Velani designed The Great actor Belinda Bromilow’s strapless black gown for this year’s Oscars, which she attended with her screenwriter husband Tony McNamara.
“Bromilow had a text from a well-known Hollywood actor afterwards asking which luxury designer the dress was from,” Velani says, refusing to name the star. “We know what we’re doing.”
Fortunately, for fans of aesthetic extremes at the Logies, some stars are happy sticking with an individual approach to their red carpet attire. This year saw valiant attempts at showgirl dressing from Sonia Kruger and Home & Away’s Emily Weir and stabs at the corset trend by Better Homes & Garden’s Melissa King and influencer Skye Wheatley.
“It’s always going to be a mixed bag,” Ayoubi says. “I’m just as bad. I discuss classic looks and tonight I gave Tim Draxl a giant flower brooch to wear with his suit. The Logies will always let you get carried away.”
Logies red carpet top five
Zoe Foster Blake in Alemais
For the second year in a row, beauty entrepreneur and author Zoe Foster Blake turned to Australian label Alemais for Logies luck alongside husband and Lego Masters host Hamish Blake.
Last year, it was a sequined red column dress; this year, Blake joined the flotilla of black gowns on the red carpet. The strapless dress featured a strategic evil-eye charm on the decolletage, among other embellishments.
“This year, we wanted to capture effortless ’90s glamour and cinematic red carpet style,” says Alemais designer and co-founder Lesleigh Jermanus.
Lucia Hawley in Toni Maticevski
Channelling old Hollywood glamour must be easier when you’re aunt’s an Oscar winner.
While Nicole Kidman has been locked into a lucrative agreement as a brand ambassador for controversial French luxury label Balenciaga since December, her niece, Lucia Hawley, is free to source red carpet looks closer to home.
The television-presenter daughter of Antonia Kidman turned to stylist Elliot Garnaut to secure her strapless, form-fitting white dress from Melbourne designer Toni Maticevski for the Logies red carpet.
Kyle Shilling in Paul McCann
The basic black-tie approach is proving too boring for Australia’s leading men. Summer Bay singer and Widjabul man Kyle Shilling traded his Home & Away board shorts for a hand-painted tuxedo from First Nations designer Paul McCann.
The purple suit features dramatic painted dot details around the jacket shoulders and cuffs.
Rebecca Harding
Sometimes, it’s enough to be pretty in pink, as Andy Lee’s fiancee, Rebecca Harding, proved in a custom Effie Kats dress with a simple silhouette worthy of Audrey Hepburn.
Tim Draxl
Leading lady Sarah Brightman was elusive during the Melbourne season of Sunset Boulevard, leaving co-star Tim Draxl to do the heavy lifting in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. On the Logies red carpet, Draxl was equally reliable in a blush suit from Italian luxury label Dolce & Gabbana.
The double-breasted suit with wide-leg trousers featured a nipped waist that gave the singer and Logie-nominee for In Our Blood last year a Superman silhouette.
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