Nicol & Ford

Feint turned to the Australian artist and designer Adrian Feint, using his floral still lifes, bookplates, surrealist distortions and coded camp imagery to explore pleasure, patronage and private queer life in Sydney. Elizabeth Bay House provided an active historical setting: models moved through its rooms and staircase opposite the area where Feint had lived and worked.

Natasha Walsh hand-painted one-off silk garments, Phoebe Hyles returned for millinery and jewellery, Amanda Testa built sculptural remnant-fabric forms, Tobias Sangkuhl fabricated brass and copper floral appliqués and Julian Dimase contributed silicone interventions. Miguel Urbina Tan styled the collection, while florals and scent extended its emphasis on cultivated beauty. The runway’s material world continued into the subsequent Treading Feintly exhibition at the same site.