Fashion: Garden variety

Vintage florals and day dresses evoke genteel spring days sipping iced tea on the terrace. Cin cin!

Much has been said about the return of vintage, prompting designers to offer versions of new nostalgia through revised shapes from the past - drop-waist silhouettes to fitted cardigans and ankle-grazing pants - and granny chic fabrics.

Furniture fabrics, jacquards, boucle and micro floral prints are other examples of this, along with elegant day dresses that could have been plucked straight out of Daisy Buchanan's pre-Great Depression wardrobe.

While the thought of wearing a wide-brim straw hat at a party might have you feeling slightly anti-social, this is one look that embraces the ladylike aspects of hat wearing wholeheartedly, and worn with a delicate mid-length dress and a pair of sensible heels, it's perfect for a day at the races.

It's also promising to see younger designers look to wearable clothes that can be worn not only by their peers but also mature customers. Case in point, the beautiful silk floral print pieces by newcomer Wynn Hamlyn (#4) or perhaps the linen dresses and relaxed tailoring from Harman Grubisa.

These are clothes that work for all those impending outdoor functions and perfectly toe the line between casual and formal dress codes effortlessly.

1. Wallace Rose shirt, $329. Staple & Cloth pencil skirt, $249. Hogl python embossed heels, $460, from Scarpa.
2. Topshop print shirt, $100. Ruby pantsuit, $329 Miss Wilson heels, $289. Deadly Ponies chain strap handbag, $295.
3. Ingrid Starnes dress, $619.
4. Harman Grubisa dress, $310. Wynn Hamlyn silk pants, $315. Robert Clergerie suede slingback heels, $690, from Scarpa.
5. Charmaine Revely top, $227. Caroline Sills pants from Sills & Co., $279. Robert Clergerie slingback suede heels, $690, from Scarpa. Citta Design sunhat, $34.90.
6. Juliette Hogan dress, $399. Robert Clergerie suede slingback heels, $690. Rembrandt double-breasted linen blazer, $499.

Stockists

• Charmaine Reveley (03) 474 9125
• Citta Design
• Deadly Ponies (09) 376 3469
• Harman Grubisa (09) 963 6129
• Ingrid Starnes (09) 555 9452
• Juliette Hogan (09) 360 9347
• Miss Wilson (09) 367 6865
• Rembrandt (09) 524 9209
• Ruby (09) 522 6658
• Scarpa (09) 358 4140
• Sills & Co. (09) 445 3356
• Staple & Cloth (09) 360 2684
• Topshop 0508 TOPSHOP
• Wallace Rose (09) 376 0572
• Wynn Hamlyn