“Each step is moving, it’s moving me up,” crooned Arthur Russel in his 1993 single “This Is How We Walk On The Moon”. The song played as BONDI BORN’s first model stepped onto the concert runway in Sydney’s lower North Shore. Although the resort wear label’s name may suggest an Eastern Suburb outlook, the brand invited Sydney’s fashion set—and a few international guests including fashion buyers, photographers and content creators—to the harbour-side suburb of Waverton, taking to a former coal loader reimagined as a sustainability centre on the cliffs of the peninsula to unveil their latest balmy offering.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 15: Models walk the runway during the BONDI BORN show during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2023 at The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability on May 15, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for AAFW)

GRAZIA’s editors are amongst those in attendance who commuted—albeit stylishly in our Toyota RAV4 GXL—over the Harbour Bridge from the Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2023 hub at Carriageworks. As we travel, the anticipation builds as our mind races to figure out what awaits us in Waverton.

Entitled “Leveque”, BONDI BORN balances the lightness of being with an ephemeral collection that would appeal to the eternal optimists amongst us. The aforementioned opening look was the embodiment of a quintessential resort-inspired collection.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 15: A model walks the runway during the BONDI BORN show during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2023 at The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability on May 15, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by James Gourley/Getty Images for AAFW)

The first looks were a blank canvas, or even a palette cleanser, for what was to come: the brand’s signature balmy two-piece sets and luxurious swimwear examined through fresh colour palettes and a renewed vibrance. Sheer white fabric was angelically draped, a technique that persisted throughout the collection. The entire show presented a sort of Slim Aarons elegance, a taste of the jet-set life that exudes effortless glamour and relaxed dressing. Very much the ideal holiday wardrobe.

As the sustainably-oriented balmy label’s founder, Dale McCarthy, told GRAZIA, “the BONDI BORN women care deeply about quality, sustainability and style. Her summer holidays are her favourite time of the year and she wants to feel at her very best – comfortable, confident, stylish and happy.” After viewing this collection, it’s clear the BONDI BORN woman may have her European Summer wardrobe sorted, with the collection predominantly comprised of future heirlooms that are ready to make memories from her travels.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 15: A model walks the runway during the BONDI BORN show during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2023 at The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability on May 15, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by James Gourley/Getty Images for AAFW)

Although the outlook of the collection was clearly an international sun-chasing voyage, the brand remained firm to its Australian origins. “The colour palette for this collection was inspired by Cape Leveque on the very north coast of Western Australia where cobalt blue and emerald green waters meet pink sand and copper-coloured cliffs,” McCarthy noted. However, it’s easy to see this collection seamlessly blend into any beach or cove. Here, Balearic blues evoke a sense of summertime ease, bubblegum pinks are reminiscent of the peach Bellini’s slurped down with breakfast, and terracotta tones are suggestive of the tiled roofs speckled across a rugged coastline.

The collection was fuelled by future nostalgia: the lightness you experience after a day spent in the sun. As McCarthy explained: “I imagine a woman twirling in the dress on the sand floor of a restaurant with sandals in her hand. It is a show-stopping piece that will bring great joy to the woman wearing it.”

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 15: A model walks the runway during the BONDI BORN show during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week 2023 at The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability on May 15, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by James Gourley/Getty Images for AAFW)

This year, the GRAZIA Australia team travelled between AAFW shows in the refined style of Toyota’s new RAV4 GXL. With its modern and spacious interior, privacy glass, and fast charging portals for our phones, it was the perfect mode of travel for zipping across Sydney. To find out more, visit toyota.com.au