After a successful New Generation One show the previous day I must admit I had high hopes for the second lot of emerging designers on day five of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.

I always find the anticipation of seeing what the new crop of design talent have up their sleeve (both metaphorically and, in this sense, literally) exhilarating however there were some unfortunate missteps throughout the show (incidents such as a model taking off her heels mid runway walk, a model holding up her dress due to the aforementioned dress being unfinished, a model walking the runway with her boobs hanging out due to a wardrobe malfunction involving a not so sticky set of double sided tape stand out) which threatened to overshadow why we were all there in the first place – to look at the clothes.

Mistakes will always happen and young designers will learn this quite often the hard way as some did during this show. Sometimes it is completely out of their hands (a model taking off her shoes mid walk isn’t only unprofessional but possible career suicide as well) and sometimes it most definitely is in their control (never, ever, let a piece that is clearly unfinished anywhere near that runway) but nevertheless – as they say – the show must go on.

And go on it did. There were intricately detailed and ornate pieces from Aanchal Chanda that were both feminine and powerful, a pairing of the strong with the soft at Ash to Gold, a successful juxtaposition of minimalism and bold colours at LF Markey, vintage inspired nostalgia at Little Gracie, sophisticated occasion dressing with the feminine collection from Luela, day to night pieces at Susan Rep and sharpmust-have-it-now tailoring at Uscari.

A promising fashion week debut from all the above designers.

[Show as slideshow]

Images belong to Breakfast with Audrey courtesy of Sam Armstrong.