THE barometer is about to rise at the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week after a mainly sedate opening yesterday.
Picture Gallery

On day one, retailers from GPO Melbourne showed colourful clothes from Metalicus, Akira and IM lingerie and wonderful suits from Arthur Galan.

Wayne Cooper, Akira Isogawa and Galan were in the front stalls to watch their new season's collection take to the grass-covered catwalk.

Fat boutique presented a scary cat snarl T-shirt for the boys, while a pair of pale blue Zimmermann bathers were lovely on a Penelope Cruz lookalike.

At designer Linda Britten's parade last night to support the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, Julie Quartermain modelled a daringly revealing ultra-sheer cornflower blue evening gown.

In the finale, she resurfaced in a lemon meringue gown, overcoming a slight misstep that took her off the end of the runway and into the front row.

The collection's highlight was a leopard-print bodice with topaz beading draped into a brazil-nut brown balloon skirt.