The best fashion looks on and off the red carpet

In most “regular” situations, one can hardly consider a scenario during which Australian mannequin Megan Gale would merely mix in. And but, as statuesque as she appeared in her Rebecca Vallance robe and Tiffany & Co jewels, Saturday night time’s NGV gala — the primary since 2019 — was owned by a few of Australia’s true style diehards.

In any case, with a short of merely “McQueen” – after Alexander McQueen, the topic of this summer’s fashion exhibition – this was an evening the place every little thing from a flannel shirt to an intricately beaded gown would do.

Those that caught to the black tie script, together with Gale, actress Phoebe Tonkin and former foreign minister Julie Bishop, who amped up the bling in deference to the late designer, appeared completely at house.

But it surely was tough to take care of eye contact in a dialog with identities akin to Richard Nylon, who morphed into a powerful human hen’s nest (“UFO in an English wooden”, he referred to as it), and New Zealand mannequin Manahou Mackay, who swanned by carrying the “rusted funnel gown” by Melbourne graduate designer Sean McCallum.

There have been drag queens and tiaras, capes and one-night-stands with facial piercings (“My mum would kill me,” joked stylist Elliot Garnaut), and flirtations with color by style plates who commonly persist with a monochromatic palette. Within the case of Sydney influencer Nadia Fairfax, the other was true. “I by no means put on black!” she cooed, in her Effie Kats sheath gown and Jill Humphries hat.

There have been attire that wanted their very own transport – Kallie Blauhorn’s periwinkle tulle robe received “largest in present”, with Brioney Prior’s black Toni Maticevski robe a detailed second — and several other robes, akin to Maria Thattil’s Con Ilio serpentine creation, that might set off even essentially the most lackadaisical metallic detector.

Whereas there have been nonetheless loads of males in penguin fits, it was the lads in “magpie” fits — singer Troye Sivan in bedazzled Gucci and mannequin Jarrod Scott in a silky tie-died go well with and black lace shirt — who stole loads of thunder from the ladies. Loads of males with fewer than a million Instagram followers additionally raised the bar. As for who they have been, who can say: strains of “who’s THAT?” have been heard on repeat all through the celebration’s varied enclaves from sundown to nicely previous midnight.