BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection

For those of us who lived through the 80s and 90s, fashion steeped in its homage can either act as a simple nostalgic snapshot or work harder to become an incarnation of the era’s more relevant-again nuances. In the case of Bec + Bridge, it is the latter. The savvy duo have long learned to channel a youthful dernier cri without falling into simple playback.

For High Summer 23/24, presented yesterday at White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney, the 23-year-old label delivered a creative, propitious collection. Named ‘Hot Thing’ it was a inspired by the pre-millennia post-grunge era, a time when most of their newer customers, presumably, were not even born. It’s a timeframe that provides ongoing motivation for designers, and this one delved into its low-low-cut-trouser-with-exposed-underwear-and-sparkle-embellishments period, when clubs were packed with women in lace camis and silky pencil skirts, ordering Midori Splices and telling the DJ to play Crystal Waters’ 100% Pure Love again.

Yesterday, to the beat of the same song, we were delivered a future flashback. Pieces that danced between fluid asymmetry and micro-cut minimalism – in a mix of textures and prints – were designed to reflect owners’ Bridget Yorston and Bec Cooper’s own memories of raiding their mothers’ closets for incongruous trends of the moment. For this reason, Bec + Bridge’s coming summer will be one of a playful, contrasted frivolity. A fabulous, sexy freedom lead by reams of diaphanous skirting, the cutest lacy bumsters and diamante-striped waistband minis and clam digger trousers. The look offered a happy dappling of Miu Miu-type grunge with Saint Laurent sexiness and Magda Butrym-style rosette-sweetness – a perfect recipe for the taste-making generation.

Bec and Bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection

As always, Bec + Bridge also delivered the not-so-subtle provocation we desire in our favourite going-out clothes. Its sensual cut-outs, thigh-high splits and body-wrapping drapery is what its hundreds of thousands of followers have come to devour – patrons who have, over time, included Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and Emily Ratajkowski. This season they mark the occasion with a dolphin motif – a 90s kitsch-ism that, at the time, graced fashion and accessories in clear blown glass – a trinket that came to reflect the era’s burgeoning creative freedom.

Colours were partnered for contrast, too – dolphin blues with suit-greys, sheer saffrons with opaque mochas and vintage tartans with lemon-layered sequins – while the label’s new graphic eyewear and jewellery pieces complemented the cool-girl-on-tour aesthetic. Overall, Bec + Bridge makes a compelling, even persuading, argument for reviving those mixy-matchy dance-club looks of our (or our mother’s) youth. It even leaves a little taste of jealousy, that back then, there were far better, far cooler, far sexier ways to style up the cuts we had piled up on our beds at the time – if only we’d had the hindsight. Perhaps it’s time for a do-over.

Bec and Bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
Bec and Bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
Bec and bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
Bec and bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
Bec and bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
Bec and bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
Bec and bridge
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection
BEC + BRIDGE High Summer 23/24 ‘Hot Thing’ collection