FRIEND OF THE BRAND Yesterday’s Carla Zampatti show was the place to be seen on day one of AFW26

Australian Fashion Week officially kicked off yesterday. And while there were plenty of runway moments competing for attention, it was ultimately Carla Zampatti’s at 6pm which stole the show.

The presentation took place along the Park Hyatt boardwalk overlooking the harbour, with 450 patrons spanning from buyers to local influencers attending the very scenic (and eventually very wet) corner of Sydney Harbour.

The attendees…

But before the first look had even hit the runway, the arrivals alone had already made it clear: this was the one people wanted to be seen at.

Among those in attendance were Sophia Begg, aka Sopha Dopha, Tammy Hembrow and her sister, Emilee, Isabelle Clarke, Allegra Spender and Pip Edwards. Of course, they stood alongside a healthy stream of editors, publicists, creators and the usual Fashion Week mix of people who are either very important, very well dressed, or very good at standing near important, well-dressed people.

Rumour has it…

And, because this is Fashion Week, it was also inevitable that side plots emerged from the evening. Rumour has it that not everyone spotted around the arrivals was technically on the invite list. That’s right, a few particularly committed fashion citizens allegedly decided to play dress up and drift close enough to the action to secure that all-important “yes, I was there” photo.

We’ll leave you to guess who may or may not have been participating in the ancient art of fashion-adjacent loitering.

To be fair, if you were going to fake your way into one show yesterday, Carla Zampatti was probably the one. As one of the most enduring names in Australian fashion, the label brought a sense of old-school glamour to the opening day schedule.

Then, naturally, came the rain.

For some guests, this presented the extremely real emergency of frizz, damp hems and compromised makeup. For everyone else, it gave the show exactly the kind of cinematic drama you couldn’t plan for. Besides, a few people probably needed the humbling, but we couldn’t possibly comment on that.

All in all, Carla Zampatti’s day one show was polished, dramatic and very much the place to be seen, invited or otherwise. Scroll down for all the arrival pics.