There's always a flush of flash at a Sass and Bide show, after all, the label's DNA strand is specked with the sand of Bondi Beach, but this season, their sunny, Sydney party girl went all the way out with the bright vibes, even slipping her way into her surfer beau's neoprene.
There were still traces of that eclectic, pan-ethnic look we've come to associate with the label - the kind of loose silk silhouettes, beaded embellishments, and casual drama of a girl's return from holidaying in India or South East Asia - but these were consolidated into more modernist references. Beading was still present, but traditional handicraft was subverted into intricate patterns of raver intensity. Tribal motifs were replaced by the use of dramatic sci-fi chevrons, which reoccured in coloured panels and a paperbag peplum. The result? More neon than native.
The idea this collection was to play with the themes of contrast and proportion, body-con meets fluidity, suede meets silk, textural beading slammed against a tittering metallic vinyl. An altered shape was achieved by teaming tapered but generous silk trousers with shorter, bum-freezing tops, while longer lines were perpetually slashed into billowing tails, high-cut slits and fronts that fastened at mini-length. One departure for the label - and perhaps the closest to the body-altering play the brand hinted at in their release, were a pair of highly structural, mini-skirted cocktail dresses in a gleaming white fabric. One flattened at the front into a wide, origami fold, whilst the other sported an outre puff shoulder of a certain textural intensity that recalled Armani's spring 2010, moon inspired Privé collection, and my money is on Jen Hawkings slipping into it at the next Myer event you see.
But for the most part, the show stealer was the smack-you-in-the-face use of colour and texture. Lurid yellows and oranges jostled for attention with navy and royal blues, which came into their own when rendered on a sequinned suit, eccentric outsized polkadots draped from the same bodice as muted marls while white provided a welcome reprieve from sunshine yellow.
Particularly impressive were Pip Edwards' neon-beading and metal-tube accessories for the brand, which while they felt perfectly in keeping with the show will also translate well out of this particular context of dressing (case in point were the handful of little girls dotted around the room already sporting the accessories, in a style far sweeter than you'd expect).
Was it flashy? Yes. A little intense? Without a doubt. But if you don't want a party pirate, why are you looking to Sass and Bide?