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Yvonne Tozzi, mother to two models, walked in designer Thomas Puttick’s show on the first full day of MBFWA
Credit: Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images
It was near impossible not to share in Yvonne Tozzi’s delight as she sauntered with grace and a delight that was palpable down Thomas Puttick’s runway. Smiles, though, soon gave way to tears of elation after the lights went out on the 23-year-old designer’s maiden voyage – a celebration of women and their beauty in its manifold forms.
“We shed a tear when it was all done,” Dina Broadhurst, a visual artist and one of the designer’s ‘muses’ told GRAZIA after making a runway debut of her own during the second day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia. Broadhurst was one of Puttick’s 15 muses, a cast comprised of professional and first-time models from an extraordinarily diverse array of ages, ethnicities and backgrounds assembled by the designer for his aptly-named show, Variations on a floral theme. At a glance, a Labor MP and counter terrorism expert (the first female Muslim to be elected to federal parliament, Anne Aly), a paralegal and a charity founder might have little in common with the models and actors whose presence on (or adjacent to) the runway is more typical of such an event, but true to Puttick’s intention, closer inspection reveals more than a shared affinity for the designer’s take on wearable luxury.
All of Puttick’s muses also contributed their appearance fees – as did the show’s sponsors – to a collaborative donation to White Ribbon Australia, an organisation that works to prevent violence against women through engaging and empowering community initiatives. Coupled with Puttick’s pared back take on luxury that felt both personal, mature (beyond his years and befitting those of his cast members’) and utilitarian – silk slips, trench coats, classic shirting and roomy tuxedo-style tracksuit pants reiterated that sense of inclusivity – the collection and its considered contribution threw many of the day’s peripheral frivolities into sharp relief.
View Thomas Puttuck’s Resort 2018 collection in full here
Tile and cover image: Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images
