This year’s Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival was bigger, bolder and more beautiful than ever! With phenomenal The Plaza open to the public as well as guests and ticket holders of the festival, the stars involved (models, bloggers, celebrities, personalities, designers) were second to none and the Runway shows were spectacular in terms of styling, production, lighting, sound and, of course, the designs on show.

Here are Pen To Paper Media’s VAMFF 2018 highlights.

BACKSTAGE

With Princeline Australia as the Hair + Beauty sponsor – Sarah Laidlaw as Director of Makeup and Kenneth Stoodart as Director of Hair, the looks from Runways 3 Harper’s Bazaar explored fresh dewy skin and high gloss red lips, and pulled back hair, tied at the nape and with whisps hairsprayed across the forehead. Runway 4’s Bridal looks were also quite natural but with messy buns and up-do’s.

RUNWAYS

Standouts from Runway 3 included metallic boots from Windsor Smith and layers of bold frill at Aje; fire engine red and a chic playsuit blazers at Carla Zampatti coupled with hats from Lack of colour; metallic detailing bordering on chain mail at Kacey Devlin, combined with gorgeous metallic foiled A-Esque bags; romantic yet edgy Victorian-era feel at MacGraw; sharp tailoring and sheer paneling at Manning Cartell with earrings by Bianca Mavrick; modern and feminine pleats at Rachel Gilbert with headpieces by JY Jewels.

The Finale of models holding large metallic silver balloons that mirrored the large spheres at the end of the runway was truly breathtaking.

Runway 4‘s major highlight was a hand-painted ball gown from Jason Grech (and every dress he created was phenomenal, created with such intricacy, beauty and flair), coupled with crystal encrusted face nets and veils by milliner Richard Nylon. Standouts also included the master whimsical yet razor sharp tailoring of Toni Maticevski; delicate flower crowns towering atop models’ heads coupled with floral applique at Steven Khalil; equality highlighting suits at Dom Bagnato; and botanical arm pieces at Rachel Gilbert.

STAR + STREET STYLE

Stars and bloggers captured included Lindy Klim (model, mum and fashion designer), Kellie Hush (editor and chief Harper’s Bazaar Australia), Micah Gianneli (fashion blogger, model and content curator), Nikki Pash and Michelle Rimmer from States of Style (fashion and lifestyle bloggers), Jason Grech (designer) and Richard Nylon (milliner), and Lydia Schiavello (Real Housewives of Melbourne).