Trousers on the Prowl

It's round midnight at sydney university's hallowed MacLaurin Hall, and Akira Isogawa's spring/summer 2005 collection is running over two hours late. The tardiness is as unsurprising as the trays of champagne that circulate through the 500-plus crowd - like bumper-to-bumper traffic, shows have been in a gridlock of delay since morning. Hardly surprising, either, is the gasp that finally greets Akira's creations as they weave their way through the crowd: the Sydney-based designer has been perfecting his bowerbird brand of beauty since first showing solo at Australian Fashion Week in 1998. What is surprising is that 81-year-old Max Whitehead, the original...