Think of Australian fashion and it’s likely loads of beige linen, beach-ready board shorts, and hippy-ish mini dresses will be conjured up. A quick look at the street style on show at Australian Fashion Week’s Resort 2023 edition last week obliterated those stereotypes, however, and proved there’s far more going on fashion-wise in Sydney’s streets than you’d probably first imagined. Right now, the city’s runways are evolving, as a new gene of young, emerging talent – ​​like Alix Higginswhose front row challenged Chopova Lowena’s when it came to how many people were wearing her designs, and Digthe first First Nations brand to show solo on schedule – rise up.

As is the case when you’re in a world – and frustratingly slow DHL tracking time – away from Europe, brands born in both Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand were on heavy rotation outside show venues. The bright leather creations of Kiwi bag label Yu Mei were seen slung over the shoulders of editors and models, and Caroline Reznik’s leather pieces were the uniform of Friday night. With so many of the week’s most highly anticipated shows that were both inspired by and featuring a catwalk full of the designers’