Nagnata brings Byron Bay vibe to runway

These women looked as though they were drifting towards a ceramics class or upmarket restaurant rather than a hot yoga workout.

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“There were certain things that reminded me of what my mother would wear in the ’60s,” says celebrity cook Nigella Lawson, sharing a front row with fellow foodie Maggie Beer and actors Miranda Otto and Isabel Lucas. “There was Victoriana mixed with the schoolhouse.”

“I’m not a fashion person, I’m a food person, darling, but it was a painting that had come to life.”

The Frontier show, organised by fashion week’s new operators, the Australian Fashion Council, focused on designers who prefer hardcore fashion to foodies or compost bins.

On a canvas runway that would have had occupational health and safety officers sweating in their seats, Courtney Zheng, Amy Lawrance, Paris Georgia, Matin, Wynn Hamlyn, Esse and Amber Symond’s label Common Hours broadened the scope of Australian dressing.

Draped leather tops over barrel-leg pants and a sequinned sheath dress shimmering like Saudia Arabian oil, from Esse Studios’ Charlotte Hicks, offered an ageless polish.

Hicks’ caped trench in muted brown was essential for trips to the heart of Australia, if you’re travelling first class. A Byron Bay stopover is optional, but pack your knitted shorts just in case.

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