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A look from Maticevski Resort 2017
Credit: Getty
Toni Maticevski has well and truly paid his dues as a designer and knows how to deliver the perfect dress and the perfect show. We got that last time around but for the opening of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia this year, Maticevski did something far more interesting and exciting.

The exquisite gowns fit for princesses were on point, as well as the body-hugging femme fatale dresses with industrial zippers daring the brave. But it was the message that the Maticevski woman was bored with just being beautiful that shifted buttocks to seat edges. Models tied with ropes of diamonds and brooches stuffed into their mouths gave this show a bondage edge sharper than 50 Shades of Grey.

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Custom Ryan Storer gags at Maticevski Resort 2017
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Strapless dresses in washed cottons, like 18th century undergarments, exploding ruffle front-pieces in sweet pale blues and extraneous straps of fabric trailing black trouser suits offered women escape from the picture perfect. Sweater silhouettes with full sleeves on jackets and slashed trousers were liberation in motion across the giant reflective white runway, the size of a basketball court.

If Grace Kelly was the Maticevski princess in the past, we now have the former Princess Diane von Furstenberg racing out to Studio 54 in a sliced version of Le Smoking, or a net dress beaded in onyx that Jesinta Campbell should have worn to the Logie Awards. Model Ruby Jean in a sheer silver top with metallic threads and fringing on top of a net skirt looked ready to hit the disco at 1am rather than leave the ball at midnight.

For all those who like their femininity full-on, don’t stress, the mouth-dropping dresses were still present. Expect to see daffodil dresses that play with pleating and proportion on every Insta-addict in search of likes. But it was the final model, shimmering from neck to mid-calf in an outfit like chain mail who showed that the Maticevski woman is no longer a princess who needs to be saved, she’s her own knight in shining armour. The princess may be dead but long live Maticevski.

See all the looks from the Maticevski Resort 2017 show.

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Nicole Pollard in a standout cornflour coloured look from Maticevski Resort 2017
Credit: Getty