.” This imaginative and prescient performed out in undulating hems, lace-layered denim and tailoring softened by sun-faded prints. In the end, Resort ’26 was a sensorial journey celebrating vogue’s energy to depart a long-lasting impression.
Alix Higgins
Alix Higgins returned to AFW with The Needle, a set that fused the handcrafted with the designer’s hyper-digital imaginative and prescient, reframing bohemia with a redefined aesthetic. “The preliminary place to begin, and problem, was to do one thing people,” Higgins explains to GRAZIA. “One thing bohemian, uncooked, handcrafted—all issues I’m not instantly drawn to… after which to carry that into my future-facing lens.”
The end result? A group that revels in contradiction. Acidic, pixel-pushed colors meet comfortable, flowing silhouettes; folkloric inspiration collides with digital distortion. The set—a digitally scanned and recoloured heirloom carpet emblazoned with poetry and glowing textual content—served as each literal and figurative basis, anchoring the gathering in reminiscence and mutation. “This piece is ready to border the gathering’s muse—a free spirit, a way of the bohemian, a collector,” he provides.
Impressed by artists like Florence Welch and the dreamlike tableaux of Baron de Meyer, the present reinterpreted nostalgia with a refined appreciation. Face-painting motifs, kids’s dress-up, and theatrical silhouettes evoked a world of play, whereas the gathering remained very a lot of this world. “It’s the great thing about vogue for me— create a fantasy grounded in folks, in actuality,” Higgins mentioned.
Whereas ethereal showpieces caught the attention, a lot of the gathering was surprisingly wearable whereas nonetheless rooted in Higgins’ signature whimsy, evincing a readability of imaginative and prescient and goal far past the designer’s years. “I designed each garment on this assortment with a transparent relationship to my pals, muses, and inventive neighborhood,” he famous earlier than the present reveal.
Navigating a fragile pressure between fantasy and performance, reminiscence and innovation, is a difficult stability, however one which Higgins has mastered with The Needle, which proved a resonant evolution in Higgins’ unfolding profession.
Ngali
Returning to the runway at AFW 2025, Ngali delivered The Yawa: Journey Assortment—a continuation of founder Denni Francisco’s quietly highly effective imaginative and prescient. A proud Wiradjuri lady and considered one of Australia’s most influential Indigenous designers, Francisco introduced a deeply private narrative grounded in First Nations storytelling, artistry and the rhythms of Nation.
“With The Yawa: Journey Assortment, we proceed our mission to rejoice the power and fantastic thing about Indigenous storytelling by way of wearable artwork,” mentioned Francisco. “It’s about strolling in unity, being seen, and sharing tales that transcend time by way of material and type.”
True to Ngali’s signature, the gathering provided a simple sophistication—luxurious silhouettes outlined by fluidity, expressive prints, and a slow-fashion sensibility. The palette was drawn from the land itself: ochre earth, rust-touched skies, shadowy water. Each hue honoured place; each garment felt like a breath of Nation.
Overseeing the journey was Bunjil—the wedge-tailed eagle and creator—whose watchful presence carried religious weight. Photographic works by Francisco herself had been interwoven with translated First Nations artworks, forming a cohesive imaginative and prescient that charted particular person and collective paths throughout panorama and time.
“This assortment… speaks to the paths we stroll… and the spirit of steering we obtain from our ancestors and the land,” she shared. As ever, Ngali defied tendencies in favour of timelessness and an unwavering ethos. The Yawa: Journey Assortment was not solely vogue, however reminiscence, ceremony, and connection—worn with which means, and made to final.
Bianca Spender
At AFW 2025, Bianca Spender provided a deeply private meditation on launch. Titled Deliquesce, the gathering revealed itself like a plunge into deep water—an invite to let go, to give up to the present. “As we moved into 2025, I used to be considering quite a bit in regards to the thought of letting go… For me, I affiliate this sense of abandon with the sensation of plunging into water ft first,” mentioned Spender.
The silhouettes spoke in comfortable, sculptural drapes and uneven strains, echoing the ebb and stream of the tide’s whim. “The Deliquesce assortment explores this [moment] earlier than the discharge… how your garments would fill and billow and the way the push of the present would grasp and let go,” she defined. The end result was a magnetic presence of iridescent chiffon and silk flickering as fashions walked; uncooked, crinkled textures and voluminous shapes and ethereal draping.
Held off-site for the primary time at St Barnabas’ majestically designed church, the runway dissolved boundaries, curving round friends in a fluid, immersive association. “We needed to erase the sides, echoing the sense of rolling fluidity in an underwater world,” Spender shared. The soundtrack—a swelling tide curated by Gary Sinclair—pulled the viewers into this world.
A debut swimwear line additionally marked a brand new chapter, styled alone and with Spender’s tailoring. The palette shifted from black and blush to earthy fawn and olive, ending in a glimmer of liquid champagne and delicate polka dots.
Deliquesce was a quiet catharsis—sculptural, emotional, and ineffably weightless.
